On a side note, the company I worked for in Cincinnati was part of the Ralph J. Stolle group. I was on the Pharmecutical side of the business. Our manufacturing site was at one of his research farms in Wilmington Ohio. The man was a billionaire from inventing the equipment that made the pop-top can possible.
Ralph J. Stolle, a prolific inventor and businessman, held more than 50 patents and developed machinery that made mass production of pop-top beverage cans economical and practical. Although the concept for the can top was developed elsewhere, it was not until the Stolle Corporation developed devices for rapidly and cheaply scoring the top that the cans went into widespread use.
The Stolle Corporation was sold to the Alcoa Corporation in 1975 and is now part of the Alcoa Packaging Machinery subsidiary, producing hundreds of millions of cans a year.
Mr. Stolle (pronounced STOH-lee) also founded the Ralph J. Stolle Company of Cincinnati, which owns 20 companies in the heavy equipment, farm implement and metal forming, stamping and tooling businesses.
He was also interested in pharmaceuticals and farming. He sponsored a research and development company that specialized in injecting farm animals with human ailments so they would develop antibodies useful to human consumers of dairy or poultry products.
The company's techniques for producing hyperimmune animals have been awarded patents in the United States, and Stolle Immune Milk is produced in New Zealand for sale in Japan, Taiwan and Hong Kong.
Everytime I pull the tab on a can of beer, I think of the man.
