The daily morning journal and courier. [volume] (New Haven, Conn.) 1894-1907, 1901-07-30
MONEY IN OLD BOTTLES.
ONE MIDDLEM4N PAYING TWO
HUNDRED DOLLARS A WEEK
To a Hotel for Its Empty Ones Differ
ence Between American and Foreign
Makes Melting the Broken Pieces.

Makes Melting the Broken Pieces,
IA good bottle will live through foul
or five filings, and the most important
men in the bottle business are those
who handle old bottles, collect them
redistribute them, and then collect
them again, until the broken pieces are
finally piled in the ash heap. The col
lection of old bottles is carried on by a
regular hierarchy First the junkmen,
who travel about the city STREETS and
buy all the bottles of certain varieties
which they can find. These they sell to
small dealers who in turn pass them
on to the larger firms, who ship them
by carloads from here to San Francis
co and all points between. These
Y larger houses send out buyers who
travel around the country buying large
quantities of bottles, and shipping
them back to the main office, as well as
selling for their firm.
Said the head of the largest firm of
middlemen in New York: I'VE pay
one Of the big hotels here two hundred
dollars a week just for the privilege of
taking all their empty bottles. Not
only do we make arrangements of that
kind with hotels both in town and in
y the country, but also with all the
larger private country houses and town
establishments too, for that matter.
1.-THE American bottle makers COM
monty produce a few kinds of bottles,
\ and those are of rather poor quality
and light color, chiefly the fiint-colored
and lighter red and green ones. AS
soon as they try to make darker bot
ties, their glass fails to stand the
strain, so that all the better grades
are imported. They are not imported
empty though, and we do not get them
until they have been used once. AS
thousands of bottles are coming into
this country every year. and bottle
generally lasts three or four years, it is
easy to see how the total number of
bottles in use in the United States in
creases enormously from month to
month"
Every variety of bottle goes through
this mans hands, except medicine bot
ties, and he has ffty-nine different
types on his price list, including
linked" which IS made up of those
bottles made in very limited quanti-
ties for some particular purpose, and
not regularly classified. AS general
thing his firm does not clean the bot
ties nor remove the labels. A skilled
man will tell by the ring of two bottles
struck together and a glance at the
shape and color, lust what are its
quality and kind. He runs his finger
around the rim of the mouth to see If |
it is nicked, for nicked bottle cannot |
be recorked, as the broken edge would |
cut the cork The bad or broken bot |
ties, If they are of American make, are |
Athrown on a heap of broken glass and |
Mold to men who make a regular bust |
hess Of collecting broken glass to sell it
10 the manufacturers, to be melted up
again The fragments of the foreign
bottles are useless here, and are sim
ply thrown away.
The building where this business is
carried on in West Twenty-fifth street
us piled high ON every floor with bot
tiles of all shapes and colors. Boxes of
bottles, barrels Of bottles. and bins of
bottles line the walls, and the floors are
strewn with shining fragments Of bro
ken glass white, red and green, of an
Infinite variety of shade and hue. In a
corner on each story is a great pile of
pieces of old bottles, glittering against
the dark background of the wall. On
|
filled to the limit of their weight ca
pacity with bottles ready to travel to
every part of the country. The meth
cd of packing the cars is very simple.
The packers begin at each end of the
car, laying the bottles in rows, the {
lowest row with the necks pointing in
and the next row above with the necks
pointing out. When this wall of bot
IL, 10 1,,itJ IN, l.,
feet of the top of the car and solidly
out to the edge of the door on the side
of the car, the door on one side is
boarded up and the bottles are laid S
along in front of it sideways to those
put in. A car will hold h
about three or four hundred gross of t
quart bottles, depending, of course, on t
their weight These bottles will travel | I
TOR days, packing in this way, with {
nothing to lessen their shock against {
each other, and at the end Of the trip a
there is rarely more than one gross f
which have been in any way damaged. j
One curious incident in the bottle $
trade came as result of the Boer war t
rhe English manufacturers of ginger +
lie ard beer sent out enormous ship h
nents to South Africa, and conse~ +
luentlY exhausted tH6lf supplies VI | G
,ottles Most of the bottles used in r
England ere made in Germany. and Il
he English manufacturers conse- +
Iuently wanted to double their orders Fl
or the next year. The German maxi s
RS said that they would have to dou- h
lie their plants to fill these orders, and o
leclined to do SO unless the English 9
men would guarantee an equally large !,
RIDER for five years. Consequently 1t h
vas necessary for the Englshmen to D
let their bottles from this country h
Trough the secondhand dealers, and :;
ship-load of empty bottles was sent J.,
yer last spring from this port, to the ~
cry considerable profit of the holders | ~
f that particular kind of bottles. :.
There is a lively season in this trade W
S in every other. Just at present and y,
! the early spring, Rhine Wine ginger -
lie and soft-drink bottles are particu-
,rly in demand. In the fall it is claret | al
nd champagne bottles that are espec- CT
lily needed. The bottles which hold | as
ledicine and are thrown away gene | te
lilly into ash barrels and dumped into or
le city refuse are carefully preserved 1 be
y those who pick over that material, ! oN
nd sold again to drug stores and pa be
mt medicine makers They do not go tn
e.