IMPROVEMENTS APPERTAINING TO INFANTS' FEEDING BOTTLES, AND IN THE MANUFACTURE, COMBINATION, AND EMPLOY- MENT OF THE WHOLE OR PART OF THE ARTICLES TO BE USED THEREWITH, PART OF WHICH MAY ALSO BE BENEFICIALLY EMPLOYED FOR OTHER PURPOSES
Year: 1868

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Alexander Southwood Stocker, of Lamb's
Conduit Works, Artillery Street, Horsleydown, in the County of
Surrey, for the Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS APPERTAINING TO INFANTS'
FEEDING BOTTLES, AND IN THE MANUFACTURE, COMBINATION, AND EMPLOY-
MENT OF THE WHOLE OR PART OF THE ARTICLES TO BE USED THEREWITH,
PART OF WHICH MAY ALSO BE BENEFICIALLY EMPLOYED FOR OTHER PURPOSES."
Sealed the 8th December 1868, and dated the 11th June 1808.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Alexander Southwood
Stocker at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his
Petition, on the 11th June 1868.
I, ALEXANDER SOUTHWOOD STOCKER, of Lamb's Conduit Works,
Artillery Street, Horsleydown, in the County of Surrey, do hereby
declare the nature of the said Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS APPERTAINING
TO INFANTS' FEEDING BOTTLES, AND IN THE MANUFACTURE, COMBINATION, AND
EMPLOYMENT OF THE WHOLE OR PART OF THE ARTICLES TO BE USED THEREWITH,
PART OF WHICH MAY ALSO BE BENEFICIALLY EMPLOYED FOR OTHER PURPOSES," to
be as follows:-
This Invention relates to producing out of certain kinds of sheet
metal certain covers with screws or their equivalents provided thereon
or therein by the aid of external and internal pressure effected by

page_text: mandrils, hubs, and following dies and tools, and the employment of them
with feeding bottles and such other receptacles as are technically called
and known in the trade as "blow" or "burst-offs," also in providing in
such covers as are intended to be applied to and used with feeding
bottles holes through which the infant's ordinary sucking tubes are to
pass, such holes being eyeleted or other provisions made so as to prevent
the abrasion of the india-rubber tube or other material or article neces-
sary to be used therewith; also in the manufacture and employment of
round discs or other shaped pieces of vulcanized india-rubber or other
elastic material, previously prepared in such manner as to facilitate
suction while the vessel is being used; such conveniently shaped pieces
of india-rubber or other material are intended to be held or gripped
by the aid and action of the screws or their equivalents on the "blow"
or "burst-off" bottles effected thereon by blowing, and the screws or their
equivalents produced on the cover to be employed therewith. These
desirably shaped pieces receive their configurations in their entirety at
one operation by the aid of suitable cutting apparatus.
It is desirable for my Invention that the metal out of which the covers
are to be made be elastic before their manufacture has been commenced
upon, as also the partially made cover when at a stage in readiness to
receive the screw or its equivalent to be provided thereon or therein.
Covers so made will be found most convenient and useful and exceed-
ingly economical when applied to "blow" or "burst-off" bottles
generally; in these cases the holes referred to in the crowns of the
covers will not be made therein.
I also manufacture, combine, and employ with glass or other metal
screw or other covers to be employed with feeding bottles vulcanized
india-rubber attached thereto globularly or otherwise so shaped as to
rest against the infant's features, thereby rendering greater comfort when
in use.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent,
filed by the said Alexander Southwood Stoches in the Great Seal
Patent Office on the 11th December 1868.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, ALEXANDER
SOUTHWOOD STOCKER, of Lamb's Conduit Works, Artillery Street,
атела
Patent Office on the 11th December 1868.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, ALEXANDER
SOUTHWOOD STOCKER, of Lamb's Conduit Works, Artillery Street, 3
Horsleydown, in the County of Surrey, send greeting.

page_text: WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Letters Patent, bearing date the Eleventh day of June, in the year of
our Lord One thousand eight hundred and sixty-eight, in the thirty-
first year of Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give
and grant unto me, the said Alexander Southwood Stocker, Her special
licence that I, the said Alexander Southwood Stocker, my executors,
administrators, and assigns, or such others, as I, the said Alexander
Southwood Stocker, my executors, administrators, and assigns, should
at any time agree with, and no others, from time to time and at all
times thereafter during the term therein expressed, should and lawfully
might make, use, exercise, and vend, within the United Kingdom of
Great Britain and Ireland, the Channel Islands, and Isle of Man, an
Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS APPERTAINING TO INFANTS' FEEDING BOTTLES,
AND IN THE MANUFACTURE, COMBINATION, AND EMPLOYMENT OF THE WHOLE OR
PART OF THE ARTICLES TO BE USED THEREWITH, PART OF WHICH MAY ALSO BE
BENEFICIALLY EMPLOYED FOR OTHER PURPOSES," upon the condition (amongst
others) that I, the said Alexander Southwood Stocker, my executors or
administrators, by an instrument in writing under my, or their, or one
of their hands and seals, should particularly describe and ascertain
the nature of the said Invention, and in what manner the same was to
be performed, and cause the same to be filed in the Great Seal Patent
Office within six calendar months next and immediately after the date
of the said Letters Patent.
NOW KNOW YE, that I, the said Alexander Southwood Stocker, do
hereby declare the nature of my said Invention, and in what manner
the same is to be performed, to be particularly described and ascertained
in and by the following statement thereof, that is to say :-.
This Invention relates to producing caps or covers out of certain
kinds of metal or alloys of a yielding, unridged, pliant nature, say block
tin, pewter, Britannia, or such like metal as will readily conform to
and receive screws or their equivalents provided thereon or therein by
external and internal pressure by the aid of an india-rubber mandril
or plug in combination with internally screwed dies or matrixes, made
in two parts, and to follow each other with a view to facilitate the release
of the caps or covers therefrom after they have been shaped, as well as
for operating upon them with greater rapidity. This part of my
Invention is an improvement upon a Patent granted to me, No. 2387,

page_text: A.D. 1867, and I proceed as follows:-When I have these caps or
covers produced in any manner now well known and of desirable depth
and diameter and in their blank or unscrewed state, I place them in dies
which have screwed holes therein of a measurement both in depth and
diameter desirable for the intended screw to be given to the cap or
cover when operated upon; I then place in the cap or cover a mandril
or plug of india-rubber fitting or nearly so the orifice of the die and
somewhat higher than it; I then place them together into a turned
box permanently fixed in a fly press; I then by the aid of a flat blank
forcer or plunger give the rubber a smart blow which screws the cap or
cover, the die is then lifted out of the box, when the cap or cover may
be readily released, the die again charged with another blank and the
rubber, and so on the operation repeated. I use a series of these
dies following each other for the purpose of despatch. Each die is
accurately although loosely fitted into the permanent box so that when
one has been used another is placed by hand therein immediately, and
so on they follow in rotations. Caps or covers composed of metal of this
category may be made and screwed other than in the manner I have
mentioned without departure from my Invention, but I prefer this mode
of procedure on account of economy and good workmanship. When
these caps or covers are applied to and employed with infants' feeding
bottles central holes are made in their crowns or centres for the passage
of and holding therein the infant's ordinary sucking tubes, as well also
of holding, combining, and employing therewith discs made according
to my Invention of india-rubber, substantially as and for the purposes
described in the Specification of my Patent, No. 675, A.D. 1868. This
rubber is before being cut into discs prepared or treated according
to my Invention in the following manner :-I pass it one or more times
through or between a pair of rollers, one of which is rigid on its surface
and provided with sharp pointed pins or spikes fixed therein of suitable
lengths and diameter and at proper distances apart, whilst the surface
of the other roller is rendered elastic by coating it with plain rubber or
other suitable soft material. The sheet after having been operated upon
will assume a porous-like texture; it is then to be cut at one operation
into discs having desirable holes in the centre for the purpose of holding
therein and employing therewith the sucking tubes before mentioned.
These discs may be cut out by any of the well-known appliances at
present in use. If desired the sheet of rubber may be similarly
punctured by the aid of piercing tools worked in any convenient manner

page_text: fixed in a fly press or otherwise, or the discs may be similarly punctured
by hand or in any other convenient manner out of plain unpunctured
rubber after they have been cut into discs, but I prefer the mode of
procedure first mentioned. Sheet rubber so prepared will be very useful
for various purposes.
Another part of my Invention consists in the manufacture attaching
to combining and employing with glass or other metal, or other caps
or covers to be employed with infants' feeding bottles pieces of
vulcanized india-rubber of globular or other convenient form so as to
rest against the infant's features in place of the cold and rigid substances
now in general use for that purpose, rendering it thereby more inviting
by affording much greater comfort when in use. It is obvious that
such may be applied to screwed covers, such, for example, as those
referred to in my Patent, No. 675, A.D. 1868. The rubber being plastic
may be moulded into the desirable shapes, thicknesses, and forms
required by the same means and process as expressed in the Specification
of the Patent last referred to. The rubber when moulded, vulcanized,
and treated as in general may be drawn over or on to the caps or covers
before mentioned when their own elasticity will collapse its intended
resting place, fixing and holding itself firmly thercon; the cap or cover
may then be screwed on to and off the bottle most conveniently. A
provision is made in the crown or centre of the rubber, as also in the
crown or centre of the cap, for the purpose of holding therein and
employing therewith portable teats as well as the ordinary appendages
now generally used with feeding bottles, and in order to cause a free
draught or suction the crown or top surface of the cap or cover is
perforated in like manner herein-before explained. Vulcanized india-
rubber caps or covers may be moulded with screwed metal rings therein
for the purpose of giving strength and rigidity to that part which screws
on to and off the blown or burst off screwed feeding bottles; the india-
rubber cap or cover will thus become lined with metal at that part
while the rubber itself will conform to and become screwed both inside
and outside by both simultaneously being acted upon and embraced
by the dies and pressure herein-before mentioned; or these caps or
co vers may be made in their entirety, care being taken that the material
is compounded of sufficient stubborn texture to resist the screwing on
to and off the blown or burst off screw bottles, to and with which they
are intended to be applied and employed. In this case the metal
screwed ring may be dispensed with.

page_text: These caps or covers are an improvement upon my Patent, A.D. 1868,
No. 675. They will have eyelets fixed therein in the same manner
and for the purpose as therein stated. These caps or covers will be
more securely held on to the neck of the bottle by being screwed
thercon, which I have found from experience is much to be preferred.
In witness whereof, I, the said Alexander Southwood Stocker, have
hereunto set my hand and seal, this Eleventh day of December,
in the year of our Lord One thousand cight hundred and sixty-
eight.