A CORKING AND CAPSULING MACHINE
Year: 1855

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Alfred Ardouin, of No. 5, Woodland Street, East
Greenwich, in the County of Kent, Shipwright and Carpenter, for the
Invention of "A CORKING AND CAPSULING MACHINE."
Sealed the 25th March 1856, and dated the 25th October 1855.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Alfred Ardouin at the
Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the 25th
October .1855.
I, ALFRED ARDOUIN, of 5, Woodland Street, East Greenwich, in the County
of Kent, Shipwright and Carpenter, do hereby declare the nature of 'the said
Invention for " A CORKING AND CAPSULING MACHINE" to be as follows: -
My Invention consists in a circular table with sockets, in which the bottles
'to be corked are placed,' which table revolves horizontally as fast as the
bottles can be put in "and taken off. The table is made to revolve by means
of a horizontal driving shaft placed above and on one side of the table. Upon
this shaft are two cranks; one crank, by means of a connecting rod and pall,
turns a ratchet wheel at the base" of the machine; the extremity of the axle
of the ratchet wheel which is nearest the table bears a cogged wheel, which
turns a horizontal cogged wheel fixed upon a pedestal or supporting shaft of
the table, thus causing the table to revolve with momentary stoppages to

page_text: allow each bottle to receive a cork as it passes beneath a corking tube. The
other crank of the horizontal driving shaft is placed above the margin of
the table, and works in the horizontal slot of a piston, each revolution taking
a cork from the feeding tube into the corking tube. The cork is then forced
by a piston into the bottle. The corking tube is supplied by a number of
tubes above it (filled with corks), which feeding tubes are fixed round a drum
(that revolves alternately), discharging the corks into and down the corking
tube as each bottle is corked and removed..
The capsuling of bottles is effected as follows:-At one extremity of
the driving shaft are two mitre cogged wheels, which give a circular motion
to a perpendicular shaft. This shaft can be depressed by means of a foot
lever, and when depressed is driven into the upper halves of two or four
clasps, thus contracting the lower ends of them around the capsule placed on
the neck of the bottle as each bottle is brought within the grasp and circular
motion of the clasps, which secures the capsule on the neck of the bottle.
Motion may be given to the corking and capsuling machine by hand, horse
or steam power, as may be most convenient.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said Alfred Ardouin in the Great Seal Patent Office on the
22nd April 1856.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, ALFRED
ARDOUIN, of No. 5, Woodland Street, East Greenwich, in the County of Kent,
Shipwright and Carpenter, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Twenty-fifth day of October, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and fifty-five, in the nineteenth year of Her reign,
did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto me, the said
Alfred Ardouin, Her special licence that I, the said Alfred Ardouin, my
executors, administrators, and assigns, or such others as I, the said Alfred
Ardouin, 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 "A CORKING AND CAPSULING
MACHINE," upon the condition (amongst others) that I, the said Alfred
Ardouin, my executors or. administrators, by an instrument in writing under

page_text: 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 Alfred Ardouin, do hereby declare the
nature of my said Invention, and in what manner the same is to be per-
formed, to be particularly described and ascertained in and by the following
statement (that is to say):-
My Invention consists in a circular table with sockets, in which the bottles
to be corked are placed, which table revolves horizontally as fast as the
bottles can be put in and taken off. The table is made to revolve by means
of a horizontal driving shaft placed above the table. Upon this shaft are two
cranks; one crank, by means of a connecting rod and pall, turns a ratchet
wheel at the base of the machine; the extremity of the axle of the ratchet
wheel which is nearest the table bears a cogged wheel, which turns a
horizontal cogged wheel fixed upon a pedestal or supporting shaft of the
table (which table is made to rise and fall to suit the different sized bottles),
thus causing the table to revolve with momentary stoppages to allow each
bottle to receive a cork as it passes beneath a corking tube. The other crank
of the horizontal driving shaft is placed above the margin of the table, and,
works in the horizontal slot of a piston, each revolution taking a cork from
the feeding tube into the corking tube. The cork is then forced by a piston
into the bottle. The corking tube is supplied by a number of tubes above it
(filled with corks), which feeding tubes are fixed round a drum (that revolves
alternately), discharging the corks into and down the corking tube as each
bottle is corked and removed.
The capsuling of bottles is effected as follows:-At one extremity of the
driving shaft are two mitre cogged wheels, which give a circular motion to a
perpendicular shaft. This shaft can be depressed by means of a foot lever,
and when depressed is driven into the upper halves of two or four clasps, thus
contracting the lower ends of them around the capsule placed on the neck of
the bottle as each bottle is brought within the grasp and circular motion of
the clasps, which secures the capsule on the neck of the bottle.
The working of my corking and capsuling machine is shewn by the
Drawing hereunto annexed, and of which the following is a more detailed.
description :-
Figure 1 represents the front elevation of the machine complete; Figure 2
is a side elevation; Figure 3 is a plan view of the same; Figure 4, plan of

page_text: the rotary table; Figure 5, section of the same; Figüre 6, the apparatus for
compressing the corks and forcing them into the bottles; drawn to an enlarged
scale; Figure 7, the apparatus for capsuling the bottles:
Motion is communicated to the machine by the rigger A, which is keyed
on the crank shaft A, and driven by a strap from a steam engine or other
In the rigger A is fixed a stud or pin for giving the "proper
amount of motion to the ratchet wheel. B. on horizontal shaft B, and com-
prime mover.
municated to the rotary table C by the mitre wheels D, D.
The action of the machine is as follows, viz. The bottles having
been placed in the rotary table C. which has been set in motion by the
above means, the table 'will move round. one-twelfth. of its. revolution, thus
bringing a bottle directly under the conipressing tube E, as shewn on..an
enlarged scale in Figure 6. To prevent the rotary table C 'travelling too
far, a pall G is fixed on a stud in the side frame, and forced into the
notches in the lower edge of rotary table C by a strong spring, but is
released again at the proper time by means of the motion of the connecting
rod F pressing against one end of the pall G, thereby releasing the lower end
from the notch or ratchet on the lower edge of rotary table C. During the time
the rotary table has been moving, the. cork H has been placed in the com-
pressing tube E-by the-action of the lever I working on a centre, the top end
of this lever having been forced out by the vertical, rod or plunger K in its
up-stroke, thereby causing-the lower end of the lever, to which is attached a
small wooden plunger 1, to deliver the cork from the feed. pipe L into the
compressing tube E. By this time the rotary table C has become stationary,
and the plunger K commences to move downwards, and having made about
one-fourth of its stroke the plunger K. will touch the cork H, which has been
placed in the compressing tube, and the cork having to pass through the
narrow part of the tube, the resistance will force the compressing tube down
about one inch, until the two lugs E* come in contact with the bearing M,
thereby stopping its downward movement.. Compression of the cork will now
take place, and it will be forced through the compressing tube, E into the
bottle, as shewn by 'dotted, lines in Figure 6; the-plunger K will now begin
to ascend; as also the compressing tube E, to its original position by the force
of the spring to which it is held by the lugs E*. The object of the com-
pressing tube moving is for the purpose of the lower, end, which is hollowed
out; clipping the neck of the bottle so as to bring it central with the plunger
K, and for allowing the bottles in the rotary table to pass under.
The cork feed pipe L, Figure 1,' may be either supplied by a boy placed
above the machine, constantly filling the feed pipe while the machine is in

page_text: motion, or as shewn in the Drawing, by means of the rotary cylinder of cork
tubes N, Fig. 1, the description and action of which is as follows, viz.:
The rotary cylinder N is composed of a series of tubes fitted to a top and
bottom plate, both ends of which are open, but to the under side of the bottom
plate is attached another plate with corresponding. openings to those of the
tubes, but which plate is made to move equal to half the distance the tubes
are from centre to centre, so that during the time one cylinder is being filled
with corks, and until it is placed in the machine, the corks will be prevented
from leaving the tubes. These cylinders will be made in duplicate, so that
whilst one cylinder of corks is being worked off in the machine, another will
be filled by a boy, and they may be. made to hold any number of corks,
according to the height and number of the tubes; the empty cylinder will
then be lifted off the machine and the full one put in its place. The moving
plate, to which is attached a small handle, will now be moved the proper
distance to bring the openings opposite to those of the tubes, and which will
be kept tight by a proper catch.
In the top frame of the machine O, Figure 1, is placed a spindle with a
collar, over the top end of which the socket of the rotary cylinder N is made
to fit to the lower end of the spindle, and below the frame O a ratchet wheel
is keyed with as many ratchets as there are tubes in the cylinder, and which
is worked by a pall on the lever P; this lever receives its proper motion from
a crank on the spindle, to which the tangart wheel Q is keyed, and which is
worked by the screw on the crank shaft A", the number of teeth in the wheel
Q agreeing with the number of corks in each tube, so that for every revo-
lution of the wheel the rotary cylinder N will move the distance the centres
of the tubes are apart, and to prevent it going too far, and to keep each
tube of the rotary cylinder as it comes round for delivery of its corks exactly
central with the feed pipe L, the moving plate of rotary cylinder is notched on
the edge according to the number of tubes, into which a pall P* is forced by
a spring, but which is released in time to allow the cylinder to move by a pin
on the lever P working against the tail of the pall P*.
The apparatus for capsuling the bottles is fixed to one of the side frames,
and consists of a vertical rod or shaft R, Figure 1, driven by a bevil wheel
and pinion from the crank shaft A to the upper end of the rod R, which
slides on a feather; in the pinion is attached a lever S, working on a centre,
and connected with the treadle T by the rod U. The lower end of the rod R,
Figures 1 and 7, is enlarged and grooved to fit the four capsuling clips
V, V, V, V, which are hung on pins in the socket W, so that when the foot is
placed on the treadle T, the vertical rod R will descend and cause the four

page_text: capsuling clips, to each of which a wood wheel is hung, to press against the
tin foil which has been placed on the neck of the bottle, and by the rapid
revolving of the reels against the tin foil, and the pressure being regulated by
the foot, the capsuling is complete.
W*, Figures 1 and 2, is a circular trough for catching any waste that may
occur from breakage in bottling. The rotary table C and the compression
pully Y will be made to rise and fall to suit the different sized bottles, as
shewn in Figures 1, 2, and 5, or by any other convenient plan.
Having thus described the nature of my said Invention, and the manner
in which the same may be performed, I would have it understood that what
I claim is an Invention for a corking and capsuling machine.
In witness whereof, I, the said Alfred Ardouin, have hereunto set my
hand and seal, this Twenty-first day of April, One thousand eight
hundred and fifty-six.
ALFRED ARDOUIN. (L.S.)