IMPROVEMENTS IN STOPPERS FOR BOTTLES AND OTHER VESSELS
Year: 1867

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to William Henry May, of Icknield Street, East,
Birmingham, Mechanic, and Peter Graham, of Oxford Street, in the
County of Middlesex, Upholsterer, for the Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said William Henry May and
Peter Grabam at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with their
Petition, on the 11th October 1867.
We, WILLIAM HENRY MAY, of Icknield Street, East, Birmingham, Mechanic,
and PETER GRAHAM, of Oxford Street, in the County of Middlesex, Upholsterer, _
do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN
STOPPERS FOR BOTTLES AND OTHER VESSELS," to be as follows:-
This Invention has for its object improvements in stoppers for bottles and
other vessels, and is applicable to wooden stoppers, such as are described in
the Specification of a Patent granted to Nathan Thompson, and dated the
1st day of January 1866, No. 3. In order to make such stoppers more
perfectly gas-tight we reduce their diameter somewhat at their lower ends and
we adapt short corks to them. We form an annular groove in the cork of a
size to receive into it the hollow cylindrical end of the wooden stopper and

page_text: sometimes we cement the cork to the stopper; thus the cork forms a tip or end
to the stopper, also a coating or covering clothing its exterior for some
distance up, and a plug entering into the interior hollow; or the wooden
stopper may be made solid internally and the central plug removed from the
cork. The central plug of cork may also be omitted when the wooden
stopper is made hollow within.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said William Henry May and Peter Graham in the Great Seal
Patent Office on the 11th April 1868.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, we, WILLIAM
HENRY MAY, of Icknield Street, East, Birmingham, Mechanic, and PETER
GRAHAM, of Oxford Street, in the County of Middlesex, Upholsterer, send
greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters.
Patent, bearing date the Eleventh day of October, in the year of our
Lord One thousand eight bundred and sixty-seven, in the thirty-first year of Her
reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto us, the
said William Henry May and Peter Graham, Her special licence that we,
the said William Henry May and Peter Graham, our executors, administrators,
and assigns, or such others as we, the said William Henry May and Peter
Grabam, our 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 "IMPROVEMENTS IN
STOPPERS FOR BOTTLES AND OTHER VESSELS," upon the condition (amongst others)
that we, the said William Henry May and Peter Graham, our executors or
administrators, by an instrument in writing under our or their hands and
seals, or under the hand and seal of one of us or them, 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 immediately after the
date of the said Letters Patent.
NOW KNOW YE, that I, the said Peter Graham, on behalf of myself and
the said William Henry May, do hereby declare the nature of the said
Invention, and in what manner the same is to be performed, to be particu-

page_text: larly described, and ascertained in and by the following statement thereof,
that is to say:
}
This Invention has for its object improvements in stoppers for bottles and
other vessels, and is applicable to wooden stoppers such as are described in
the Specification of a Patent granted to Nathan Thompson, and dated the
1st day of January 1866, No. 3. In order to make such stoppers more
perfectly gas-tight we adapt short corks to them; we form an annular groove-
in the cork of a size to receive into it the hollow cylindrical end of the
wooden stopper, and sometimes we cement the cork to the stopper; thus the
cork forms a tip or end to the stopper, also a coating or covering clothing its
exterior for some distance up, and a plug entering into the interior hollow.
The central plug of cork may be also omitted, but this is not advantageous.
And in order that our said Invention may be most fully understood and
readily carried into effect we will proceed to describe the Drawing hereunto
annexed.
Figure 1 is a side view, and Figure 2 a vertical section of a stopper made
according to this Invention. a, a, is the body of the stopper made of wood,
usually pine wood and hollow internally, as is described in the Specification of
the Patent herein-before referred to, but the diameter of this piece is reduced
at its inner end; b is a capsule of thin tin plate applied to the outer end of
the piece a and closed around it by a rubbing or burnishing tool. A disc of
parchment may be interposed between the end of the piece a and the
capsule. c is a cork of the same external diameter as the upper part of the
piece a, it has a ring groove cut in it so that, as is shown, it may fit to the
piece a both exterually and internally. A cement, such as shellac, dissolved
in spirit may be used to attach the cork to the wood, but for bottling spirits
this cement is inapplicable and glue may be employed in lieu thereof.
Figure 3 is a longitudinal section of a stopper in which the portion of the
wooden body a above the cork has a ring groove cut in it to increase its
flexibility. The head of the stopper also in this case is made of wood cemented
on to the body a in place of being a metal capsule. The wooden head may
be made in one piece with the body a of the stopper where hard wood such
as beech is employed. A longitudinal section of a stopper thus constructed is
shown at Figure 4.
In some cases we do not reduce the diameter of the inner end of the wooden
body a of the stopper but apply the cork in the manner represented in
Figure 5 which is a longitudinal section of a stopper thus constructed.
Figure 6 shows a longitudinal section of a stopper in which the central
plug is removed from the cork. Stoppers made in this manner with capsules

page_text: at the top can readily be removed with an ordinary corkscrew, for the cork-
screw easily penetrates the capsule and the small thickness of wood at the
top of the stopper; this is not the case with any stopper heretofore constructed
of wood and of cork and it is a point of much importance. The wood being
hollow also yields an. elastic support to the cork and the part of the wood
above the cork also is compressible and yields to the neck of the bottle where
it comes in contact with it.
In witness whereof, I, the said Peter Grabam, have hereunto set my
hand and seal, this Eighth day of April, in the year of our Lord One
thousand eight hundred and sixty-eight.