Improvements in and connected with Means for Preventing or Detecting the Fraudulent Abstraction of the Contents of Bottles and like Vessels.
Year: 1896

page_text: Date of Application, 1st Jan., 1896
Complete Specification Left, 1st Oct., 1896-Accepted, 7th Nov., 1896
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION.
Improvements in and connected with Means for Preventing or
Detecting the Fraudulent Abstraction of the Contents of Bottles
and like Vessels.
I HENRY ERNEST HAINES of Hygeia House, Staines, in the County of Middlesex,
Gentleman do hereby declare the nature of this invention to be as follows:-
This invention for improvements in means for preventing the fraudulent abstraction
of the contents of bottles and like vessels relates more particularly to bottles, and the
like, which are closed by the forcing home of a cork or plug, and consists essentially
in providing within the bottle, a device which shall indicate whether the contents have
been exposed to the air after bottling.
For this purpose, a small figure of glass or other transparent material is enclosed
in the bottle filled with liquid. This figure is hollow, and has a small elongated
aperture, and a small piece of colouring material is placed within it, the weight
being so adjusted that the figure will float upright in the liquid with which the
bottle is filled.
When the bottle is closed by forcing home the cork, a pressure is produced,
which is transmitted to the air in the figure, causing it to contract and a small
quantity of the liquid in the bottle then enters the figure, and dissolves the colouring
matter contained in it; a clear glass figure would thus show up say red on closing
the bottle. If the air is subsequently admitted to the bottle by drawing the cork or
puncturing the glass, this coloured liquid is at once expelled by the compressed air
in the sphere and it will shew white instead of red.
The figures are preferably of glass and either spherical or cylindrical and may be
attached to or left loose in the bottle, and any desired chemical may be enclosed in
them for the purpose or indicating fraudulent exposure to the air.
The figures may be utilised for advertisement purposes and may be made to
represent "cats" "stars" &c. or any emblem or trade mark of the bottlers, or they
may have notices enclosed in the glass or written on the outside of the spheres &c.
The bottle containing such a figure may be contracted at the neck, so that the
figure cannot be extracted intact.
Dated this 1st day of January 1896.
WHEATLEY & MACKENZIE,
40 Chancery Lane, London, W.C., Agents.
COMPLETE SPECIFICATION.
Improvements in and connected with Means for Preventing or
Detecting the Fraudulent Abstraction of the Contents of Bottles
and like Vessels.
1, HENRY ERNEST HAINES, of Hygeia House, Staines, in the County of Middlesex,
Gentleman, do hereby declare the nature of this invention and what manner the
same is to be performed to be particularly described and ascertained in and by the
following statement :-
This invention for improvements in and connected with means for preventing or

page_text: detecting the fraudulent abstraction of the contents of bottles and like vessels, relates
more particularly to bottles and the like which are closed by the forcing home of a
cork or plug.
The accompanying drawing shows a sectional elevation of a detector device
constructed according to this invention.
According to this invention, a small hollow transparent vessel comprising a
hermetically closed tube a and a bulb b, having a small aperture e in its bottom
part for the passage of liquid, has placed in it small globes d, e, f, one d, of which
is solid being placed in the said bulb and the others e, f in the neck of the tube a as
shown. The globe e is bollow and has sufficient buoyancy to support the uppermost
one, when in liqnid, and is secured in position by a suitable soluble cement so that,
when the detector vessel is placed in the bottle, the external pressure of the liquid
compresses the air in the interior of the detector vessel, and liquid is admitted into the
bulb b, the forcing in of the cork further increasing the external pressure and causing
a further entry of liquid which dissolves the cement fixing the buoyant globe e in the
tube a. When the external pressure is again reduced by the uncorking of the
bottle sufficient liquid is forced out of the bulb & to allow the globe e to descend clear
of the tube a and thus permit the upper globe to fall into the bulb 6 of the detector
vessel and thereby indicate that the bottle has been uncorked.
Should the detector be turned upside down the small globe d will fall into the
neck and prevent the globes e, f from rising. The glass globe f may be replaced
by a small piece of colouring matter which, when it falls into the bulb b, will discolour
the liquid.
The figures may be utilised for advertisement purposes and may be made to
represent "cats" "stars" &c. or any emblem or trade mark of the bottles, or they
may have notices enclosed in the glass or written on the outside of the spheres, &c.
Having now particularly described and ascertained the nature of my said inven-
tion and in what manner the same is to be performed I declare that what I
claim is :-
1. A means for preventing or detecting the fraudulent abstraction of the contents
of bottles and like vessels, comprising a transparent detector vessel composed of a
tubo a and a bulb & having an aperture c and containing three globes d e f the whole
arranged substantially as described.
2. The improvements in and connected with means for preventing or detecting
the fraudulent abstraction of the contents of bottles and like vessels, the whole
arranged constructed and operating substantially as described with reference to the
drawings.
Dated this 30th day of September 1896.
WHEATLEY & MACKENZIE,
40 Chancery Lane, London, W.C., Agents.