Improvements in or connected with the Stoppers of and Machinery for Charging or Filling Screw-stoppered Bottles with Gaseous or Gas-charged Liquids.
Year: 1895

page_text: Date of Application, 28th Nov., 1895
Complete Specification Left, 28th Aug., 1896-Accepted, 3rd Oct., 1896
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION.
Improvements in or connected with the Stoppers of and Machinery
for Charging or Filling Screw-stoppered Bottles with Gaseous
or Gas-charged Liquids.
I, LEON VALLET, of 49 Everton Road, Liverpool, in the County of Lancaster,
Mineral Water Manufacturer, do hereby declare the nature of this invention to
be as follows:-
This invention has reference to the stoppers of, and machinery for charging or
filling bottles, with gaseous liquids or liquids charged with gas, in connection with
which screw-stoppers are employed; and it has more particularly for its object to
provide a screw-stopper of a simple, inexpensive, and durable construction, suitable
for use in connection with the bottling and stoppering of gaseous or gas charged
beverages and analogous liquids. To this end, according to the present invention,
the general form of stopper is that of any of the known and suitable externally
screwed form, with the usual rubber packing or washer, but through the centre of
the stopper I provide a hole, with a valve within it, such valve working in
connection with a seat, and opening inward, and held in position within the hole,
when open, by a suitable stop, as by a cross pin passed through the stopper and
bole, or by equivalent means. The seat on which the valve rests is provided with
a rubber washer, or packing to effect the necessary tight joint; or, the valve itself
in some cases is provided with a washer to make a tight joint with it. Then in
connection with this stopper, for the effective, quick, and practicable charging of
the bottles stoppered with them, with gaseous liquid, I employ in connection with
the part of the bottling machine or apparatus through which the gas charged
liquor passes into and through the hole in the stopper, a projecting pin or other
device which, when the bottle is in position (i.e. the upright position) and already
stoppered with the screw-stopper, will enter the hole and extend down to such a
distance as to keep the valve off its seat, and prevent it from moving onto its seat
in the filling action and thereby keeping the valve down for the escape of gas, and
so preventing the stoppage of the flow of air from the bottle in the process of
filling.
A suitable form of machine for this purpose, is one in which the bottle is held
in a revolving or turnover holder, the bottle being held in the upright position
during the charging operation, and afterwards reversed to allow the valve to come
to its seat before removal from the machine, such an apparatus is set forth in a
former Letters Patent of mine, No. 490 of 1875.
When a bottle is so fully charged with liquor, the valve is retained upon its seat,
and so the hole through the stopper sealed or closed, by the pressure of gas within
the bottle acting upon the valve.
Amongst the advantages of using in connection with bottled gas charged liquors,
a stopper of the screw type, the pressure within the bottle is not increased when
the bottle is opened, on the contrary it is decreased or relieved; and consequently,
the liabilities and dangers of explosion, such as sometimes happen in the case of
internally stoppered bottles, due to the compression of the gas in them by the
pressing inwards of the stopper in opening the bottle, are avoided; as by the

page_text: unscrewing action, the pressure, as stated, is at once relieved; and beyond this,
advantages are afforded by the fact that the screw stoppered bottle is of neater
appearance, and more easily kept clean, than ordinary internally stoppered bottles.
Dated this 16th day of November 1895.
CHEESBROUGH & ROYSTON,
15 Water Street, Liverpool, Applicant's Patent Agents.
Improvements in or connected with the Stoppers of and Machinery
for Charging or Filling Screw-stoppered Bottles with Gaseous
or Gas-charged Liquids.
I, LEON VALLET, of 49 Everton Road, Liverpool, in the County of Lancaster,
Mineral Water Manufacturer, do hereby declare the nature of this invention and
in what manner the same is to be performed, to be particularly described and
ascertained in and by the following statement :-
This invention has reference to the stoppers of, and machinery for charging or
filling bottles, with gaseous liquids or liquids charged with gas, in connection with
which screw-stoppers are employed; and it has more particularly for its object to
provide a screw-stopper of a simple, inexpensive, and durable construction, suitable
for use in connection with the bottling and stoppering of gaseous or gas charged
beverages and analogous liquids. To this end, according to the present invention,
the general form of stopper is that of any of the known and suitable externally
screwed form, with the usual rubber packing or washer, but through the centre of
the stopper provide a hole, with a valve within it, such valve working in
connection with a seat, and opening inward, and held in position within the hole,
when open, by a suitable stop, as by a cross pin passed through the stopper and
hole, or by equivalent means. The seat on which the valve rests is provided with
a rubber washer, or packing to effect the necessary tight joint; or, the valve
itself, in some cases, is provided with a washer to make a tight joint with it. Then
in connection with this stopper, for the effective, quick, and practicable charging
of the bottles stoppered with them, with gascous liquid, I employ in connection
with the part of the bottling machine or apparatus through which the
gas charged
liquor passes into and through the hole in the stopper, a projecting pin or other
device which, when the bottle is in position (i.e. the upright position) and already
stoppered with the screw-stopper, will enter the hole and extend down to such a
distance as to keep the valve off its seat, and prevent it from moving onto its seat
in the filling action and thereby keeping the valve down for the escape of air, and
so preventing the stoppage of the flow of air from the bottle in the process of
filling.
A suitable form of machine for this purpose, is one in which the bottle is held
in a revolving or turnover holder, the bottle being held in the upright position
during the charging operation, and afterwards reversed to allow the valve to come
to its seat before removal from the machine, such an apparatus is set forth in a
former Letters Patent of mine, No. 490 of 1875.
When a bottle is so fully charged with liquor, the valve is retained upon its seat,
and so the hole through the stopper sealed or closed, by the pressure of gas within
the bottle acting upon the valve.
Amongst the advantages of using in connection with bottled gas charged liquors,
a stopper of the screw type, the pressure within the bottle is not increased when
the bottle is opened, on the contrary it is decreased or relieved; and consequently,

page_text: the liabilities and dangers of explosion, such as sometimes happen in the case of
internally stoppered bottles, due to the compression of the gas in them by the
pressing inwards of the stopper in opening the bottle, are avoided; as by the
unscrewing action, the pressure, as stated, is at once relieved; and beyond this,
advantages are afforded by the fact that the screw stoppered bottle is of neater
appearance, and more easily kept clean, than ordinary internally stoppered bottles.
My invention will be further described with reference to the accompanying
drawings, which shew stoppers, and illustrate the manner of operation of my
invention.
Figure 1 is an elevation partly in section, shewing the head portion or piece of
an ordinary filling apparatus used in connection with the bottling of gaseous
liquids, adapted according to this invention, and a stopper according to this
invention; the parts being in the position which they would occupy in the action
of filling. Figure 2 is a cross section of the device on the filling apparatus by
which the internal valve is kept off its seat during the filling action.
Figures 3 and 4 are sectional elevations shewing two stoppers according to this
invention.
Referring now to the drawings, a represents the body of the stopper of the
kind herein referred to, tiz. a "screw stopper" having an external thread upon its
shank as usual, and a rubber washer 6 which makes the air or gas tight joint with
the rim of the mouth of the bottle. Within the stopper, at the upper part there
is a hole e, and in the lower part a chambered part d, and within this chambered
part the internal valve e is placed and works. This internal valve, when in its
"closed" position, rests upon the material round the inner edge of the hole c,
within the chamber d, and when in its "open" position, it is supported by a pin f
which is passed through the shank as shewn. In the construction shewn in Figure 3,
the valve e consists of a simple weighted body of any suitable material, and a
rubber washer e¹, which makes the seat with the inner edge of the hole C when
closed; while in the construction of stopper shewn in Figure 3, the rubber washer e'
is placed at the upper part of the chamber d, and the valve e, which consists of a
simple sphere of metal or other suitable material, rests upon this rubber seat in
the closed position.
The means or device for keeping the internal valve e off its seat in the filling
action of the bottle shewn on the part of the bottling apparatus in Figures 1 and 2,
consists of a tube h through which the liquid to be charged in the bottle is
introduced, and having at one side a groove i, which serves to carry away the air
from the bottle when filling, to the ordinary "snifting" valve or outlet at k, by
way of the passage l.
In action, the stopper a, already fixed in position in the bottle mouth x, is placed
upright under the head m of an ordinary revolving bottling machine used for
bottling gaseous liquids, so that the tube h enters the hole c of the stopper; whilst
the upper surface of the stopper comes against the rubber seating n of the head m,
and makes a tight joint therewith. The tube h extending down into the chamber d,
and thus the valve e is prevented from closing the aperture c, so long as the tube
is in this position. In this condition, the liquid or liquids with which the bottle has
to be charged, enter it through the tube h, and the air in the bottle displaced by
the liquid passes up through the chamber d, then, out of the bottle by way of the
groove i between the tube h and the side of the hole c, and then away by way of
the hole to the "snifting" valve outlet. The upward flow of the air tends to
move the valve onto its seat, but all movement is prevented by the tube h, as
stated. When the bottle is thus filled with the gaseous or gas charged liquid to
the right point, the revolving or turn over holder is operated, so that the bottle
becomes inverted; and then as the tube h leaves the hole c on removing the bottle,
the valve e settles by gravity upon its seat at the inner edge of the hole C, and
thus the bottle is finally sealed, and the pressure of gas within it acting upon the
valve e keeps it upon this seat.

page_text: Having now particularly described and ascertained the nature of this inven-
tion and in what manner the same is to be performed, I declare that what I
claim is :-
1. The herein described improvement connected with the charging or filling and
stoppering of screw stoppered bottles containing gaseous or gas-charged liquids,
consisting of the employment, for the purposes described, of a screwed stopper
having an aperture through it, through which the liquid is introduced into the
bottle in the filling action, (the bottle being in the upright position in such action);
a valve adapted to close said aperture from within, and to seal the bottle after the
filling action by the pressure within; and a projecting provision or device on and
extending downwards from, the filling apparatus, and adapted to enter the said
aperture of the stopper through which the liquid enters the bottle, and to prevent
said valve coming upon its seat during the filling action; for the purposes set
forth.
2. The herein described improved bottle stopper for use in connection with
bottles for holding gaseous liquids, consisting of a body having an external thread
for fitting into an internal thread in the mouth of the bottle and making an air
tight joint therewith; a hole c in the upper part of said stopper body, through
which the liquid is introduced into the bottles; a chamber d within same; and
a loose valve e disposed and held within said chamber, and adapted to close
the said hole c after the bottle has been filled; substantially as set forth.
3. The bottle stoppers, and the stopper and construction of head of the filling
apparatus, particularly as set forth with reference to and shewn in Figure 1;
Figure 2; and Figures 3 and 4, of the drawings, respectively.
Dated this 27th day of August 1896.
CHEESBROUGH & ROYSTON,
15 Water Street, Liverpool, Applicant's Patent Agents.