IMPROVEMENTS IN BOTTLE-CORKING MACHINES
Year: 1877

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by John Thomas Willett at the Office of
the Commissioners of Patents on the 15th October 1877.
JOHN THOMAS WILLETT, of the Old Kent Road, in the County of Surrey.
"IMPROVEMENTS IN BOTTLE-CORKING MACHINES."
This Invention has for its object the construction of bottle-corking machines in
such a manner as to reduce the number of their parts, and so simplify and diminish
their cost of production.
The Invention consists of a frame or stool, upon which is mounted vertically a
hollow pillar. Within the hollow pillar is a moveable piece of metal having a rack
and peculiarly formed slot, the lower part of the said piece of metal having coiled
round it a spiral spring. Through the centre of the pillar or thereabouts passes a
spindle, upon which is fixed a pinion that gears into the rack before mentioned.
The spindle is also furnished with a lever or winch handle, by which, in conjuction
with the pinion, the rack may be raised or lowered. The moveable piece of metal
before referred to has at its upper extremity a projecting arm, which carries a ram
or plunger. Through a suitable opening in the upper part of the pillar there is a
slide carrying a compressor at one end, and provided at the other with a roller
pivotted to its sides, and working within the slot before alluded to. In front
of the pillar there is attached to the stool a metal frame that passes through an
opening in the stool. Within the opening are placed two moveable wedges, one of
which is furnished with a plate to support the bottle, and capable of being adjusted
to any height by means of a ratchet rack and pawl, while the other is adjustable by
the hand. Beneath the stool are two weighted levers, the short end of one of which
passes through a slot in the moveable piece of metal, and is provided with a pro-
jection that bears upon the under side of one the wedges, while the short end of
the other lever bears against the under side of the bottle-supporting wedge.
The action of the apparatus is as follows:-A bottle is placed upon the supporting
wedge, and adjusted so that its mouth may be received within the hollow of an
inverted cup fixed to the pillar by a piece of metal, which has an indent and is
fashioned to receive the cork. A cork is then placed in this indent, and the handle
Dimine 211

page_text: turned, when the moveable piece of metal carrying the plunger will descend and at
the same time cause the slide to bring its compressor up to and against the cork;
at the same time also the moveable wedge below will be brought closely in contact
with the bottle-supporting wedge, and thus present a firm basis to withstand the
pressure from above which is to follow. A continuance of the action causes the
cork to be greatly compressed and reduced in size, and the plunger or ram then
forces it into the bottle. The cork when freed from the compression of the machine
expands within the neck of the bottle, and fits it tightly. The handle is then
reversed, the action being assisted by the weighted lever and spring, when one of
the wedge pieces may be raised by the hand sufficiently to allow of a slight depres- 1
sion of the other, when the corked bottle may be removed, another uncorked bottle
substituted, and the operation repeated.