Erik Rotheim

Erik Andreas Rotheim (1898 to 1938) was a Norwegian chemical engineer and inventor, best known for the first aerosol spray can and valve able to hold and dispense fluids. He was born in Kristiania, now Oslo, and graduated as a chemistry engineer at ETH Zürich in 1921 with electrochemistry as his specialty, later studying at Karlsruhe. He founded his own company in Oslo in 1925 and applied for his aerosol spray can patent in October 1926; the can used a chemical propellant to dispense different fluids. The Norwegian patent was granted in June 1929 and the United States patent in 1931. He demonstrated the invention to the paint manufacturer Alf Bjercke in 1927, but commercial success was at first limited, and the patent was sold to an American company. Norway Post issued a commemorative stamp for his invention in 1998.