There was ( and still is ???) a plant in Mankato , plant number 74 . I don ’ t know if the Kato plant produced any blue cones , but it would be interesting if any blue cones have that number on them . Take a look at your blue cone and check the number . My sources for all this are , Continental Can Company website , The Rusty Bunch website , Wikipedia , United States Beer Cans Volume one and my own 50 years of knowledge . I have managed retain some knowledge even with all the hangovers . My Analysis : By connecting all these dots , I think we can say with certainty that all evidence points to the Schell ’ s crowntainer ’ s being first made . After March 1950 , the crowntainer lost the government mandated IRTP logo and Schell ’ s produced non-IRTP crowntainer ’ s at least for a period . That beer can design eventually died out . I would assume ( be careful when assuming ) that there would have been some overlap after 1950 , by which I mean , using up old stock Crowntainer ’ s with IRTP and then using the new Crowntainer cans without IRTP . But maybe the outdated IRTP cans got scrapped ?
After the Crowntainer came the blue cone top cans . Why Schell ’ s changed to a different can design , I do not know . The blue cone top is about an inch taller , so I would assume the canning line would have needed to be adjusted for these . I would doubt they canned these different sizes at the same time , but who knows , maybe they did . I also assume that there would have been a lag time ( new equipment ?) between switching from crowntainer to cone top .
Now , I ’ m going to speculate , ( which I have already been doing ) and this means I will form a conjecture without firm evidence . There are 5 variations of the Schell ’ s crowntainer known to exist . Three known variations are IRTP and two are not . There are 2 variations of the blue cone , and none are IRTP . Looking at the picture of crowntainer ’ s ( hopefully , it ’ s in color ) the one in the middle is interesting to me . It looks to be without much or any color , like a dull gray or “ bland ” appearance . My thought is that this can design , the dull looking / no color version , was the first can ever made by Schell ’ s . Why ? I just think color would have been added later . You start out with a bland looking can and then a light goes on and you add color . I have never seen this dull gray Schell ’ s can in person , which also leads me to think it was the first can made . I ’ m assuming it ’ s a rare bird . If anyone can add to this , correct any mistakes or tell me how wrong I ’ m , I welcome all criticisms and corrections . Till next time , Jay .
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