Can Opener - Church Key

For the microbrewery, see Churchkey Can Company.

Church key initially referred to a simple hand-operated device for prying the cap (called a "crown cork") off a glass bottle; this kind of closure was invented in 1892. The first of these church key style openers was patented in Canada in 1900. The shape and design of some of these openers did resemble a large simple key. In 1935, beer cans with flat tops were marketed, and a device to puncture the lids was needed. The same churchkey opener was used for piercing those cans. It was made from a single piece of pressed metal, with a pointed end used for piercing cans—devised by D.F. Sampson, for the American Can Company, who depicted operating instructions on the cans themselves, The church key opener is still being produced, usually as an attachment to another opener. For example, a "butterfly" opener is often a combination of the church key and a serrated-wheel opener.

There is sparse, and often contradictory, documentation as to the origin of the term "church key". The phrase is likely a sarcastic euphemism, as the opener was obviously not designed to access churches. One explanation is in Medieval Europe, most brewers were monks. Lagering cellars in the monasteries were locked, to protect aging beers and the monks carried keys to these lagering cellars. It may have been those keys, which remotely resembled the early church key openers, that gave the "church key" opener its name. Another motive for assigning the device such an ironic name could have been the fact beer was first canned (for test marketing) in 1933—the same year Franklin Delano Roosevelt signed the Cullen-Harrison Bill. This act, which predated Repeal of Prohibition, amended the Volstead Act, making 3.2% low-alcohol beer legal. Some experts have posited the term "churchkey" was a way to "stick it to" the religious organizations who had effected Prohibition in the first place.

Another key opener with completely different design was patented by J. Osterhoudt in 1866. Instead of piercing the can, it was used to tear off and roll up a pre-scored strip on the side of the can, just below the lid. It was also called "key", because of resemblance to a door key. Such openers are attached to many small, thin-walled cans nowadays.