IMPROVEMENTS IN STOPPERS FOR BOTTLES AND OTHER VESSELS, AND IN APPARATUS CONNECTED THEREWITH
Year: 1854

page_text: by the Act.)
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by John Henry Johnson at the Office
of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the 1st July
1854.
I, JOHN HENRY JOHNSON, of 47, Lincoln's Inn Fields, in the County of
Middlesex, and of Glasgow, North Britain, Gentleman, do hereby declare the
nature of the said Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN STOPPERS FOR BOTTLES AND
OTHER VESSELS, AND IN APPARATUS CONNECTED THEREWITH," a communication from
Hubert Bordet, a foreigner resident abroad, to be as follows:-
This Invention relates to the employment of gutta percha and caoutchouc,
either vulcanized or not, in the manufacture of stoppers or covers for bottles
and other vessels; also to certain improvements in the shape or configuration
of such stoppers; and also to a peculiar form of instrument for drawing the
same. The first part of the Invention consists in casting or moulding stoppers
of gutta percha, or of gutta percha incorporated with cork or wood powder.
When in the mould and before cooling, a metal screw is inserted in the top of
the stopper, whereby it may be easily withdrawn from a bottle by inserting a
corresponding screw therein. In place of a screw thread, a groove or projecting
ring may be formed round the edge of the stopper, or a horizontal hole or
recess formed in each side, to admit of the claws of a suitably formed cork-

page_text: drawer; or the stopper may be made entirely plain, and may be either solid or
hollow, as found desirable. These stoppers are capable of being colored by the
admixture of vegetable powders with the gutta percha. If great elasticity is
required, a certain amount of caoutchouc is added to the gutta percha; and if,
on the other hand, the stoppers are required hard, and capable of standing heat
well, a certain amount of shell lac is mixed with the gutta percha. The stop-
pers may be pierced longitudinally, with a number of small holes running nearly
through them, thereby affording greater elasticity to the same. These stoppers
may be covered externally with cork or caoutchouc. The interior of large
stoppers or bungs are filled up with wood or other suitable material, which is
coated over or covered externally with gutta percha or caoutchouc, or both
combined. Ordinary corks may also be thus coated, or a capsule of gutta
percha fitted thereto in conjunction with metallic tops. Another form of
stopper consists in fitting an expanding bottom to the stopper, which is opened
out when in the neck of the bottle by the pressure of the gases contained
therein, should the stopper be applied to a bottle containing aerated or gaseous
liquids. In one forin of bung it is proposed to hollow the under side slightly,
and form a small aperture through the top of the bung, which aperture is
filled with a smaller stopper when used as an ordinary bung; but when the
bung is applied to a vessel containing liquors in the act of fermentation, a
curved or syphon-shaped pipe or passage is fitted on to or formed in the interior
of the bung, and in this bent pipe or passage is poured some liquid, which
forms thereby an effectual air-tight hydraulic stopper, but allowing the internal
gases to escape from the interior of the vessel by displacing the liquid contained
in the pipe, and thus proventing the vessel from bursting, which occasionally
occurs.
The same kind of cover is also applicable, but on a larger scale of course, to
the covering of sewers or other receptacles of offensive matter.