The unique Pringles potato chip packages, created by Fredric J. Baur, have been used in a number of creative ways: they can hold up to 3 tennis balls, they can be used as 'cannons' or poppers to hold confetti, and because of their long shape and metallic interior, the cans have even been made into Wi-Fi network antennas, known as cantennas.
People can be pretty creative when it comes to finding uses for these tubular containers, including the creator himself, who was so proud of his accomplishment that his ashes have been buried in one of the iconic cans.
Fredric J. Baur, of Cincinnati, died May 4 at Vitas Hospice in Cincinnati, his family said. He was 89.
Baur's children said they honored his request to bury him in one of the cans by placing part of his cremated remains in a Pringles container in his grave in suburban Springfield Township.
The rest of his remains were placed in an urn buried along with the can, with some placed in another urn and given to a grandson, said Baur's daughter, Linda Baur of Diamondhead, Mississippi.
Baur requested the burial arrangement because he was proud of his design of the Pringles container, a son, Lawrence Baur of Stevensville, Michigan, said Monday.
Baur was an organic chemist and food storage technician who specialized in research and development and quality control for Cincinnati-based Procter & Gamble Co.
Baur filed for a patent for the tubular Pringles container and for the method of packaging the curved, stacked chips in the container in 1966, and it was granted in 1970, P&G archivist Ed Rider said.
Baur developed many products, including frying oils and a freeze-dried ice cream, for P&G. The ice cream was patented and marketed, but didn't catch on. "Basically, what you did, you added milk to it, put it in the freezer and you had ice cream," said his son Lawrence J. Baur of Stevensville, Mich. "That was another one he was proud of but just never went anywhere."
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