Mikola Kondakow of Thunder Bay, Ontario, Canada, invented the pull tab version for bottles in 1956 (Canadian patent 476789). Then, in 1962, Ermal Cleon Fraze of Dayton, Ohio, invented the similar integral rivet and pull-tab version (also known as ring pull (British English), which had a ring attached at the rivet for pulling, and which would come off completely to be discarded. He received U.S. Patent No. 3,349,949 for his pull-top can design in 1963 and licensed his invention to Alcoa and Pittsburgh Brewing Company, the latter of which first introduced the design on Iron City Beer cans. The first soft drinks to be sold in all-aluminium cans were R.C. Cola and Diet-Rite Cola, both made by the Royal Crown Cola company, in 1964.
The early pull-tabs detached easily. The New England Journal of Medicine reported a case of one person ingesting a pull-tab that had broken off and dropped into the can.[citation needed] The design of the pull-tabs was addressed by Daniel F. Cudzik of Reynolds Metals, who in 1975 developed stay-tabs.[dead link][11][12][13]
Full-top pull-tabs were also used in some oil cans and are currently used in some soup, pet food, tennis ball, nuts and other cans.
