Ring Pull or Pull Ring?

Archaeology of Pull Tabs

Ring Pull or Pull Ring?

This week we got an interesting e-mail from Gareth Stevens who informed us that using the correct historical name for pull tabs is actually quite a tricky thing, especially comparing the US with the UK. As an early metal detectorist – who built his detector himself in the 70s! – he informed us on the specifics.

I’d like to hear more from early day detectorists about this matter. How did you call your ring pulls or pull rings, or pull tabs in your days!

What Gareth is pointing at here, it that the naming of pull tabs is indeed at thing to thoroughly investigate, and the PTA project has not gotten to that point yet. For example, for early pull tabs we have also seen both the name ‘pop-top tab’ and ‘zip-top tab’ to be used. I assume that indeed, metal detectorist gave specific names to specific types of tabs and that indeed these changed over time. And I’d not be surprised if current (young) metal detectorists – who have never used the original ring pulls or pull rings – invent new names with little historical reference, especially since quality internet fora have moved to Facebook or Discord communities which are terrible in cataloguing and presenting proper information. Another thing which we still have to elaborate on in our project is how the industry itself called them and if there are differences in this naming between manufacturers or countries.

I’d like to hear more from early day detectorists about this matter. How did you call your ring pulls or pull rings, or pull tabs in your days! Comment below!

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