While the modern versions of kid - proof lids have been around for decades , their account may extend back thousands of years .
Dr. Henri J. Breault of Tecumseh , Ontario , is accredit with inventingthe current - 24-hour interval child - validation capin 1967 . At the clip , children were unknowingly ingesting household medicines intended for adult at a terrific rate . It was a global epidemic , and Canada alone suffered 100,000 yearly case , claiming the lives of at least 100 kid each twelvemonth .
Breault , a vocation pediatrician and father of two , just could n’t take it anymore . “ At three o’clock [ one ] daybreak , ” recalled his widow , Monica , he follow home and pronounce , “ ‘ You know , I ’ve had it ! I am tired of pumping nipper ’s stomachs when they ’re rent tab that they should n’t be birth ! I ’ve got to do something about it . ’ ”
After several unsuccessful endeavour , he finally invented and patented a gimmick dubbed “ The Palm N ' Turn , ” and the rate of local child poisonings dropped by a astonishing 91 percent . The cunning gadget rapidly sweep the globe and is responsible for saving untold number of young living . In luminosity of this singular service , Tecumseh establishedthe Henri J. Breault Awardin 2000 to reinforce its most honorable residents .
But while Breault ’s achievements are certainly worthy of the high extolment , the ancient Mayans may have beaten him to the biff . In 1986 , the University of Texas at San Antonio sent a radical of archeologist to canvas the ruins of Río Azul in present - Clarence Day Guatemala . build by the Mayans in 500 BCE , the site contained a number of pots and bottles , one of which proved astonishingly difficult to open .
In the word of one squad - member , “ The lid to this unusual vas … twists off much like a shaver - proof jacket crown on a modern medicament ampul . ”
So what exactly did this noteworthy artefact contain ? burnt umber .
Knowing the intense spiritual significance ofchocolatey beverages to Mayan culture , archeologist Grant Hall accumulate sample from the pot ’s interior and charge them off to none other than the Hershey Laboratories for analysis . Their final result proved conclusive : History ’s first known tike - validation lid had been make toprotect a tub of chocolate .
