AN IMPROVED METHOD OF STOPPING BOTTLES
Year: 1865

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by John James Chidley at the Office
of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the 18th February
1865.
I, JOHN JAMES CHIDLEY, Gentleman, of No. 4, Glaskin Street, Hackney,
London, do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for "AN
IMPROVED METHOD OF STOPPING BOTTLES," to be as follows:-
These improvements consist of an improved valve sustained by a spring, to
stop a bottle from the inside, which I propose to make as follows:-The
valve (which can be made of tin, boxwood, or any suitable material) is formed
of a double flat disc, each of about th of an inch thick, divided by a
groove of about th of an inch, which penetrates so far as to allow the
connecting piece of the two discs to be about th of an inch diameter;
the top disc should also be about th of an inch less in diameter than the
lower, and the lower disc should be slightly taper, being widest at the bottom;
it should also be made to fit closely the smallest part of the neck of the
bottle for which it is intended. A flat disc of vulcanized india-rubber of
about th of an inch thick, and about 4th of an inch larger in diameter
than the lower disc, and having a hole of about th of an inch through
the middle, is passed over the smaller disc into the groove, the valve is then

page_text: complete. It is proposed to keep it inside the bottle, close to the neck, by
means of a spring made of thin steel tinned (such as crinoline steel), bent into
an oval form, the two ends being soldered or fixed in the middle of the under
surface of the valve; the opposite or lower bend of the spring has also a
pointed stud soldered to the middle of its under surface; the spring should
be sufficiently long to press the valve firmly against the opening of the neck
of the bottle by resting on the pointed stud, but the spring should not touch
the sides of the bottle. The bottle should have a small indentation in the
middle of the bottom to receive the pointed stud, and the neck of the bottle
should be smallest in its inside diameter at the part where it joins the body
of the bottle; on pressing the spring and valve down the neck into the bottle
the disc of india-rubber will be turned down over the outside edge of the
lower disc, which then becomes too large to return through the neck; the
bottle will then be closed air-tight. A round or ball valve can be used if
preferred, of the same diameter as the smallest part of the neck; in this case
the valve and spring will have to be placed inside the bottle first, and then
a hollow vulcanized india-rubber ball, made to fit closely on the valve, and
having a hole sufficiently large, through its upper and lower surface, to permit
its being placed over the valve by a pair of expanding plyers while the valve
is in the bottle. Another mode of sustaining the first-described valve in its
proper position in the bottle is by a spring placed in the neck of the bottle
as follows:-The valve, made as before described, should have also an upright
pin of about th of an inch in diameter and about one and 4th of an inch
long, soldered or fastened in the middle of its upper surface; this serves
the purpose of a guide pin and a means of pressing down the valve in
opening the bottle, there is also a cross pin of the same length as the diameter
of the lower disc, soldered or fixed across the upright pin at about th of
an inch from its lower end. A cross piece of tin, also of about th of an
inch thick, and th of an inch deep, and having a hole through its centre
to admit the upright pin of the valve to pass through freely, is fitted to the
neck of the bottle so as to remain fixed across the neck at about th of an
inch from the top when placed there with the valve. The spring is formed of
an half-inch section of th inch vulcanized india-rubber tubing, having a small
slit through the middle of its upper and lower surface, the thin cross piece
being placed in the india-rubber spring and the upright pin passed through
them; the lower part of the spring is placed on the cross piece of the valve; it
can now be passed down the neck of the bottle until the tin cross piece becomes
fixed in the neck, and the valve can be pressed through into the bottle by

page_text: means of the upright pin; the spring will now sustain the valve in its proper
position in the bottle. The neck of the bottle for the last-described spring
and valve should taper gradually outwards from the bottom, so that the
widest part is the top of the neck, which should not exceed two inches in
length.