IMPROVEMENTS IN BOTTLES AND IN THE MANUFACTURE OF CAPS OR COVERS FOR THE SAME
Year: 1867

page_text: OIRS, ATuner,
eet, Dermondsey, Lonton
"IMPROVEMENTS IN BOTTLES AND IN THE MANUFACTURE OF CAPS OR COVERS
FOR THE SAME."
Sealed the 18th February 1868, and dated the 20th August 1867.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Alexander Southwood
Stocker at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition,
on the 20th August 1867.
I, ALEXANDER SOUTHWOOD STOCKER, of Lamb's Conduit Works, Artillery
Street, Bermondsey, London, do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention
for "IMPROVEMENTS IN BOTTLES AND IN THE MANUFACTURE OF CAPS OR COVERS FOR
THE SAME," to be as follows:-
This Invention applies to bottles, but is particularly applicable to caps or covers
for bottles, jars, and similar recepticales, and consists in the application by pressure
or otherwise of a lining of ductile, soft, or other metal to the interior of screwed
or other caps or covers comprised of plastic composition, glass, or other suitable
material, such lining being made to mould itself to or take the form of the
screw thread and interior of the caps. In lieu of applying metal to the caps
I sometimes apply it by the aid of pressure or otherwise to the exterior of
the neck, whether screwed or otherwise, of the bottle intended to receive a cap.
Various means may be employed for applying these metal linings to bottles,
caps, and necks, but I have found that by the aid of india-rubber forced or

page_text: subjected to a blow or pressure the metal lining will be forced into the
interstices by the expansion of the india-rubber. These linings will serve
to protect from the action of acids those caps which may be liable to be
attacked if not so lined, and in the case of glass caps or covers the application
of the lining not only gives a smoother and softer screwing action, but a better
and more perfect fitting, while it greatly improves the appearance of the caps
which may be made transparent so as to shew the metal lining through the
tops of the cap, which lining may bear the imprint of the firm or manufacturer
and a trade mark, crest, or other device, forming in fact a trade mark cap or
In the case of screwed glass caps I sometimes apply a coating or
covering to the screw in the cap or on the bottle neck of gutta percha, glue,
rosin, oil, water, and whitening composition, or other like substance, with a
view to improve the fit of the cap, and render the action of the two screws
smoother and softer when fitted together, plain sheet metal caps drawn in the
ordinary manner may have the screws or their equivalents produced thereon
or therein by the application of pressure through india-rubber or other
elastic medium which will cause the metal operated upon to take the desired
figure by the aid of dies or tools suited to the shape of caps to be produced.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said Alexander Southwood Stocker in the Great Seal Patent
Office on the 19th February 1868.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, ALEXANDER
SOUTHWOOD STOCKER, of Lamb's Conduit Works, Artillery Street, Bermondsey,
London, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Twentieth day of August, in the year of our Lord One
thousand eight hundred and sixty-seven, 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 Inven-
tion for "IMPROVEMENTS IN BOTTLES AND IN THE MANUFACTURE OF CAPS OR

page_text: COVERS FOR THE SAME," upon the condition (amongst others) that I, the
said Alexander Southwood Stocker, my executors or adminstrators, 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 :-
My Invention relates first to improving the manufacture and rendering
more useful for the purposes to which they are intended to be employed such
caps or covers as are fully set forth and described in the Specification of a
Patent granted to me on or about the 26th day of March 1867, for improve-
ments in the manufacture of stoppers to be applied to bottles and other
receptacles, and consists in lining such or other cups or covers having screws
or other equivalents formed in their inner peripheries with a thin soft ductile
metal such as will yield and take the inside figure thereof when pressure is
applied thereto. To accomplish this I have found the following mode of
procedure to be economical and effective:-I take a cap, cover, or capsule
which has been drawn through or raised in the ordinary manner of manufacture,
composed of (pure tin I prefer) or other thin metal, (such for instance, as, is
well known in the market as Betts' Patent metallic capsule), of a desirable
diameter, thickness, and .depth, and place it within the rigid cap.or.cover
described by me in the Patent of 1867 before referred to, I then take a piece
of vulcanized india-rubber or other elastic medium, also of a suitable shape,
diameter, and depth, and place it within the two capsules; I then place these
three articles together under a press for the purpose of giving the rubber
(which is left somewhat higher than the caps or covers) a, blow or pressure.
The rubber by its elasticity when pressure is applied thereto will come in
contact with the flexible capsule with sufficient force to cause it to yield and
give way to the rubber, and enter into the screwed thread previously formed
in the rigid cap or cover, completely coating it with metal, firmly fixing it
therein, filling up all its interstices, rendering it thereby very complete with
much finish and workmanship, while at the same time it is rendered, much
more convenient for the various purposes to which it is. intended to be applied
or employed, inasmuch as when glass caps or covers are so treated the inter-
position of the soft metal between the two rigid substances will obviate

page_text: the bottle and cap in their raw state coming in contact with each other, and
thereby prevent the rigid threads on both bottle and cap from chipping,
creaking, and breaking, and also to stick fast, rendering them useless; whereas
my improvements will furnish the action of the screws to work silent, soft, and
smoothly, thereby avoiding the many disadvantages before referred to. And
when my Invention is applied to caps or covers composed of other material
or materials than glass, such as are mentioned in the Specification of my
Patent of 1867, herein-before referred to, or to wood or other caps or covers,
such caps or covers when so treated shuts out the great disadvantage of being
acted upon by acids. When the vessels with the use of such caps or covers
contains articles of a pernicious or contaminating character other methods
may be employed for the manufacture of these caps or covers without
departing from my Invention, but the means which I have described are
the best which I have found practically to answer. In some instances for the
sake of economy and quickness, I line caps or covers with strips only of the
materials which I have mentioned in place of complete capsules, which may be
readily accomplished by wrapping such strips around the rubber, and placing
the two within the rigid capsule (first coating the latter with a suitable cement
for the purpose of making a good joint), which when pressure has been
applied as herein-before described to the rubber will become lined in upon
or around its screw thread only, after which a cork disc of suitable thickness
or other suitable material placed within at the crown of this cap or cover
will render it to be well finished: This compound cap or cover will be found
useful for various purposes, and will combine in the action of screwing and
unscrewing all the facilities possessed by that where the complete flexible
capsule herein-before mentioned is employed. Various other methods also
for rendering the action of screwed caps or covers to be softer and smoother
when used and employed with screwed neck bottles, or their equivalents
provided thereon for their reception, may be resorted to without deviating
from my Invention, such as lining them with tinfoil or tinfoil paper, thin
gutta percha, glue, rosin, oil, water, and whiting, heated and blended together
in a compound or other suitable substance or substances applied to or laid
on the screwed thread in any convenient manner for the purpose of covering
or coating it, thereby attaining the like or similar results as in the instance
herein-before referred to when metal capsules are employed. The thin ductile
metal or other material or materials herein-before mentioned may be affixed
or applied to bottles or other vessels having screws or their equivalents
provided thereon for the reception of such screw caps or covers as have not
been previously lined or coated with metal or otherwise treated as before

page_text: mentioned, when the same softness and smoothness of action and other useful
results will be attained. I also produce caps or covers with screws or their
equivalents therein by the aid of india-rubber or other elastic medium in the
same manner as before mentioned by taking ordinary drawn through, raised, or
other caps or covers, and placing them within dies with screws or their equiva-
lents provided therein, which may be accomplished by the employment of one
or, more dies as the case may be.
In witness whereof I, the said Alexander Southwood Stocker, have here-
unto set my hand and seal, this 19th day of February, in the year of our
Lord One thousand eight hundred and sixty-eight.
ALEXR. S. STOCKER. (L.s.)