Improvements in Apparatus for Aerating Liquids.
Year: 1897

page_text: Date of Application, 10th Feb., 1897
Complete Specification Left; 1st Nov., 1897-Accepted, 11th Dec., 1897
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION.
"Improvements in Apparatus for Aerating Liquids.'
1.1
I, HARRY VAUGHAN RUDSTON READ, of Broad Street Avenue, in the City of London,
do hereby declare the nature of this invention to be as follows:
It has been proposed to charge small vessels which may be in the form of capsules,'
with highly compressed carbonic anhydride or other gas, to place one or more of these
vessels in the mouth of a bottle, jar or other recipient containing water or other
liquid, then after tightly stoppering, to prick a hole in the vessel or in each of them,
thus allowing the compressed gas to escape and to become absorbed in the liquid in
the recipient.
This invention relates to apparatus for holding the charged capsule or vessel in the
mouth of the recipient, for tightly stoppering, and for pricking the hole in the
charged capsule or vessel.
This apparatus is necessarily more or less varied in form to suit the various forms of
the mouths of the bottles jars or other recipients to which the apparatus is to be
applied.
For a bottle having its mouth internally screw threaded to receive a screw stopper,
I fit on the screw thread of the stopper a tube or sleeve which extends some distance
down into the bottle and has a lateral opening by which I introduce the capsule so as
to rest on a shoulder at the bottom of the tube. On the stopper under its head I;
place a caoutchouc ring of some depth, and I fix at the end of the stopper a pricking'
pin.
On screwing the plug with its sleeve containing the capsule into the mouth of the
bottle, the caoutchouc washer is first compressed so as to prevent the escape of the
gas, then on farther screwing, the plug screwing itself through the threaded part of
the sleeve, forces the pricking pin into the capsule thus perforating it..
When the bottle mouth is made with an inwardly projecting shoulder under its;
internal thread, the sleeve having the lateral opening to admit the capsule, instead of
enclosing the screw thread of the stopper, is made with a projecting flange which rests
on the shoulder of the bottle mouth while the stopper is screwed down to prick the
capsule.
"
Instead of pricking the capsule by screwing down the stopper, this may be done by.
forcing down the stem of the pricking pin which passes up through the stopper and is.
held up by a spring unless it is pressed down. Or this stem may be screwed through
the stopper and forced down by turning it.
According to a modification the plug is made hollow to receive the capsule; it is.
screwed into the bottle mouth with a washer to stopper it tightly, the capsule is put
into the hollow of the stopper and a second stopper, with a washer and a pricking pin,.
is screwed in, so as to perforate the capsule.
7
When the recipient is of considerable capacity the stopper may be made to
accommodate several capsules all of which are perforated by screwing or forcing down
a.cap or lever pressing on the stems of their pricking pins.
Similar arrangements of stoppers, with pricking pins are applicable also to.
externally threaded necks of bottles, jars or other recipients.
For aërating the contents of a corked vessel, a tube made as a corkscrew with itg,
99

page_text: upper part enlarged to hold a capsule is screwed into and through the cork and then a
cap having a pricking pin is screwed on the enlarged part.
In all cases the stopper may be. provided with a safety valve, and may be made
with a lateral passage governed by a lever valve which can be opened to discharge the
contents of the recipient in the manner of what is known as a siphon for aërated
waters.
In some cases the capsule can be inverted and pushed down upon a pricking pin
fixed below it.
A check valve may be applied to the passage from the cavity that holds the capsule
or charged vessel to the recipient so that the gas from successive capsules or vessels
inay be discharged into the liquid into the recipient.
The pricking pin may be made with a longitudinal groove to allow the contents of
the capsule to escape while the pin remains in the hole. The washer employed to
prevent escape from the bottle mouth is preferably a flat caoutchouc ring doubled
over on itself so as to prevent as it were a split having its mouth towards the interior,
so that gas entering the split tends to expand the washer rendering the tight closing
more certain.
Dated this 10th day of Wa1005
I, HARRY VAUGHAN RUDSTON READ, of Broad Street Avenue, in the City of London
do hereby declare the nature of this invention and in what manner the same
is to be performed to be particularly described and ascertained in and by the
following statement:―
It has been proposed to charge small vessels which may be in the form of capsules
with highly compressed or carbonic Anhydride or other gas to place one or more of
these vessels in the mouth of a bottle, jar or other recipient containing water or
other liquid, then after tightly stoppering, to prick a hole in the vessel or in each
of them, thus allowing the compressed gas to escape and to become absorbed in
the liquid in the recipient.
This invention relates to apparatus for holding the charged capsule or vessel in the
mouth of the recipient, for tightly stoppering and for pricking the hole in the charged
capsule or vessel.
This apparatus is necessarily more or less varied in form to suit the various forms
of the mouths of the bottles jars or other recipients to which the apparatus is to be
applied.
I shall describe several forms of the apparatus referring to the accompanying
drawings all the figures of which are vertical sections except Fig. 5 which is a plan of
a convenient form of stopper head.
In all the Figures like letters are employed to denote similar parts.
A. Figure 1 is the neck of a bottle having an internal screw thread to receive a
screw stopper B provided with a caoutchouc or other suitable packing washer C and
having at its end a pricking pin b. On the screwed part of the stopper B, which is
somewhat loose in the bottle neck, I fit a sleeve D which extends downwards and is
nearly closed at the bottom, having there a small hole to admit the small end of the
capsule E, for introducing which the sleeve is made with a lateral opening. Having
placed the capsule in the sleeve, the stopper along with the sleeve is screwed down
until the thread of the sleeve reaches the termination of the thread of the bottles

page_text: neck, the sleeve being thus prevented from being screwed farther down, at this time
however the washer C is sufficiently compressed by the collar of the stopper to make a
practically tight closure. On turning the stopper a little more it is screwed a little
down within the sleeve D and its pricking pin 6 penetrates the capsule, allowing the
contents to escape. A spring between the shoulder a and the collar f causes the
screwed part of the sleeve to take such frictional hold on the screw of the stopper that
at first both screw together into the bottle neck.
According to the modification shewn in Figure 2, the bottle neck has below its
screw thread an inwardly projecting shoulder a and the sleeve or capsule 'holder D,
instead of extending up with a screw thread enclosing the thread of the stopper
terminates at the top with a small flange or lip which rests on the shoulder a. In
order to prevent the sleeve or capsule holder from separating from the stopper, it is
made with an inwardly projecting rib d which is free to move along a boss F project-
ing down from the stopper but is prevented from coming off the boss by a collar f.
When a stopper according to this modification is employed, the capsule is introduced
laterally into the sleeve which is inserted along with the stopper in the bottle mouth
as the stopper is screwed down while the flange of the sleeve rests on the shoulder a
first the washer C is somewhat compressed and then the capsule is pricked as in the
former case.
As shewn in Figure 3, the stopper B is made with a cavity to contain the capsule E
and this cavity is closed by a second stopper B¹ which is made with a pricking pin b
and provided with a packing washer C. In this case the stopper. B is screwed into
the bottle having the capsule E either in it or put in afterwards. Then on the second
stopper B being screwed down the washer C¹ is compressed and the capsule is
pricked.
As shewn in Figure 4 the stopper B is made with a cavity to receive the capsule E
and its sleeve or holder D which is attached to the second stopper B¹ having a
pricking pin b. There are holes through the bottom of the stopper B these holes
being covered by a flap G of caoutchouc or the like constituting a check valve. In
this case, after discharging one capsule the second stopper may be unscrewed, the
empty capsule removed a fresh one put in the holder and discharged. And in this
way several capsules may be successively discharged so as to aërate a considerable
volume of liquid, the valve G preventing escape of gas after each discharge.
As shewn in Figure 6 the pricking pin b is on a screwed stem and is depressed by
turning a wing b¹. The stem may pass through a volute spring 62 which causes it
to turn back, withdrawing the pricking pin. A stuffing box prevents escape of
gas.
As shewn on Figure 7 the stopper has a cover b' which can slide a little up or down
but must turn with the stopper between which and the cover there is a helical
spring b
After the stopper is screwed into the bottle by turning the cover b* then
the cover can be pushed down causing the pricking pin to penetrate the capsule, and
thereupon the spring 65 causes the cover to rise raising the pricking pin out of the
hole in the capsule.
As shewn in Fig: 8 the stopper B is internally screw threaded so as to fit on a
bottle neck externally threaded. In this case the sleeve D has a flange which rests
on the mouth of the bottle.
Each of the pricking pins b is preferably made with a longitudinal groove so as to
allow escape of the gas when the pin is inserted in the capsule. The washers may
be ordinary caoutchouc rings, I prefer however to double the ring on itself so that
there is as it were a split from the under edge into which the gas can enter tending
to expand the washer and thus ensuring the tightness of the joint.
Having now particularly described and ascertained the nature of this inven-
tion and in what manner the same is to be performed, I declare that what I
claim is :-
----
1 In combination with a bottle or vessel having its neck made with a screw thread,

page_text: a screw stopper having a sleeve or cavity to hold a capsule and a pin to prick the
capsule substantially as and for the purpose set forth.
2. The combined stopper and capsule holder substantially as described with
reference to Figure 1.
3. The combined stopper and capsule holder substantially as described with
réference to Figure 2.
4 The stopper made to hold the capsule and provided with a pricking stopper
substantially as described with reference to Figure 3.
5. The hollow stopper with check valve in combination with sleeve holding the
capsule and pricking stopper, substantially as described with reference to Figure 4.
6. The combined stopper and capsule holder sleeve with screw pricking pin,
substantially as described with reference to Figure 6.
7 The combined stopper and capsule holding sleeve with pricking pin attached to
cover of stopper substantially as described with reference to Figure 7.
8. The combined stopper pricking pin and capsule holding sleeve adapted for an'
externally screwed bottle neck, substantially as described with reference to Figure 8.
Dated this 1st day of November 1897.
ABEL & IMRAY
Agents for the Applicant.