The Nevyansk State Historical and Architectural Museum keeps a copper flask made in 1776. The container has a cylindrical shape, which tapers upwards; its neck is threaded so that the flask could be screwed tightly. At the bottom of the flask, we can still see the SIBIR brand: the trademark used to mark the products of the Demidovs' ‘copper empire, ’ which exported its products all over the country and far beyond the borders of Russia. There are other stamps as well: the year of manufacture of the container, 1776, the abbreviations MYAS and GSYA, the first of which means ‘master, ’ and the initials of the author.

The flask consists of two metal containers, an external one and an internal one. The free space between their walls had to be filled with sand, which allowed the contents to maintain the same temperature for a long time. This container was probably the prototype of the modern thermos, although German inventor Reinhold Burger registered a patent for such a product only in 1907.

In the early 18th century, during the reign of Peter the Great, little copper was mined in Russia, so it was very expensive. Industrialists of the Demidov dynasty began to develop the copper industry in the Urals and Altai: they began developing copper deposits, hired and trained masters who could process this metal. At the time, the Nevyansk plant was famous mainly for cast iron and iron products, but a copper smelting factory and workshops for the production of tableware operated on its territory.

Coppersmiths mastered various metal processing methods: forging, casting, minting, carving. Boys could begin working in the workshops at the age of eight. They acquired the necessary skills since their childhood, so when they grew up they were already experienced and skillful coppersmiths. The craftsmen of the plant sold their products at the Nevyansk fairs, which were held twice a year, and at the marketplaces, which were organized every week on Sundays, and where not only residents of the surrounding villages came, but also traders from many cities of the Urals, Siberia, and Central Russia.