Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1892-04-02
BOTTLES WHICH rrorLn rNrrY.
Filled by Milton. with re-r. Ginger Ale
and Lemon Pop.


when heavy drinkers at dinner parties we're
spoken o: admiring!y as two bottle" or three
bot;lo" men, but n Il .ngs v hich come in bottles
have enormously multiplied. Ever so many
thousands of years passed over tie human
race before the primitive savage learned
how to make bottle Il was q
wonderful achievement and marked an i'm
porisnt stage in the progress Of the world.
The fiIs. bottles OF clay must have required
great labor in their manufacture. Now they
are made by thousands Of millions YEARLY al 60
cheap r rate that most Of them are thrown
away as soon as they have been empti-d of
their contents and are never used a second
time.
BUSINESS OF COLLECTING BOTTLES
Nevertheless there are concerns which make
business of collecting great quantities OF
second hand bottles and selling them 20 the
various trades by which such reccptacles are
employed. The great bottling companies wash
all their own bottles and Use them over and
over again. supplying them filled 10 consumers
and getting them back empty. Obviously the
bottle which goes often to the customer L.
broken sooner or later, so that each kind of
bottle may be said to have a natural life. How
ever, no company has yet been organized for
insuring the lives of bottles TO their owners
There is a bottling establishment on a little
street just off Pennsylvania avenue where
many thousands OF bottles are washed and re-
filed daily. The process Is quite an interesting
ono.
HOW THEY ARE CLEANED.
These bottles are for holding beer, ginger
ale, sarsaparilla, lemon pop and such compar-
atiyely innocent beverages Each one. as il
comes in empty. is adjusted for a moment 90 n
machine with u rubber brush. which enters the
glass flask and revolves with tremendous
rapidity, loosening all PARTICLES of dirt which
may adhere to the inside. Through the mid
die of the brush passes a tube. which projects
at the same time stream Of water into the
vial SO swift is the gyration that if only few
drops OF beer chance TO remain in tho
bottle the latter looks immediately as ii
1t were filled with milk. This accomplished
II is removed from the machine and
dropped Into huge vat OF hot water. Women
STAND at the vat, tsh the bottles out of the hot
water and stick them bottom up upon tubes
that squirt jets of cold water. Thus rinsed
they are held up tor an instant between the eye
and the light If particle of dirt is to be
seen the bottle containing 1t mus. go through
the process again.
EASILY FILLED AGAIN.
As fast as the bottles are cleansed they are put
into wooden cases holding two dozen each,
supposing that they are for lager beer. and the
cases are placed on the floor beneath platform
on winch Is a row OF beer kegs. The kegs are
conducted into the bottles by a rubber tube
which splits up into several like the phono-
graph tubes for more than one person. A skilled
workman shifts the tubes quickly from bottle
to bottle as fast as they filed. Zach
case of filled bottles is carried TO
corking machine. which seals the
fasls Theoretically with rubber corks at
the rate of about fifty a minute. Then they
are all ready TO go out on the wagons for te-
livery. Very few brewers bottle their own beer
II hat nc hnu,, H.. l.
facturer who did attempt TO do his own bottiing
would be Likely to antagonize the bottling
trade to an extent that would damage his own
interests. The bottlers bay the beer outright
from tie brewers and sell the bottled product
on their own account
WITH MILD pRINKs
So far as the washing of the bottles is con-
cerned, precisely the same methods apply to
those which are intended for ginger ale. sar-
saparilla and lemon pop. But the process for
putting these beverages into the walls is neces-
sarily very different. because they have to be
charged with carbonic acid gas. They are all
made out of nothing more than charged water
and strip. The manufacturer keeps in stock
great jars full of sarsaparilla strip, ginger
slrup and lemon strip. He makes them all
himself For making the gas-charged water
he has a big copper vessel of immense
strength. Above this vessel is a receptacle
filled with sulphuric acid, winch
drips drop by drop into the copper vessel be-
meath. The latter contains quantity of mar
bic dust. Now, when the sulphuric acid comes
into contact with the marble dust violent
chemical action Is set up, the result of which is
to separate the carbonIc acid from the lime in
the shape OF gas. This gas has enormous OK
pansive power, and it for that reason that
the copper vessel has to be made so strong.
CHARGING THE WATER.
The gas thus generated is allowed to pass
into other copper tanks filled with filtered
Potomac water. Inasmuch as these tanks are
Theoretically sealed the gas forced into them
by its own expansive power permea;es the
water and charges it. 1t is in precisely the
same way that the so-called soda water is
manufactured for distribution in air-tigEt ves-
sells TO apotheeary shops. In this the
charged water Is conducted out of the
tanks through pipe that is connected
with very ingenious machine. Each
bottle to be filed is attached TO a spout,
and turn of small lever permits
one ounce and no more Of strip TO run into il.
Then another lever is pressed and cash of
charged water fills the bottle, becoming thor
oughly mixed with the strip at the SAME time.
By curious arrangement the cork, Which has
been hung from the neck inside of the bottle,
Is simultaneously forced up by the expanding
gas into the neck and the vial seals Itself.
MANUFACTURING sIRUPs.
Not the least interesting part of the business
described is the manufacture of the s;rups
For composing ginger strip quantity OF pow
dered ginger root is put into a big earthenware
vessel with water and permitted TO soak for ten
weeks. 10 give the product heat and bite
half a dozen hand uls of small red pepper rods
are added. Next the liquor is strained off and
stirred IN another large iay with enough sugar
to bring 1t to the proper sirupy consistency. 1t
Is now ready for Use.
Sarsapariila strip is made in a somewhat
similar fashion out of wlntergrecn pepper
mint and some secret ingredient combined
with sugar. Lemon strip is sugar ard water,
favored with oil of lemon peel and sharpeued
with citric acid. 10 make these preparations
foam when poured INTO glasses Il small quantity
of a summy material known as gum loan" Is
added
Many fancy drinks made out of unfermented
wines ma recently become fashionable. They
a1e given attractive names, such as "chaga-
payne MISS and are consumed in large quanti-
tics at the soda water fountains OF apotnecary
shops. The botilcrs put these up in the shape of
sirups, to which soda water is added for i'm
prompta absorption. They procure the un-
fermented wines from California and prepare
the sirups from them.
The First Biuebird.
Ts,e& ~.s.