William Lyman (inventor), Date of Birth, Place of Birth, Date of Death
TweetWilliam Lyman (inventor)
American inventor
Date of Birth: 29-Mar-1821
Place of Birth: Meriden, Connecticut, United States
Date of Death: 15-Nov-1891
Profession: inventor
Nationality: United States
Zodiac Sign: Aries 
About William Lyman (inventor)
- William Worcester Lyman (March 29, 1821 – November 15, 1891) was an American inventor from Meriden, Connecticut.
- He is credited with inventing the first rotating wheel can opener.William Lyman was born in 1821 in Middlefield, Connecticut.
- At the age of 15 he was apprenticed to the local company Griswold & Couch, located in Meriden, Connecticut, to learn pewtersmithery, and worked there until 1844.
- After that, he continued working as a pewtersmith with various local companies until 1880.
- In 1849, he was appointed as State Representative in Meriden.
- On September 5, 1841 William married Roxanne Griswold Frary, a local woman one year older than he was.
- He died in Meriden in 1891 at the age of 70. Lyman was a dedicated inventor, and was awarded several US patents.
- The most famous is his rotating wheel can opener, invented in 1870.
- Whereas previous can openers were basically variations of a knife, Lyman's design was the first attempt to facilitate the procedure (see picture).
- The can was to be pierced in its center with the sharp metal rod of the opener.
- Then the length of the lever had to be adjusted to fit the can size, and the lever fixed with the wingnut.
- The top of the can was cut by pressing the cutting wheel into the can near the edge and rotating it along the can's rim.
- The need to pierce the can first was a nuisance, and this can opener design has not survived.
- In 1925, a modern-style opener, equipped with an additional serrated wheel, was invented to substitute for Lyman's design.His other patents were dedicated to improvements to various household food utensils such as a refrigerating pitcher (1858), fruit can lids (1862), tea and coffee pots, and a butter-dish.
- As an example illustrating the nature of those improvements, Lyman's fruit can lid relied on the physical principle that hot food placed in a jar and then allowed to cool would suck down the lid, provided with an elastic rim inside, thereby sealing the can.
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