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thumb|Demonstration of a bottle cap opener
A bottle opener or bottle cap opener is a device for removing metal bottle caps from glass bottles. More broadly, it could include corkscrews to remove cork or plastic stoppers from wine bottles.
A metal bottle cap is affixed to the rim of the neck of a bottle by being pleated or ruffled around the rim. A bottle opener is a specialized lever inserted beneath the pleated metalwork, which uses a point on the bottle cap as a fulcrum on which to pivot.
History
Alfred L. Bernardin of Bernardin Bottle Cap Company (Evansville, Indiana), was the first person to apply for and receive a US patent for a bottle opener, on July 11, 1893. By convention this distinction is usually afforded to William Painter of Baltimore, the first to patent the "crown cork" bottle cap for which the bottle opener is made; in fact Bernardin beat him to it by a few months. Two ophthalmologists Cam Loveridge-Easther and Sacha Moore wrote a letter recommending for warnings to be put on bottles.