One of the earliest documented usages of spray paint with compressed air dates back to the 1880s when a hand pumped machine was used to apply whitewash to the walls of the store of the Southern Pacific Railway. The first patent for an aerosol spray can was granted in 1926 to Erik Rotheim, a Norwegian chemical engineer. With coatings producers Richard and Alf Bjercke, he established a small scale production of spray paint cans.