Improved Means for Stoppering Bottles for Preventing the Fraudulent Opening thereof.
Year: 1899

page_text: Date of Application, 30th June, 1899-Accepted, 29th July, 1899
Improved Means for Stoppering Bottles for Preventing the
Fraudulent Opening thereof.
I, KENNEDY EDWARD ELLIS, of 13, Rue Verhulst, Uccle-lez-Bruxelles, Belgium,
Merchant, do herby 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:-
My invention relates to improved means for stoppering bottles so that they
cannot be opened without breaking the top part of the neck thereof, thus pre-
venting fraudulent refilling of the bottle, or tampering with its contents. For
this purpose I construct the bottles and their stoppers as I will describe with
reference to the accompanying drawing, in which Fig. 1 shews a vertical section
of the neck of a bottle, and Fig. 2 a section of the same with the stoppers intro-
duced therein.
The bottle has a neck m of special form, being provided at its upper end with
a circular groove d, and the part of the neck containing the two corks a and e
being of greater internal diameter than the other part so as to form a shoulder f
serving as a seat for the cork c. The neck is also correspondingly enlarged
externally forming a shoulder . The stopper a is of a hard material such as
glass, porcelain, metal, or the like, and is made to fit the mouth of the bottle
exactly; it is formed with grooves or notches e in which are situated springs b
preferably of the form shewn at Fig. 2 where a piece of steel or other suitable
material extends over the under surface of the stopper and has its ends bent up
to form the springs b. This stopper a is of such a length that when introduced
into the mouth of the bottle its upper face will be situated at a lower level than
the upper rim of the mouth.
The stopper e may be an ordinary cork.
The action of the above device is as follows: The bottle k being filled, the
cork e is inserted until its lower end bears against the shoulder f. The stopper a
is then inserted, the springs being situated in the inward position in the
notches c, until their upper ends have passed the upper edge of the circular
groove u, whereupon they will spring outward so as to engage with the said
upper edge of the groove as shewn.
It is then impossible to remove the stopper without breaking the neck of the
bottle, in particular as it is situated below the edge of the mouth.
For opening the bottle it is necessary to break off the part of the neck con-
taining the two stoppers. For this purpose the neck is marked at the point g
with a glaziers diamond, (preferably at the time of making the bottle), so that it
will be sufficient to slightly tap the neck in an upward direction against the
shoulder to cause the top part of the neck to break off with a clean regular
fracture, without splintering or cracking.
The advantages of the above described improved means of stoppering bottles
are as follows. The bottles which are of simple construction, can only be used
once and consequently bottles marked by a certain firm cannot be fraudently

page_text: refilled with a different or inferior class of liquid by another firm; also, access
cannot be gained to the contents without the fact becoming apparent. Further-
more, no corkscrew is required for opening, and the corks not being injured can
consequently be used over and over again a great number of times, so that a
considerable saving is thus effected.
The construction above described will resist any internal or external pressure
to which the bottle may be subjected, so that the use of binding wires or strings
is avoided.
When opened by the breaking off of the top of the neck the bottle can still
be used as an ordinary bottle.
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. Means for stoppering bottles for preventing fraudulent refilling or tamper-
ing with the contents consisting in the employment of two stoppers, one of
which e, being an ordinary cork is inserted into the enlarged upper end of the
bottle neck until it rests upon a shoulder f, while the other a is of hard material
such as glass, porcelain, and the like, and has notches c, c, in which are situated
springs bb, such springs being made to engage with a circular grooved in the
bottle neck when the stopper has been introduced to the requisite depth into the
bottle mouth, so that access can only be gained to the contents of the bottle by
breaking off the neck, substantially as described.
2. In combination with means for stoppering bottles such as is referred to in
the first claim, forming the neck of the bottle with an enlarged upper end having
an internal shoulder and a corresponding external shoulder and marking the
neck at the point below the external shoulder with a diamond, so as to facilitate
the breaking off of the neck at that point, substantially as described.
9
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Dated this 30th day of June 1899.
ABEL & IMRAY,
Agents for the Applicant.