Improvements in or relating to the Stoppering of Bottles.
Year: 1894

page_text: Date of Application, 2nd Apr., 1894-Accepted, 5th May, 1894
COMPLETE SPECIFICATION.
Improvements in or relating to the Stoppering of Bottles.
I, WILLIAM BRISBANE RAND of 220 Devonshire Street, Boston, Massachusetts,
United States of America, Broker, do hereby 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 :—
The object of my invention is to provide or guard against bottles being refilled
after the original contents thereof have been poured out of the same, and then
being palmed off or misrepresented as containing the original or genuine contents.
In one phase of my invention I secure this result by rendering it impossible
when the bottle has been once opened after its original filling to afterwards
restore the same to its original condition. In a second phase thereof I add to the
foregoing by rendering it difficult or practically impossible to refill the bottle
after being for the first time uncorked.
Various constructions of bottles and various contrivances for application to
bottles have been devised with similar ends in view, but such of these as I have
become acquainted with have the disadvantages of adding undesirably to the cost
of the bottles and of rendering the original filling and the subsequent use of the
bottles inconvenient and difficult. The employment of my invention does not add
materially to the cost or interfere with the filling in the first instance, or with the
emptying out of the original contents.
The invention will be best understood by reference to the accompanying drawings,
in which
Figures 1, 2, 3, 4, and 5 show different forms of the seals which I have devised.
Figure 6 is a view showing in vertical section a bottle having one form of my
invention applied thereto.
Figures 7 and 8 are similar views showing other forms of the invention.
Figure 9 is a view in cross-section on the horizontal line 9 9 in Figure 8.
Figure 10 is a view showing one mode of connecting the seal-supporting wire,
thread or strip with the cork or other closure that is employed.
Figure 11 shows another mode and Figure 12 is a view showing a further
modification.
The bottles shown in the said drawings are marked 1, and the necks thereof 2.
At 3, 3 are what I designate seals they being so named because they are intended
to indicate whether or not the bottles are in the condition in which they were
after being filled for the first time, and sold or otherwise disposed of with their
original contents therein. Various forms of seals are shown in the different
figures of the drawing, and I have represented the same as combined and
connected in various ways with the usual corks or closures of the bottles. Each
of the said seals, however, is characterized by the fact that at the time of the
original filling of the bottle to which it is applied, and the application of the
cork or closure to the mouth end of the neck of the bottle, the said seal is caused
to become suspended in an elevated position within the bottle in or adjacent to
the neck, it being held in place by an attachment or connection with the cork
or closure of the bottle which at the time of the first removal of the said cork
or other closure is broken, disconnected, or withdrawn, so that the seal becomes
detached and is allowed to drop to a lower position in the bottle, the contrivance
being such as to render it practically impossible to thereafter again secure the
seal in its original position. Therefore, from inspection of the seal, it may readily
be ascertained whether or not the bottle has been opened since it first was filled

page_text: and corked or otherwise closed, and it may be determined whether or not the
contents of a bottle offered for sale are what they purport to be. The seal
consists of a simple plate, as in Figure 1, disc as in Figure 2, ball as in
Figures 3, 4, and 5, or the like, the same being formed of glass, porcelain, or
other suitable material. It is made of a size which will prevent it from being
introduced or withdrawn through the opening in the neck of the bottle, and there-
fore is placed within the cavity or interior of the bottle at the time of the
manufacture of the latter or it may be passed through the neck before the
projections 13 are formed therein. It is made with one or more perforations 4,
in most of the forms thereof. Through the same is then passed at the outset one
or more wires, threads or strips 5, the end or ends whereof are caused to extend
out of the neck of the bottle into position to be grasped. After the bottle has
been filled, and preferably before the driving of the cork into the neck of the
bottle, or at least before the cork or other closure has been entirely driven
home, the seal is drawn by pulling upon the wire, thread or strip 5 so as to
bring the seal against the projections 13 or against the upper end of the bottle at
the base of the neck. The wire, thread or strip is then to be secured so as to
retain the seal in this position. The ends of the wire, thread or strip may be
crossed over the outer end of the cork or other closure and after being brought
together may be knotted or otherwise united as at 5ª the surplus portions thereof
being removed by cutting them off, see Figure 6. In some cases the portions
of the wire or thread appearing at the end of the cork or closure will be covered
by and imbedded in the wax or other composition which is applied to the mouth
of the bottle and the end of the cork or closure, see Figure 6, in the usual and
well-known manner. They may be caused or allowed to embed themselves in a
groove in the outer end of the cork or other closure. When the wire or thread
is thus crossed over the end of the cork or closure it will assist in holding the
latter in place, preventing it from being expelled by the action of the contents
of the bottle. The crossing portions thereof will have to be broken or severed
before the cork or closure can be extracted. In some cases I may depend upon
the holding of the seal in place by simply the compression of the ends of the
wire or thread between the sides of the cork and the interior of the neck of the
bottle, and when this is the case the ends do not extend out of the mouth of
the bottle.
Figure 4 shows a seal made in the form of a ball and having a small groove 7
formed around the same in which is received the thread or wire, parts of the
latter being twisted or tied together to cause them to remain in position in the
said groove as shown in the said figure. Figure 5 shows a seal made in the form
of a ball having the end of a wire received in an internal groove from which
latter it is capable of being withdrawn by a slight pull. In all of these cases,
when the cork or closure is withdrawn from the neck of the bottle, the seal will be
released by either the breaking of the wire, thread, or strip, or the disengagement
of the latter from the seal or the closure and the withdrawal thereof.
In Figures 7 I have shown an embodiment of the invention which is especially
adapted for use in connection with a class of bottles in which the usual cork, shown
at 8, is centrally perforated and has fitted into the same a glass or other plug 9,
the said plug being withdrawn when it is desired to enable the contents of the
bottle to be poured out through the hole that is made in the cork, the said
cork being permitted to remain in the neck of the bottle. For use in connection
with the inner end of the plug, which latter I have prolonged sufficiently to
enable the said inner end to project below the inner end of the perforated cork,
I employ a ball or plug which has a socket 10 formed therein, the said socket being
lined with a shell 11 of cork or other suitable substance. This ball or sphere
has at the outset a wire or thread passed through a hole 4 in the same way
as in the case of the seals first described, and prior to the original filling of
the bottle containing the same the ends of the wire or thread project from the

page_text: mouth of the bottle. After the filling, and either before or after the introduction
of the cork, the said ends of the wire or thread are drawn up so as to raise the
seal into the neck of the bottle. The said ends are then utilized to draw
the seal on to the lower end of the plug 9 after the plug has been pushed into
the hole in the cork so that the socket will receive the projecting end of the
plug. The end of the plug by entering the socket will hold the said seal in
position. Or the wire or thread is used as a means of holding the seal in place
while the end of the plug is being pushed into the socket in the seal. In this
case the wire or thread will usually be withdrawn, after the seal has been
connected with the plug.
In the embodiment of the invention which is represented in Figure 8 the neck
of the bottle has moulded therein near the inner end thereof a ring 12 or the like,
projecting inwardly, the upper side whereof is straight and inclined inwardly
toward the centre of the neck. In the neck above said ring is placed a substantially
cone-shaped seal, the lower portion of which fits the upper surface of the inwardly
projecting ring and in some cases is ground thereto so as to form a close joint in
connection therewith. Above the seal are formed projections 13 13 in the neck
see Figure 9, these projections extending inwardly a sufficient distance to prevent
the seal from falling out or being removed. At the time of the original filling of
the bottle the seal is held raised against the projections 13 by means of the wire
or thread 5 which is connected with the same as in the case of any of the contrivances
already described, and after the completion of the filling, and the introduction of
the cork or other closure, the seal is secured in its raised position in contact with
or close to the projections. When the wire or thread is withdrawn or broken at
the time of the withdrawal of the cork or closure, the seal is left free to descend
and rest upon the upper surface of the ring. The projections 13. 13 in Figure 8
as in all the other examples illustrated do not extend continuously around the
neck of the bottle, but are formed so as to leave spaces 14, 14 Figure 9 between,
so that when the seal is raised as above stated at the time of the original filling,
or when the mouth of the bottle is turned downward in the act of emptying its
contents and the seal rests against the said projections, the contents of the bottle
may find passage into the bottle in the former instance, and out of the same in
the latter instance, through the said spaces and at the sides of the seal. When
the seal is freed by the withdrawal of its sustaining wire or thread, the seal
descends and it always rests on the upper surface of the ring when the bottle is
in an upright position, thereby completely or practically closing the neck to the
admission of liquids or the like, and rendering it wholly impossible or very
difficult to re-fill the bottle after having once been emptied.
One end of the wire, thread or strip 5 may in some instances be made fast to the
cork, as, for instance by wrapping one or more coils thereof around the said cork,
as indicated in Figures 8 and 10, or otherwise in any convenient manner, so that
when the cork or other closure is pulled out of the neck of the bottle the said wire,
thread, or strip will be drawn upon at one end thereof so as to withdraw it entirely
from the bottle or break it off short.
The arrangement shown in Figure 11 embodies a spherical seal of the construction
shown in Figure 3. This spherical seal may be supported in the "scaled" bottle
either by the two ends of the wire passing up at opposite sides of the cork or
stopper 8 between it and the inner surface of the neck 2 or by one end as shown in
Figure 11 the other or shorter end being in this latter arrangement wound round
the longer end.
The modification shown in Figure 12 contains a ball made in two parts which are
held together by the sustaining wire, thread, or strip, but which separate on the
withdrawal or breakage of the latter.
If desired one or more cleats may be formed on the outside of the bottle neck 2
to facilitate the temporary fastening of the wire or equivalent 5 while the bottle is
being filled or the cork or stopper 8 is being inserted into the neck.

page_text: Having now particularly described and ascertained the nature of my said invention
and in what manner the same is to be performed, I declare that what I claim is :-
The combination with a bottle and the cork or closure thereof of a seal connected
with said cork or closure by an attachment which suspends the said seal in the
neck or upper portion of the bottle and which is broken or disconnected by the
removal of the said cork or closure so as thereby to allow the said seal to descend
in the bottle substantially as described.
Dated this 2nd day of April 1894.
W. P, THOMPSON & BOULT,
Agents for the Applicant.