Without Erik Rotheim our lives might have been incomplete without hairspray, domestic cleaners or spray paint. Our atmosphere, however, may have also been a little cleaner. Erik Rotheim (1898-1938), a Norwegian engineer, is famous for his invention of the aerosol can. On February 9, 1926 he produced the first spray can to hold and dispense liquids. It was refillable and had a valve and propellant system. He would patent this invention in 1927, and sold the rights to America. He would also later revise his original design to include hydrocarbons as the propellant gas with a spray nozzle. The Norwegian post office would issue a stamp celebrating the invention of the spray can in 1998.
However, the invention would not be fully used until World War II. During the war it was used by the Americans to hold an insecticide, mainly against bugs carrying malaria. After this, its' potential was realized and was utilized more frequently, especially to dispense insecticides for killing disease-carrying insects. Lyle Goodhue and William Sullivan often get the credit for the invention when they worked for the Department of Agriculture, as they invented a small version in 1943 which was pressurized with a flurocarbon.
Original illustration included with his patent:
http://science.howstuffworks.com/aerosol-can.htm
http://www.dw-world.de/dw/article/0,2144,1899181,00.html
http://encyclopedia.jrank.org/Cambridge/entries/050/Erik-Rotheim.html
http://inventors.about.com/od/astartinventions/a/aerosol.htm
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