A Brief History of Bottle-Flipping

Disclaimer – It is difficult to pinpoint exactly when & where Bottle Flippin’ started so the creators of Bottle-Bullseye™ sent Bob the Bull & Charlie Feathers to the library for a few days to try and dig up some facts to share. Based on the results, we suspect the “facts” may have been obtained using questionable methods, however, we did think they were entertaining enough to share with you. Whatever the case – we hope you enjoy reading what they came up with and hope you enjoy playing the Best Flippin’ Game Ever!™

1950's

Bottle-Flippin’ in the 1950’s was truly the Golden Age of Flippin’. Bottles were being mass-produced at record levels and instantly classic sports like dodge & tether ball were being introduced in gym classes across the US. Bottle Flippin’ was facing major competition as Flippers were being barraged by countless alternatives that threatened Bottle-Flippin’ as the #7 national pastime, right behind horseshoes and log-rolling.
Leave it to one man, Colonel Ed “Flippy” Brownjohn to put Bottle Flippin’ back in the national spotlight by staging a 391 hour bottle Flippin’ marathon on the steps of the nations 1st 2-story soft-serve ice cream museum in Flipshire, VT. Some historians now speculate that Major Brownjohn was actually lost and simply passing time while waiting for the No. 7 bus, but the record-books state otherwise.
What was particularly impressive was the number of bottles that were recovered from the event. The plastic craze had not yet found its way to Flipshire, and the Colonel was forced to rely on a steady supply of glass milk bottles delivered to him each morning to replace the bottles broken on the previous day.
It is now known that most residents were not aware that they were contributing to the cause and were simply dropping their glass milk bottles off to be re-filled for the day, as the building adjacent to the museum housed the local dairy store used by roughly half of the 1,391 souls that called this small New-England village home in 1954.

1800's

Bottle Flippin’ has quietly influenced modern technology more than any other sporting/leisure activity. It is a well-known fact that Roman Chariots influenced the design of the Space Shuttle Rockets, but few people are aware of the impact Bottle Flippin’ has had on illumination technology.

We all know of Thomas Edison and his inspirational research that lead to the modern light-bulb, but his love of Bottle Flippn’ is often omitted from the history books. The story goes that Mr. Edison was a little bored in his lab one day when one of the technicians from the chemistry wing of Edison Labs walked in with a tray full of beakers. Seeking to occupy his mind while waiting for his next great idea to come along, Mr. Edison is rumored to have organized a Bottle-Flippin’ tournament with some of his Lab Assistants. Using the beakers as bottles and copper wires as ballast, Mr. Edison became obsessed with trying to land the 1st Ultimate Cap shot and continued Flippin’ late into the evening. It wasn’t until one of his newly hired assistants, P.J. McTuner, suggested that water be added to the beakers to allow for a better Flippin’ rotation. The very next attempt by Mr. Edison not only landed the 1st documented CAP shot, but the water leaking from the bottle contacted with an exposed wire on the floor and the current from the electrode combined with the copper wire in the bottle to create the 1st electrically generated illumination.

Inspired by what he witnessed, Mr. Edison duplicated the technology and designed the modern incandescent bulb. The rest is History!

1500's

Leave it to Copernicus and his obsession with circles to bring a whole new dimension to Bottle Flippin’. While experts continue the debate over whether or not he ever landed a CAP shot, there can be no denying that his obsession with drawing circles within circles to describe the universe clearly influenced and possibly change the course of Flippin’ history.
One only needs to look at the illustrations in Dē revolutionibus orbium coelestium (On the Revolutions of the Celestial Spheres), published in the year of his death, 1543 to realize that he was actually designing the 1st Circular Flippin’ Target. What is not clear is what he used for Flippin’ Bottles?

Ancient Egypt

We all know that the ancient Egyptians were obsessed with triangles, so it should come as NO surprise that the version of Bottle Flippin’ they played involved pyramid shaped bottles. Sand was probably used to Tune the awkward & pointy bottles, but the greatest mystery is how they kept score without the Scoring App.
Sure they could have used pictures of cats and other weird shaped animals to somehow keep track of games and record results for future generations, but seriously, wouldn’t it have just been easier to just use numbers written on pieces of paper?? Let’s be honest, if it is true that the Pyramids were built by humans and NOT space aliens, then don’t you think humans would have been smart enough to invent something better than the triangle to serve as their Flippin’ Bottle?

Cavemen

Recent discoveries point to cave-men playing some type of Bottle Flip Flippin’ game. Archaeologists report finding sticks tied to rocks that experts are claiming were used as hunting tools or weapons, but our research tells us otherwise. Our theory is that these devices were actually the earliest ancestor of Flippn’ Bottles. What is also clear is that these devices were about as durable as a bunch of rocks tied to a stick. We can only imagine the frustration early players must have felt when they were forced to constantly fix their Flippin device.