IMPROVEMENTS IN CORKING MACHINES
Year: 1881

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by Alexander Weir at the Office of the
Commissioners of Patents on the 12th May 1881.
ALEXANDER WEIR, of Belfast, in the County of Antrim, Ireland, Machinist.
"IMPROVEMENTS IN CORKING MACHINES."
This Invention has for its object to improve the construction and action of
corking machines, and to render them capable of being worked easily, with great
speed, and with diminished loss from breakages.
In a machine made according to one modification of the Invention there is a
vertical frame standard fixed upon spreading feet and formed with a vertical guide
groove in which there moves a main vertical bar. This vertical bar with parts
attached to it is counterbalanced by means of a weight connected to it by a chain
which passes over a pulley at the top of the standard. A treadle or foot piece is
rigidly fixed to the bottom of the vertical bar, which in the present modification is
operated on by the foot without the intervention of a lever. To the upper end of
the vertical bar there is fixed a block fitted to slide upon the standard and made
with a pair of inclined prongs forming a fork. The driver or ram which acts on
the cork is adjustably fixed in the sliding block. In a suitable position there is
fixed on the standard a box containing parts for compressing each cork before it is
driven into the bottle, these parts consisting of a fixed piece at the front and two
movable or hinged pieces, one at each side. When the movable pieces are closed
against the fixed piece, concavities in them combine with a concavity in the fixed
piece to form a circular hole; and a cork having descended whilst the movable
pieces were apart becomes compressed to the form of the hole when the movable
pieces are closed.
The closing of the movable pieces is effected by the fork of the
sliding block when this block is moved down, and the continued descent of the
block causes the driver to force the cork downwards from between the compressing
pieces into the bottle. When the block with the fork rises again a spring opens
the two movable compressing pieces, and then the next cork can enter between
them. Each cork is supplied in succession to the compressing box by means of a
curved funnel into which a handful of corks can be thrown at a time; the funnel
being shaped so that the corks pass singly down its spout. The funnel is binged
to the standard, so that it can be turned aside when the fork and driver descend,
a cam projection on the sliding block producing the necessary movements by acting
on the boss of the arm carrying the funnel. When the funnel is moved aside the

page_text: bottom end of its spout moves upon a plate or surface upon the compressing box,
so that the corks may not drop out. A conical mouth piece is formed on the
underside of the compressing box, up into which the neck of the bottle is entered.
Whilst being corked a bottle is set on a rest which is in two parts fitted together
with one or more quick screw threads, so that when the bottle has been set on the
rest the upper part can be turned to raise the bottle and enter its neck into the
conical mouth piece of the compressing box. The bottle rest is placed in a small
cistern or box which can be fixed by means of a screw clamp on the standard in a
position to suit whatever size of bottle has to be operated upon. In the event of a
bottle breaking, the liquid is caught in the cistern or box, from which it can be
drawn off by means of a tap provided for the purpose.
The machine may be modified by substituting a hand lever instead of the vertical
bar and treadle for working the sliding block with the fork and cork driver, and
other parts of the machine are also susceptible of modification.