Improvements in or relating to Syphon Bottles.
Year: 1898

page_text: Date of Application, 5th July, 1898-Accepted, 3rd Sept., 1898
COMPLETE SPECIFICATION.
Improvements in or relating to Syphon Bottles.
We, ALEXANDER WILLIAM HAIG, a Member of the Firm trading as The Salutaris
Water Company, Manufacturers, and WILLIAM CARTER, Factory Manager, both
of 236, Fulham Road, in the County of London, 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:—
Our invention relates to the heads of syphon bottles such as are used for aerated
waters. Cases have occurred where such bottles after having been issued full by
one mineral water manufacturer, have, after emptying, been refilled by unscrupu-
lous dealers with mineral water of their own or some other manufacturer, and
there are at present no means connected with the bottles themselves for preventing
such fraudulent practices.
The object of our invention is to supply such means, and by our invention we
provide devices in the form of attachments to the metallic top of syphon bottles
by the use of which in conjunction with a piece of tape or string and the applica-
tion thereto of the manufacturer's own special seal, the hand lever cannot be
released for operation and the syphon used until the seal has been removed, hence
the purchaser or user will always be able to ascertain by inspection whether the
contents of the bottle are those of the manufacturer by whom the bottle has been
issued, and will therefore have some guarantee of the place of origin.
According to our invention we provide either a pin passing through a part of
the syphon head which moves with the valve, and which pin must be removed
before the valve can be opened; or alternatively we provide a device adapted to
hold up and directly prevent the hand-lever from being operated. In either case
the attachment is secured by the manufacturer's seal, and the syphon cannot be
operated until such seal has been removed, and when it has been removed it
cannot be replaced by other people without actual forgery.
Syphon heads are usually constructed as shown in Fig. 1 of the accompanying
drawings, and the depression of the hand lever L serves to depress the delivery
valve spindle S and open the valve: according to one method of carrying out
our invention as shown in Figs. 2 and 3 we extend upwardly the slotted or forked
head of the valve spindle S at each side of the inner part L¹ of the lever L, prac-
tically to the top of the head, immediately beneath the cap C. Such extended
parts are shown at S¹ Figs. 2 and 3, and through same and the two sides of the
screwed cap C we drill a hole p, and provide for same a headed pin P adapted to
be passed from one side through the cap and the said extension of the valve
spindle. In the other end of the pin P is a hole p¹ through which is passed a
tape or cord T, the ends of which are tied and clamped or otherwise securely
fixed together by the manufacturer's own seal W.
A possible objection to the above described arrangement is that there is one
loose part, namely, the pin P, which may get lost. and to avoid this we have
devised the arrangement shown in Fig. 4. This consists of a simple rotary attach-
ment R fitted to and adapted to turn about the cylindrical part or neck N of the

page_text: syphon head. The attachment R has preferably a tail part R¹, of the same or
similar configuration as the lever L, which is pierced with a vertical hole p¹, and
a corresponding vertical hole p² is made through the ordinary operating lever L
of the syphon. The rotary attachment may be made of the same kind of metal
as the head and applied by pressing it around the narrow part as shown, or it may
be of steel or resilient metal and sprung into position; we however prefer the
former method as being more convenient and practical. Before sending out the
full syphon the tail R₁ of the rotary attachment R is turned to come beneath
the hand lever L, and a tape T is threaded through both holes and secured and
sealed as above described with the private seal, so that the hand lever L is held
up and cannot be operated until the seal has been removed and the attachment R
turned out of the line of its travel during depression. It will be obvious that
instead of a long tail part R¹ supporting the whole lever L a shorter tail might be
substituted, adapted to engage and support only the external projection of the
inner part L' of the lever L, but we prefer the arrangement first explained.
In this arrangement there is no loose part, but since the operating hand levers
of different makes of syphon heads vary somewhat considerably in length and
configuration we have designed, to meet such cases, the modified arrangement
shown in Figs. 5 and 6. In these figures the same reference letters apply to the
parts already described, and according to the modification we fix to the syphon
head a rotary attachment A having a rigid and strong arm A¹ of convenient
length arranged to be turned to lie alongside of the operating lever L and having
a hooked downward extension A2 engaging beneath and then firmly supporting
the inner part L¹ of the operating lever L. Holes p¹ are made laterally through
both the arm attachment A¹ and the lever L through which holes the tape T is
passed and its ends secured and sealed at W as above described. When the seal
is removed, but not before, the arm A¹ and hook A2 can be turned aside clear of
the lever L.
By any of these arrangements it will be seen that until the private seal and
the tape are removed from the attachments the operating lever is held up and
cannot be depressed to open the valve, and after the syphon bottle has been emptied
and refilled the quality of the contents can only be guaranteed by the manufac-
turer's seal temporarily securing the two ends of the tape T. Where, as is usual,
the manufacturer's name appears upon the syphon bottle the same name should
of course appear upon the seal as a guarantee of genuineness, and thus our inven-
tion must provide in some measure against the class of fraud above referred to.
Having now particularly described and ascertained the nature of our said
invention and in what manner the same is to be performed, we declare that what
we claim is :-
1. For preventing the fraudulent refilling of empty syphon bottles, the pro-
vision of means such as are above referred to, whereby the operating 'hand lever
of the syphon is secured and sealed with the manufacturer's own seal, so that the
valve cannot be opened until and unless the said seal has been removed.
2. The use in combination with the metallic heads of syphion bottles of the
several attachments herein described in reference to and shown respectively in
Figs. 2 and 3, Fig. 4, and Figs. 5 and 6 of the annexed drawings for the purpose
set forth.