A NEW OR IMPROVED MACHINE OR APPARATUS FOR FILLING GLASS AND OTHER BOTTLES WITH EFFERVESCING, AERATED, OR OTHER LIQUIDS, AND FOR CLOSING OR CORKING THE SAME WHEN FILLED
Year: 1878

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by William Bull at the Office of the
Commissioners of Patents on the 21st February 1878.
WILLIAM BULL, of No. 4, Lancaster Place, Strand, in the County of Middlesex,
Engineer. "A NEW OR IMPROVED MACHINE OR APPARATUS FOR FILLING GLASS
AND OTHER BOTTLES WITH EFFERVESCING, AERATED, OR OTHER LIQUIDS, AND FOR
CLOSING OR CORKING THE SAME WHEN FILLED."
In carrying out this Invention I make a machine or apparatus, which consists of
a circular, segmental, straight, or other bottle-holding table mounted upon supports
or bearings, and caused to rotate or move as required by suitable mechanical
devices a vertical or other frame, a filling tap, changing nipples, and motive parts
and connections.
In front of, within, or over the said table I place, fix, or fit the said vertical or
other frame and filling tap, and cause the table and bottles to move through, under,
or past the filler frame, as before described. This frame carries the filling nipples,
tap, and table and other motive and moving mechanism. These nipples and bottle-
closing mechanism are of two kinds, one for filling and closing bottles, formed and
fitted with plugs, as described in the Specification of a Patent, dated the 29th of
April 1876, No. 1751; the other for filling and corking bottles made in the ordinary
way. The filling and closing or corking nipples and connected parts are fitted to
the frame so that they can be detached and changed, or thrown out of gear, and the
said parts being thus made as fittings the same frame and table can be used for either
or both descriptions of bottles.
The nipples for filling bottles made and fitted with plugs, as described in the
Specification of the said Patent, are made to terminate with an inverted and leather
lined cup or flange and washers, and the nipples for filling and corking bottles,
made in the ordinary way, are made to terminate with a similar cup or flange and
washers, and both are made to rise and fall by screw, lever, or other mechanical
devices.
The nipples are both adjustable as to their length, and the bore for bottles of the
ordinary form is made of sufficient size to allow the cork to pass through it.

page_text: The lever or handle, which constitutes the prime mover of the machine or
apparatus, is so fitted that the operator can thereby cause the whole of the move-
ments required to be effected thereby without having to remove his hand therefrom,
a single pull of a lever or half turn of a handle only being required as each bottle
is filled and closed or corked, as the case may be.
The empty bottles are placed in the cups or receptacles at one side or end of the
moving table, are instantaneously filled and closed or corked as they pass the filling
frame, and are removed ready for use in the one case, or for being wired in the
other case at the opposite end of the table.
The filling tap, which constitutes one of the main features of this machine, is
made and fitted with one or more large plugs; the bores of these plugs through
which the liquid passes are further fitted with changing pistons, so that by changing
the plugs or changing the pistons the quantity of liquid to be delivered by the tap is
regulated, and is always less than the capacity of the bottle to be charged thereby,
so that waste of liquid and breakage of the bottles is thus lessened or entirely
prevented. These taps act as metrical taps, and may be fitted with counting and
registering mechanism if required. In using the said taps the position of the plug
and piston is simply reversed at each filling of the bottles, while the full pressure is
always "on" the upper or outward side of the piston, and thus forces the charge
into the bottle from the under or inner side. When the piston reaches the lower
or inward side of the bore of the plug no more liquid can pass until the position of
the plug and piston are reversed.
The object of the moving table is to save time in placing the bottles in position
in connection with the fillers, and the object of forming and fitting the filling tap
in the manner described to further save time and prevent waste of liquid and bottle
breakage when charging from overfilling, and at the same time to measure and
indicate the quantity of liquid passing through the said tap, and the object of the
combination of parts, and the mode of actuating the entire machine and apparatus
by a single pull of a lever or half turn of a handle is to dispense with skilled labour
and obtain increased rapidity in bottle filling.