IMPROVEMENTS IN HOLLOW CAPS AND STOPPERS, AND THE EMPLOYMENT OF THEM WITH BOTTLES AND OTHER VESSELS, AND IN THE MACHINERY, APPARATUS, OR MEANS TO BE USED FOR PRODUCING PART OF THE SAME, ALSO IMPROVEMENTS IN THE ARTICLES TO BE EMPLOYED WITH SUCH OR OTHER CAPS, AND THE MEANS FOR CONSTRUCTING THEM
Year: 1868

page_text: ETTERS PATENT to Alexander Richmond Stocker, of New Cross, Glass
Manufacturer, and John Alfred Edgley, of Lamb's Conduit Street,
Practical Engineer, for the Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN HOLLOW
CAPS AND STOPPERS, AND THE EMPLOYMENT OF THEM WITH BOTTLES AND OTHER
VESSELS, AND IN THE MACHINERY, APPARATUS, OR MEANS TO BE USED FOR
PRODUCING PART OF THE SAME, ALSO IMPROVEMENTS IN THE ARTICLES TO BE
EMPLOYED WITH SUCH OR OTHER CAPS, AND THE MEANS FOR CONSTRUCTING
THEM."
Sealed the 26th January 1869, and dated the 8th September 1868.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Alexander Richmond
Stocker and John Alfred Edgley at the Office of the Commissioners
of Patents, with their Petition, on the 8th September 1868.
We, ALEXANDER RICHMOND STOCKER, of New Cross, Glass Manu-
facturer, and JOHN ALFRED EDGLEY, of Lamb's Conduit Street, Practical
Engineer, do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for "Ix.
PROVEMENTS IN HOLLOW CAPS AND STOPPERS. AND THE EMPLOYMENT OF THEM WITH
BOTTLES AND OTHER VESSELS. AND IN THE MACHINERY, APPARATUS, OR MEANS TO
BE USED FOR PRODUCING PART OF THE SAME. ALSO IMPROVEMENTS IN THE ARTICLES
[Price Sl1

page_text: TO BE EMPLOYED WITH SUCH OR OTHER CAPS, AND THE MEANS FOR CONSTRUCTING
THEM," to be as follows;-
We manufacture and employ with bottles and other vessels caps or
covers with screws formed on their outer diameters as well as in their
inner peripheries, which we effect by an apparatus or machine having
side travelling movements caused by the action of right and left handed
screws held in a carrier or guide box for that purpose, the motions being
given by the aid of a lever or other convenient means. A screwed
perpendicular shaft also fixed therein is acted upon by another lever or
other convenient means, which shaft enters and bottoms itself down into
the cap which is placed in the machine for the purpose of being screwed,
when the motions for screwing are acted upon rendering the cap com-
plete; the screwed shaft is then raised out of the cap and the operation
repeated, and so on. The stopper to which we refer is made hollow with
a head to it, and fits into a cork in the neck of the vessel; holes are made
in this stopper for the purpose of allowing the liquid to pass thro' without
releasing the stopper from the vessel.
We do not confine ourselves to the precise means described for
screwing caps as they may be varied for the purpose of producing screws
both on the outside and inside of caps. Some of these caps will have
holes provided in their crowns for the purpose of holding and employing
therewith vulcanized india-rubber articles made according with a further
part of our Invention, which is as follows, viz., we mould, dip, make
up in pieces, or otherwise construct the teats of infants' feeding bottles
and the tubes generally employed therewith in one piece, which by
preference we effect by the aid of moulds and cores, and we manufacture
and employ with such or other caps or covers pieces of india-rubber or
other suitable material with peculiar perforations, cuttings, or incissions
therein for the purpose of simplifying and rendering them more econo-
mical, complete, and perfect than the means hitherto employed. The
peculiar perforations or incisions to which we refer consists of a round
disc of india-rubber placed in the crown of the cap and screwed down
on to the top of the bottle or other vessel, thereby causing an air-tight
fitting or joint, and having cuttings, perforations, or incisions cut through
the centre thereof for the purpose of holding therein the ordinary tube
used generally with feeding bottles or our improved tube, such per-
forations being made of a shape that will hold or colapse the tube
sufficiently tight and at the same time admit sufficient air into the vessel

page_text: be filed in the Great Seal Patent Office within six calendar months next
and immediately after the date of the said Letters Patent.
NOW KNOW YE, that we, the said Alexander Richmond Stocker and
John Alfred Edgley, do hereby declare the nature of our said Invention,
and in what manner the same is to be performed, to be particularly
described and ascertained in and by the following statement:-
Our said Invention consists in the application to and employment
with bottles and other similar vessels of hollow caps and stoppers, and
in some instances in constructing and combining them with their
necessary appendages in such manner as to render them more con-
venient in their uses for the various purposes to and with which they are
intended to be applied and employed.
In the first instance we will refer to our improved processes for the
manufacture of certain hollow caps or stoppers composed of sheet metals
of exceedingly thin gauge, such, for instance, as what are known and
technically called tin'd iron, tagger plates or black taggers, brass, or
such like metal or metals as will be elastic and springy (both previously
and subsequently to the manufacture of such hollow caps or stoppers),
and which will yield casily to the processes of manufacture, and readily
and most casily producing thercon and therein screws without exerting
much pressure, strength, or labour, which is casily accomplished by the
labor
or power of boys' hand; such peculiar hollow caps or stoppers
will be found useful, effective, and convenient when employed for the
various purposes of our Invention, as hercin-after explained. In
manufacturing a hollow screwed cap or stopper suitable to be supplied
to an ordinary two-ounce pomade bottle, for example, provided with a
screw produced on the neck thereof by blowing in the ordinary manner
of bottle making for the reception of such hollow cap or stopper we
proceed in the following manner, that is to say, we take sheet metal
of the category before mentioned (the metal must not be of a soft
character and cut out of it in the ordinary manner of procedure round
blanks or discs of desirable dimensions, from which we produce a hollow
cap or stopper of the required size by operating upon it by the process
or processes of what is known and technically called "drawing through "
or "raising" by the aid of tools fixed in a fly press or otherwise, whereby
into a plain unscrewed hollow cap or stopper,
which process is well known and in common daily usc. We now
we form the said blank

page_text: so that the infant may draw its food therefrom without difficulty, while
this mode of procedure will by the elasticity of the india-rubber prevent
a leakage at the part, which is the case generally with infants' feeding
bottles.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent.
filed by the said Alexander Richmond Stocker and John Alfred
Edgley in the Great Seal Patent Office on the 8th March 1869
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, wc, ALEXANDER
RICHMOND STOCKER, of New Cross, Glass Manufacturer, and JOHN
ALFRED EDGLEY, of Lamb's Conduit Street, Practical Engineer, send
greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by ller
Letters Patent, bearing date the Eighth day of September, in the
year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and sixty-eight, in
the thirty-second year of Her reign. did. for Herself. Her heirs and
successors, give and grant unto the said Alexander Richmond
Stocker and John Alfred Edgley, Her special licence that we, the said
Alexander Richmond
Richmond Stocker and John Alfred Edgley, our executors,
administrators, and assigns, or such others as we, the said Alexander
Richmond Stocker and John Alfred Edgley, our executors, adminis-
trators, 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 "IMPROVEMENTS IN HOLLOW CAPS
AND STOPPERS, AND THE EMPLOYMENT OF THEM WITH BOTTLES AND OTHER VESSELS,
AND IN MACHINERY, APPARATUS, OR MEANS TO BE USED FOR PRODUCING PART
OF THE SAME ALSO IMPROVEMENTS IN THE ARTICLES TO BE EMPLOYED WITH SUCH OR
OTHER CAPS, AND THE MEANS FOR CONSTRUCTING THEM," upon the
the condition
(amongst others) that we, the said Alexander Richmond Stocker and
John Alfred Edgley, our executors or administrators, by an instrument
in writing under our, 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

page_text: operate upon the said hollow cap or stopper by the aid of the machinery
or apparatus herein-after described and illustrated by the Sheet of
Drawings hereunto annexed.
Figure 1 of the Drawings represents a longitudinal vertical section
of one form of our improved machine for producing a screw thread on
the outer and inner surfaces of the plain sides of the hollow cap or
stopper above referred to, and Figure 2 is a corresponding end elevation
of the same. In these Figures A represents a cast-iron stand upon
which work the two dovetail slides B. B, carrying the two dies D, D,
which contain the counterpart of the screw thread to be produced. On
the hollow cap or stopper E is a screwed mandril the screw thread
on which correspond to that formed on the bottle neck to which the
hollow cap or stopper is to be fitted; the dies D are opened or closed
on the hollow cap or stopper which is deposited between the dies
with its open side upwards and immediately underneath the bottom
of the mandril E. Before the dies are caused to grip the cap the
mandril E is brought down into the hollow cap or stopper by the
action of the screw spindel G to which the mandril E is fitted by a
ring and set screw or otherwise. the handle II serving to actuate the
screw G. Whilst the hollow cap or stopper is being firmly held
down upon
the base A by the mandril E the two dies D, D, are
caused to approach on opposite sides by the action of the nuts F, F,
upon the sides B, B. such nuts working along the right and left
hand screw spindle C rotated by a handle or otherwise; the effect of
this is to indent a counterpart of the screw thread on the dies and
mandril E into the sides of the hollow cap or stopper. By reversing
the motion of the screw G the mandril E will be unscrewed or released
from the hollow cap or stopper which is then complete, and on with-
drawing or separating the dies B the now screwed hollow cap or stopper
may be removed and a fresh one introduced, when the operations are
repeated.
Figures 3 and 4 represent respectively an end and side elevation of
a modified form of machine for producing these hollow caps or stoppers.
In these two Figures A represents a cast-iron frame carrying a screw
spindle B working in a nut C and being bored up at its front end
for the reception of a screwed mandril D. This mandril D, as well
as the mandril E in the first described machine, may be readily
removed and replaced by other mandrils of various sizes according to

page_text: the size required to be produced. On the rear end of the screw
spingle there is fitted a fly wheel and handle E, by which it is
worked backwards and forwards as required. F is a metal frame into
which is secured by set screws or otherwise the screwed die G. The
opening in the die G is made completely through it, and is by
prefercace tapered or diminished slightly in diameter from the end
at which the mandril D enters to the opposite or delivery end of the
said screwed aperture; the plain metal hollow cap or stopper II is placed
upon the end of the screwed mandril D, as shewn in Figure 4, and the
fly wheel and screw spindle are rotated, thereby causing the mandril D
to force the hollow cap or stopper II by a combined forward and rotatory
motion through the die G delivering it on the opposite side of the die.
By making the thoroughfare in the die slightly tapered the screwing
action of the die and mandril combined will be more easily and
gradually exerted upon the cap. causing it to enter the die with facility.
This hollow cap or stopper having undergone the operation of screwing
will now assume the appearance shewn at Figures 5 and 5, and any
device, name, trade mark, or design may be embossed thereon (by the
aid of stamping in the ordinary manner) cither previously or sub-
sequently to the cap or stopper having been screwed. The two-ounce
pomade bottle herein-before referred to is shewn at Figures 5 with the
screwed cap or cover screwed thereon, II representing the screwed hollow
cap or stopper (detached at Figure 5) and I the bottle.
Another part of our Invention consists in the manufacture of hollow
caps or stoppers (by the same process or processes and out of metal or
metals of the same category as that previously mentioned), and in the
application to and employment of such screwed caps or
covers with
infants' feeding bottles, also in manufacturing or constructing and
employing therewith part of the articles to be used in combination with
the remainder of those now in ordinary use, so to render our improved
combined apparatus complete.
Some of our improvements so far as they relate to manufacturing or
constructing and employing therewith part of the articles to be used
have reference to the disc of india-rubber to the teat used by the infant
for suction for the purpose of drawing the food from the vessel and to
the india-rubber tube connected therewith. In carrying out this part of
our said Invention we take a feeding bottle with a screw produced on
the neck thereof by blowing, as in the ordinary manner of bottle making

page_text: for the purpose of receiving thereon a screwed hollow cap or stopper,
which we produce in the same manner as herein-before described with the
exception, as, will be seen, that it is somewhat varied in size, configuration,
and construction, inasmuch as it has a hole provided therein for the
purpose of carrying the ordinary glass tube and the india-rubber tube
with its teat and shield.
We manufacture the india-rubber infants' feeding bottle tube and teat
together in one piece, as shewn at Figure 6, and thereby supersede the
use of the union joint which usually connects the tube and teat together,
and by preference we produce these articles according to our Invention
in the following manner-We build them up in picces to the con-
figuration of the tube, the roll or frill (which acts as a stop for the
shield) and the teat; or we make them up in picces (solutioning the
parts necessary to be joined and afterwards dip them for the purpose
of rendering them stronger and more sightly; or we dip them in their
entirety in the ordinary method of dipping, and afterwards inflate them
or not as circumstances may require, treating and vulcanizing them in the
ordinary manner. By preference we place them previously to their being
vulcanized in two-half nicely fitted dies with which cores may or may
not be used, or they may be treated and finished in any convenient
manner well known and in common use.
Our improvements in the disc of india-rubber used in the hollow cap
or stopper consists in causing incisions. star cuts, or similar or other
suitable perforations or cuttings to be made therein at the centre thereof.
Two of these improved discs are shewn at K in Figures 7 and 8, in the
onc case the star cuts are combined with a circular opening and in
the other case the star cuts alone are used. Figure 8 shows the tool
employed for producing these star cuts. When the india-rubber tube
has been threaded through the disc K for use, as shewn in Figure 6, the
star cuts in such disc will exert a very mechanical self-acting leverage
and soft action on that part of the tube enclosed by them, enabling
the food to be drawn from the vessel more freely and with unusual
comfort to the infant, whilst the collapsing of the serrated tooth-like
or star cuttings or formations, as shewn, will be self-acting, thereby
rendering the vessel at all times clean and unleaky.
A further part of our Invention relates to the manufacture and con-
struction of hollow caps or stoppers intended to be employed with what
are called and known in the trade as essence, scent, perfume, or such like

page_text: bottles, and has for its object not only to prevent waste of these expensive
liquids, but to distribute them more conveniently and in a. more
minutely dispersed or divided state. by causing the liquid in its egress
from the bottle to sprinkle the article or surface instead of being poured
thereon from the bottle mouth. whereby a given quantity of the liquid
may by the slightest movement of the vessel be deposited in the hand
or on the hankerchief, or distributed in any desired place in the most
desirable and convenient manner, thus avoiding the waste of any
superfluous quantity of the liquid.
In the first place we produce by the aid of "drawing through." or
raising tools, or in any other convenient manner a hollow cap or
stopper a, as shewn at Figure 9, having a hollow cork b firmly and
permanently fixed therein, as also a removable metal head piece c lined
with cork or other convenient material round its inner periphery as
well as at its crown, which head piece fits on to the end of a small
nozzled formed on the hollow cap or stopper a, and communicating
with a small orifice or opening e, passing completely through the cork
for the purpose of stopping the vessel from leaking after it has been
used. This head piece c may be screwed, as seen at Figure 10, on to
the contracted sprinkling nozzle d, in which case the lining round the
interior of the head piece c will be dispensed with, although the use of the
elastic part at its crown will be retained, it being intended to cushion
down upon the top of the nozzle d, thereby stopping effectually by the
action of the screw or other provision made for the purpose any egress
of the liquid from the vessel except when required for use. The hollow
corks are forced and tightly secured into the metal caps a, so as to
form convenient hollow stoppers, which may be fitted either into the
necks of bottles having cork rings or linings secured therein, as
shown at Figure 9, or may be most conveniently used by perfumers
and others and applied to various shaped bottle necks and bottles as
ordinary corks are now used, thereby combining the advantages of a tight
fitting stopper and a perfect perfume sprinkler. The hollow cork may be
dispensed with, and the cap or stopper a may be lined with cork round its
inner periphery and fitted on to the outside of the bottle neck, as shewn
at Figure 11, the head piece c being also lined with cork round its inner
periphery and fitted on to the smooth nozzle d. In Figure 12 the head
piece c is screwed on to the screw nozzle d, or the head piece may be
screwed direct on to the necks of bottles having screws provided thereon

page_text: for its reception, as shown at Figure 12ª, or it may be fixed on to the
bare neck of the bottle (by cementing or otherwise). Without the aid
of the screw or cork lining therein, as herein-before mentioned, (as it
would be according to this method.) by reason of its being permanently
fixed on to the bottle the latter could not be replemished when the
contents of the vessel become exhausted, since in attempting a removal
of the cover destruction would arise and the vessel would become
useless, whereas with hollow caps or stoppers constructed and applied
as herein-before described the bottle may be refilled again and again
in like manner to ordinary bottles.
bottle neck and
Figure 13 represents another modification of this part of our Invention.
wherein the orifice or mouth of the bottle receives a moulded vul-
canised india-rubber (or other material suitable for the purpose) disc f,
so shaped as to fit tightly round the inner part of the
down upon the surface or lip thereof, causing thereby a doubly secure
fitting. The substances may be of porcelain, or other discs having
names, devices, and trade marks embossed thereon, but in these instances
the bottle neck would have to be lined with cork or other flexible
or other material 01' materials, or other provision to be made
for the purpose of retaining such disc firmly in the orifice of the
bottle. The head piece c, herein-before referred to, is employed for
the purpose of screwing or fitting down upon the hole or holes
provided in the disc f, in order to prevent the egress of the liquid
contained in the bottle. The outside of the bottle may either be
left plain, as in Figure 13, for the reception of a cork lined head
piece, or the bottle neck may be screwed to receive a screwed head
piece, as in Figure 14, the object of the head piece being to cushion
down upon
and keep liquid-tight the hole provided in the rubber
disc fitting into the orifice of the bottle. Figure 14 represents the
application of the finely perforated india-rubber disc or stopper / to an
ordinary scent bottle provided with the well-known hinged metal cap
or cover C. One of our perforated india-rubber discs is shewn detached
at Figure 14.

page_text: holding permanently therein the hollow pin g. as shewn at Figure 15.
The cork is first placed (in the ordinary manner of corking) into and
cut off fair or flush with the surface of the bottle neck or hole. having
been provided therein for the receiption of the hollow pin g, which is
then placed into and forced down to its shoulder on the top of the
cork, when a head piece, as herein-before described, is applied to the
vessel in the same manner and for the like purpose, also herein-before
mentioned. The hollow pin g may, if desired, be dispensed with, and
the hollow cork stopper alone may be used, but it would not be so
convenient nor could the vessel be refilled, since the hollow cork stopper
being a fixture could not be removed without destructión, and thereby
rendered useless, as in the instance herein-before referred to.
Another form of perfume sprinkler is shewn at Figure 16; it consists
of a hollow cork, which is permanently inserted into the neck of the
bottle, and through which slides a cylindrical drawn metal tube h
having a flat, or mushroom, or other shaped head piece à soldered thereon
and closing the outer end thereof, as shewn. (This head piece is cut out
and afterwards stamped into its shape, and its milling is at the
same time accomplished by the process of stamping, not milled in the
ordinary manner.) A number of small lateral perforations are made
near the upper part of the sliding tube, and a disc of india-rubber k is
fitted round the tube inside the top or cap piece i for the purpose of
preventing or checking any leakage from the bottle when the tube is
pushed down through the cork so as to bring the disc k in contact with
the bottle neck, and thereby act as and performing a second stopping.
In this condition the lateral perforations will be closed by the sur-
rounding cork, but when the tube is drawn out partially, as shewn, the
perforations will be exposed, and the liquid contents of the bottle may
be sprinkled out. When it is required to replenish the bottle the tube /
is entirely withdrawn, taking care that a sufficiently large opening in
the cork for the convenient introduction of a further supply shall at
all times be observed. Figure 17 represents an ordinary scent bottle
wherein the usual ground glass stopper is replaced by one of our hollow
stoppers. The stopper b may be made of cork, and have an enlarged
head or shoulder formed thereon resting or fitting down upon the top or
lip of the bottle, as shewn (or the ordinary shaped corks may be as con-
veniently used and employed as circumstances may require, or according

page_text: to taste). This enlarged head is screwed or placed into a screwed hollow
stopper a, produced or manufactured by the same or equivalent machinery
to that herein-before described. e shews the small sprinkling passage or
orifice made therethrough, a fine perforation being made in the crown
thereof to correspond with such passage e. The small sprinkling orifice
is closed by screwing down upon the hollow cap or stopper a the screwed
head piece c made in the same way as and of similar metal to the
hollop cap or stopper a, a piece of cork, india-rubber, or other suitable
material being inserted into the crown of the cap c to close liquid-
tight the sprinkling orifice
stopper a, produced or manufactured by the same or equivalent machinery
to that herein-before described. e shews the small sprinkling passage or
orifice made therethrough, a fine perforation being made in the crown
thereof to correspond with such passage e. The small sprinkling orifice
is closed by screwing down upon the hollow cap or stopper a the screwed
head piece c made in the same way as and of similar metal to the
hollop cap or stopper a, a piece of cork, india-rubber, or other suitable
material being inserted into the crown of the cap c to close liquid-
tight the sprinkling orifice
Having now described the nature of our said Invention, what WC
claim is,
1st. The manufacture and employment of screwed thin sheet metal
hollow caps or stoppers intended to be screwed on to the necks of bottles
and other like receptacles, as hercin-before described.
2nd. The providing a hole in such screwed sheet metal caps for the
reception of the tube, holding and carrying therein also the appendages
of an infant's feeding bottle, as herein-before described.
3rd. The peculiar construction and arrangements of machinery or
apparatus for making the before-mentioned sheet metal screwed caps, as
herein-before described.
4th. The construction and use of hollow stoppers provided with one
or more contracted.openings or thoroughfares for the purpose of enabling
the contents of a scent bottle to be sprinkled out without removing
the stopper, such contracted thoroughfares being closed by a removable
head piece, the whole being arranged and employed substantially as and
for the purpose herein-before described.
5. The peculiar construction, arrangement. and mode of combining
the tubes. teats, and discs of infants' feeding bottles, as herein-before
described.
6. The peculiar mode of perforating the discs of infants' feeding
bottles, as and for the purpose herein set forth.
7. The peculiar reconstruction of stoppers, and their application to
scent bottles, as and for the purposes herein-before described, and

page_text: illustrated by Figures 9, 9, 10, 11, 12, 12, 13, 14, 14, 14, 15, 16, and
17 of the Drawings hereunto annexed.
In witness whereof,
whereof, we. the said Alexander Richmond Stocker
and Alfred Edgley, have hereunto set our hands and seals, this
Eighth day of March, in the year of our Lord One thousand eight
hundred and sixty-nine.
ALEXANDER RICHMOND STOCKER. (L.s.)
JOHN ALFRED EDGLEY.
(L.S.)