IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MODE OF BOTTLING LIQUIDS AND IN APPARATUS THEREFOR.
Year: 1875

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Richard Rendle, of No. 5, Wilmot Place,
Rochester Road, Camden Town, in the County of Middlesex,
Gentleman, for the Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MODE OF
BOTTLING LIQUIDS AND IN APPARATUS THEREFOR.
"
Sealed the 16th May 1876, and dated the 6th December 1875.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Richard Rendle at the
Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the
6th December 1875.
I, RICHARD RENDLE, of No. 5, Wilmot Place, Rochester Road,
Camden Town, in the County of Middlesex, Gentleman, do hereby
declare the nature of the said Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MODE
OP BOTTLING LIQUIDS AND IN APPARATUS THEREFOR," to be as follows:-
:-
The improvements have reference more particularly to the bottling
from the cask, vat, or other receptacle of wine, beer, spirits, and other
liquors, and have for their object the rendering such operation more or
less self acting, driving the air from the bottle more efficiently than
heretofore; also filling the bottle exactly to the desired level, saving all

page_text: the liquid and considerable time; and further, tending to the better
preservation of the liquid bottled.
The improvements embrace the use and manufacture of an improved
apparatus to be fixed to the outer orifice of ordinary spigots, taps, or
syphons used for casks and such like.
The improved apparatus consists,―
Firstly. Of the tap which is formed with or of a receptacle to be
fitted on the cask, spigot, tap, or syphon for the purpose of allowing the
tap also fitted to the said receptacle to form between them a knuckle-
jointed union and allow the tap to be moved through a certain space
from the slant to the vertical.
Secondly. Of a hollow chamber or convenient shaped vessel or tube
connected at one end to the knuckle-jointed receptacle and working
thereon, and furnished at the other end with tubes (hereafter described)
for insertion into the bottle.
Thirdly. Of a hollow air chamber with air outlet tube on the tap.
This chamber is placed on the top of the bottle tubes, within which is
placed a hollow ball or other floating substance that will allow a frec
passage of air around it. In the said air outlet tube is placed a plunger
with discs at each end or other arrangement to stop the outlet of air in
manner hereafter described. The bottle tubes are three, an outer, a
middle, and an inner, the outer sliding over the middle. The outer
tube is furnished with threads fitted to receive a nut and india-rubber
washer made to work up and down on such tube for the purpose of
regulating the height of liquid run into the bottle, and for receiving and
allowing the mouth of the bottle to butt up against the washer and be
rendered hermetic. The middle bottle tube on which the outer tube
slides is connected at the top end to the chamber or tube connected
with the knuckle-jointed union. This middle tube is the liquor tube,
and is perforated on the side at its bottom end and fitted with a flanged
screw stopper on which the outer tube rests and stops the flow or waste
of liquor. The inner bottle tube is the air tube through which the air
passes from the bottle, thence through the hollow air chamber round the
ball or float, and out by the upper air tube. The bottom part of this
air tube is bent and brought through the liquor tube in the centre of
which the air tube is. When the outer tube is pushed up in manner

page_text: after described the perforated holes in the liquor tube and the end of the
air tube are opened.
· The improvements also embrace the use of a stand supplied with one
or more spring forks, catches, or jaws for receiving and holding in
position the bottle and keeping its mouth up against the washer on the
outer bottling tube, and the use of a pipe to screw or fix to the tap,
spigot, or syphon, having two or more suitable union joints for screwing
or fixing two or more of the said bottling taps.
The various parts of the above apparatus may be of metal or other
convenient material, and the improved mode of bottling with the
apparatus described may be performed as follows:-The bottling
apparatus is fixed on the cask tap by a screw collar or in other con-
venient way, and is kept slanting downwards and outwards by a spring
or india-rubber band attached to the air outlet tube, and a peg or hook
fastened on the cask, or spigot, or by any other convenient way. A
bottle is put on the outer bottling tube, and the nut with its washer
adjusted to the desired height, the act of putting on the bottle lifts the
outer tube and exposes the orifices around the middle or liquor tube and
opens the end of the inner or air tube. The bottle is then held and
guided by hand into the spring forked support, the jaws of which receivo
and hold it tight in vertical position against the washer on the outer
tube, the latter movement of the bottle with the tubes in it having
caused the bottling tap to pass from the slanting position to the per-
pendicular, opened the knuckle joint and allowed the liquor to flow into
and fill the bottle, drives the air out of the bottle through the inner
tube, the spherical chamber, and the upper air passage. The air being
out the liquid rises in the inner air tube into the spherical chamber,
where it floats the hollow ball or float which comes in contact with the
bottom end of plunger in the top air tube, forces it up so that the top
disc of said plunger closes the air outlet, and so no more liquid will rise
or leave the cask. The bottle being then full up to the desired height
can be removed out of the jaws of the forks and off the tubes. Said
movement by the release of the tubes allows the bottling tap to return to
its normal slanting position, and the outer tube, with washer falling,
closes ends of middle and inner tubes, prevents loss of liquor, and the
tap is ready for receiving another bottle. To renew the process the
outer tube is first pushed up while in slanting position by the next
bottle, when the liquor from air tube and chamber runs out into the

page_text: 'bottle instantly, and the bottle then put on the fork as before the liquor
runs in, drives out air, and the bottle fills to the same height as
before.
1
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent,
filed by the said Richard Rendle in the Great Seal Patent Office
on the 1st June 1876.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, RICHARD
RENDLE, of 5, Wilton Place, Rochester Road, Camden Town, in the
County of Middlesex, Gentleman, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Letters Patent, bearing date the Sixth day of December, in the
year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and seventy-five,
in the thirty-ninth year of Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs
and successors, give and grant unto me, the said Richard Rendle,
Her special licence, that I, the said Richard Rendle, my executors,
administrators, and assigns, or such others as I, the said Richard
Rendle, 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 "IM-
PROVEMENTS IN THE MODE OF BOTTLING LIQUIDS AND IN APPARATUS THEREFOR,”
upon the condition (amongst others) that I, the said Richard Rendle,
my executors or administrators, 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 imme-
diately after the date of the said Letters Patent.
NOW KNOW YE, that I, the said Richard Rendle, do hereby declare
the nature of the said Invention, and in what manner the same is to
be performed, to be particularly described and ascertained in and by the
following statement thereof, that is to say :-
The improvements have reference more particularly to the bottling from

page_text: casks, vats, or other such receptacles of wine, beer, spirits, and other
iquors, and consist in rendering such operation more or less self-acting,
driving the air from the bottle more efficiently than heretofore, also
filling the bottle, and a series thereof exactly to the same and desired
evel; saving all the liquor and considerable time, and further tending
to the better preservation of the liquid bottled off, and that remaining
(if any) in the cask or vat.
casks, vats, or other such receptacles of wine, beer, spirits, and other
liquors, and consist in rendering such operation more or less self-acting,
driving the air from the bottle more efficiently than heretofore, also
alling the bottle, and a series thereof exactly to the same and desired
level; saving all the liquor and considerable time, and further tending
to the better preservation of the liquid bottled off, and that remaining
(if any) in the cask or vat.
The improvements also consist in the use and manufacture of an
improved apparatus for bottling, to be connected to the orifice of tho
spigot of the cask or vat.
The said apparatus consisting of convenient supports holding a
delivery tube connected by a flexible union tube with the cask or vat
spigot, and supplying said delivery tube with one or more improved
self-acting air valves, and one or more improved sleeved bottling taps, as
described.
Also with improved adjustable spring supports arranged to hold and
embrace any sized bottle and keep the same in hermetic contact with
an elastic plug, fitted on the sleeve of the improved bottling tap, as
described.
Also in the use and application of an improved air valve to act
and serve as a self-acting vacuum tap or vent, allowing the escape of
air, but preventing the escape of liquor from casks or vats generally, and
other like purposes, where air is required to escape, but not liquids.
The annexed Drawing will serve to illustrate the various improve-
ments, and a convenient manner of performing them, but I do not
bind myself to the precise modes illustrated, as it will be seen that my
improvements may be modified considerably in detail without departing
from the nature of my Invention.
"
Fig. 1 is a perspective view of the whole of the improved apparatus.
a is any ordinary cask or vat; b, an ordinary spigot to the same; c;
flexible or other tube connected with the delivery tube d by means of a
screwed joint; d is the delivery tube of metal, mounted on convenient
wooden metal trestles e, as shown; ƒ¹, ƒ³, are the improved air valves,
also of metal, two are shown, one f¹ in connection with the improved
bottling tap, the other f² as shown, to exhaust the air from the tube c
and delivery tube d, as well as the bottle taps, to prevent it from

page_text: entering the cask; 9 and j are the improved bottle tap of metal; and h,
a shifting and adjustable plug thereon, partly of metal and partly of
rubber; % is a bottle; 1, pad or block for bottle to rest on, which may
be of any convenient material; m is a guide rod that can be slided in
the
grooves g, as shown, to get the angle of bottles of different lengths
and fixable in any position by the thumbscrew Z; n is a ring furnished
with a screwed arm O with a nuts working thereon, so that the strength
of the spring tension, metal or rubber rod p, may be increased as
required by screwing the nuts away from the ring n, which rod p is
hooked on a support rod at one end, and on screwed arm O at the
other, and can also be adjusted. The apparatus is shown for one cask
and one bottle tap, but any convenient number of casks and taps may
be used, as also trestles to support them. The whole of the parts may
be made of metal or wood, or of both combined, the plugs, washers, and
tension rod, may be of rubber, leather, or suitable substance, and
the float in valve may be of any floating substance, cither hollow or
otherwise.
Fig. 2 shows a full size side view of bottling tap and its accessories,
with delivery pipe d in section, and valve ƒ open and partly in section;
and Fig 3 shows a sectional elevation of valve ƒ closed by stopper b,
delivery pipe d, and bottling tap. In those two Figures like parts are
marked with similar letters. Fig. 2 shows the position of the sleeve j
in its closed or down position before the neck of the bottle is inserted
thereon, and against the hermetic collar ; and Fig. 3 shows the posi-
tion of the sleeve ; in its open or drawn up position caused by the
pressure of the orifice of the neck of the bottle k against the collar h,
as shown also in Fig. 1; also the valve f closed on the top as if a full
bottle was on sleeve j.
It will be seen that the delivery tube d is tapped to receive an air
valve f, as shown in Figs. 2 and 3, and also to receive the fixed liquor a
tube m furnished with outlets a, a, as shown, this tube m is furnished
with a helical spring 1, against which a stuffing box n impinges, riding
on the tube m, the stuffing box n is fitted to receive the outer sleeve i,
which works on the tube m; through and along the liquor tube m and
delivery tube d is an air pipe q communicating with the air chamber t,
as shown, though the said air pipe may pass from the tube m to the
valve in any other convenient way; at end of said air pipe q is a screw
collar s with washer on which sleeve j rests to stop the flow of liquor.

page_text: The air chamber is conveniently formed with projecting ridges Z, as
shown in section in Fig. 3, to prevent the hollow float V from adhering
too closely to the seat of the valve and to allow the air to pass freely
from the bottle.
The upper part of air chamber is provided with a
plunger Y, with cap and seat X connected with the stopper b, which is
made to fit closely at top of screw cap c inside the small air chamber_e,
Figures 2 and 3, to prevent escape of air or liquor when the float raises
it, as shown in Fig. 3.
b
The action of the stopper may also be effected without the aid of the
cap X by fixing the float V to the plunger and stopper b, or in other con-
venient way, and the air outlet from chamber e may also be arranged by
different shaped chambers and by different means of opening and closing
the same.
The sleevej has on it a collar with a rubber plug p. This
collar and its plug can be adjusted on j to fit the depths of the necks of
the bottles or the height of the liquor to be placed therein, by the
screwed surface, as shown.
The action of the machinery is as follows:-Liquor is admitted into
the delivery pipe d, and thence into the liquor tube m, while the air is
driven out from the apparatus through the valve ƒ in Fig. 1, but the
float rising stops the outlet of liquor; a bottle is then introduced on the
scat 7, and it and the lever o is depressed sufficiently to allow of the
insertion of the bottle tap in the neck of the bottle, which is then held
in hermetic contact by the force of the spring p against the collar h
and its rubber pad, and the opposing spring acting against the nut n
of the sleevej, and by coming into such contact the sleeve j is forced
up, and the orifices a, a, of the liquor tube are uncovered, and liquor
flows thereby into the bottle, drives the air through the pipe q and open
valve, as shown in Fig. 2, and continues to flow until it attains the level
of the bottom orifice of the air tube q, when it enters said air tube and
passes into the air chamber t, floats the ball V, upon which the cap X
with its plunger Y and disc b rests. The action of the float rising
causes the top disc b to close the air outlet, thereby stopping the flow of
liquor, so no more liquor can enter the bottle or leave the delivery
pipe; at this time the liquor in the bottle is standing at the level of the
bottom of the air tube; the bottle is now removed and the act of doing
so causes the spring / to press down the nut n, and the sleevej tightly on
the washer, and thus closes the liquor tube orifices a, a, Fig. 3, at the
same time the small quantity of liquor in the air tube and chamber runs

page_text: .
into the neck of the bottle, which is removed filled to a certain height;
the process is repeated and all the bottles are filled to the same height
and no liquor wasted. This height can be varied by adjusting the
collar and its pad on the sleeve j.
Having explained the nature of my Invention and the mode in which t
it may be performed, I claim,—
Firstly. The manufacture and use of the improved apparatus for
bottling liquids consisting of one or more improved self-acting air
valves, and one or more improved sleeved taps with elastic plug, together
with improved adjustable spring supports for holding the bottle in 1
hermetic contact against the aforesaid elastic plug, either separately or
in combination, all substantially as and for the purposes set forth and
described.
Secondly. The improved air valve for exhausting air from any vessel
or tube in which liquid is or is to be placed by means of such liquid
acting on a float and stopper, substantially as and for the purposes set
or tube in which liquid is or is to be placed by means of such liquid
acting on a float and stopper, substantially as and for the purposes set
forth.
In witness whereof, I, the said Richard Rendle, have hereunto set
my hand and seal, this Thirty-first day of May, in the year of our
Lord One thousand eight hundred and seventy-six.