AN IMPROVED METHOD IN DIFFERENT SHAPES OR FORMS OF SECURING VOLATILE OR OTHER FLUIDS, AND CONCRETE OR OTHER SUB- STANCES IN VARIOUS DESCRIPTIONS OF BOTTLES AND VESSELS
Year: 1825

page_text: CHALL
1, HENRY
BERRY, of Abchurch Lane, in the City of London, Merchant, send greeting.
WHEREAS His present most Excellent Majesty King George the Fourth,
by His Letters l'atent under the Great Seal of Great Britain, bearing date
at Westminster, the Third day of December, One thousand eight hundred and
twenty-five, in the sixth year of His reign, did, for Himself, His heirs and
successors, give and grant unto me, the said Henry Berry, His especial
licence that I, the said Henry Berry, my exors, admors, and assigns, or such
others as I, the said Henry Berry, my exors, admors, or assigns, should at
any time agree with, and no others, from time to time and at all times
during the term of years therein expressed, should and lawfully might make,
use, exercise, and vend, within England, Wales, and the Town of Berwick-
upon-Tweed, my Invention of "AN IMPROVED METHOD IN DIFFERENT SHAPES
OR FORMS OF SECURING VOLATILE OR OTHER FLUIDS, AND CONCRETE OR OTHER SUB-
STANCES IN VARIOUS DESCRIPTIONS OF BOTTLES AND VESSELS;" in which said Letters
Patent is contained a proviso, obliging me, the said Henry Berry, by an
instrument in writing under my hand and seal, particularly to describe and
ascertain the nature of my said Invention, and in what manner the same is
to be performed, and to cause the same to be inrolled in His Majesty's
High Court of Chancery within six calendar months next and immediately
after the date of the said in part recited Letters Patent, as in and by the
same, relation being thereunto had, will more fully and at large appear.

page_text: NOW KNOW YE, that in compliance with the said proviso, I, the said
Henry Berry, do hereby declare that the nature of my said Invention, and
the manner in which the same is to be performed, are particularly described
and ascertained in and by the Drawings hereunto annexed, and the following
description thereof (that is to say):-
My improved method in different shapes or forms of securing volatile or
other fluids, and concrete or other substances in various descriptions of bottles
and other vessels, consists in employing the elastic gummy material called
caoutchouc (india rubber) in several ways, adapted to the stoppers of such
bottles or other vessels, by which I am enabled to effect an elastic resistance
against the mouth of the bottle or other vessel, and at the same time to form
a perfectly air-tight junction between the mouth of the bottle or other vessel
and the stopper to which the said caoutchouc is adapted. The shapes or forms
in which employ the elastic material may be arranged under three denomi-
nations (viz.), caps, collars, and plugs; and the manner in which I adopt them
is exhibited in the Drawings accompanying this my Specification, and will be
fully understood by the following description thereof, that is to say :-Fig. 1
represents a glass bottle, of the kind usually employed for holding scents or
volatile salts; Fig. 2 is a section of the same. a is the aperture or mouth of
the bottle, the edge of which is ground to an angular form; b, b, is the cover
of silver or other metal, which is screwed on to the neck; e is a disc of
caoutchone, confined within the top of the cover by a rebate, which disc of
caoutchouc, when the cover is screwed on, shuts down as an elastic cap upon
the edge of the bottle, and closes it perfectly air-tight. Fig. 3 represents the
section of a bottle similarly formed to the last, with a metal cover b screwed
on. In this, however, a glass stopper or plug d is introduced, and a collar of
.caoutchouc e; this stopper with its collar is shewn detached from the bottle at
Fig. 1.
The top edge or mouth of this bottle is ground perfectly flat, and the
throat cylindrical. The plug also of the stopper is perfectly cylindrical, and
the collar of caoutchouc passed round the plug, and bearing against the
shoulder, is intended to rest upon the flat edge of the mouth; and when the
cover is screwed down, the caoutchouc collar becomes compressed, and the
stopper is thereby rendered air-tight. Fig. exhibits a bottle of the same
description, which, in this instance has a collar of silver or other metal round
its neck, to which a cover is attached by a hinge joint, and held fast when
shut by a spring catch; Fig. 6 shews the same, the cover being open.
c is
the disc of caoutchouc confined by a rebate within the top of the cover, and
which, when shut down, comes in contact with the mouth of the bottle, and
forms an elastic bearing against the angular edge, and thereby closes the

page_text: bottle air-tight. Figure 7 represents an ink bottle, with a cover of the same
kind as the last; Fig. 8 shews the same with the cover open; and Fig: -9
the same in section. The disc of caoutchouc c.is held in a recess in the cover
by means of a small rebate, and when the cover is shut down and confined by
its spring catch, the elastic disc presses upon the angular edge of the bottle's
mouth, and keeps it air-tight. Fig. 10 represents the external appearance of
a case containing a test bottle, that is, a bottle calculated to hold any volatile
chemical fluid; Fig. 11 is a' section of the same; a, a, is the bottle.ib, the
glass stopper; c, a conical plug, 'extending nearly to the bottom of the bottle,
or the purpose of taking out drops of the fluid; d is a collar of caoutchouc,
similar to that represented at Fig. 3. This collar bears upon the angular
edge of the bottle's 'mouth,' and when the top of the case is screwed on, it
presses upon the glass stopper, and forces the collar so closely against the
mouth of the bottle that it becomes closed air-tight. Fig. 12 is the external
appearance or case of an ink bottle for the pocket; Fig. 13 is
a-section of
the same.
In the top of the cover of the case a disc of caoutchouc c is placed,
as shewn in Figs., 2, 6, and S. On screwing the top down, the disc presses
upon the angular edge of the bottle and closes it air-tight. The manner in
which I form my improved elastic plugs or stoppers for bottles and other
vessels, is either by covering ordinary corks with a thin coat of caoutchouc,
or by cutting solid caoutchouc into cylindrical pieces. In the former instance I
should, after preparing the cork as usual, pass a metal wire through it, having a
knob or button at bottom and a thread at top to receive a screw. I should then
draw over the bottom and sides of the cork a thin sheet of caoutchouc, and con-
fine it at top by a silver or other metal cap, making the whole fast by screwing
a ring on to the top end of the wire. In the second instance, after cutting the
piece of caoutchouc into a cylindrical form, I should attach to it two caps or
end pieces of metal by means of a wire passed through the middle, with a
thread upon the wire screwing into the lower cap; and when I wished to
enlarge the diameter of the stopper so as to make it hold with greater
firmness in the throat of the bottle or other vessel which it might be employed
to stop, I should screw the caps closer together, and thereby enlarge the
diameter by the end pressure.
Having thus described the several methods and the shapes or forms, in
which I apply caoutchouc as an air-tight and elastic stopper for bottles and
other vessels containingvolatile or other fluid, and concrete or othersubstances,
I wish it to be observed that I claim the exclusive use of such application of
caoutchouc as stoppers for bottles and other vessels, as an effectual mode of
retaining the essence of volatile chemical fluids and concrete salts, or any