Improvements in Bottles and Stoppers.
Year: 1897

page_text: Date of Application, 3rd Sept., 1897-Accepted, 9th Oct., 1897
Improvements in Bottles and Stoppers.
I, HOLMES WASS COFFIN, Boat Builder, of Addison, in the County of Washington
and State of Maine, one of the United States of America, 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:-
This invention relates to improvements in bottles and stoppers therefor.
The object of the invention is to provide a bottle which cannot be opened and
refilled without disclosing the fact that it has been tampered with. Dishonest dealers
sometimes refill a bottle or vessel having the trade mark of a reliable firm or house,
with inferior liquors or liquids and sell them to the public as goods originally
contained in said bottle.
The purpose of the invention is to prevent this dishonest use and imposition upon
the purchaser.
The invention consists in a bottle having a long neck grooved around the outside
to provide an initial fracture for breaking off the nose or end of the bottle, also
provided with an internal groove or shoulder near the mouth of the bottle, a hard
stopper as glass or the like also having a groove, and a spring catch or lock for
securing and preventing the removal of the hard stopper after it has once been
seated.
In the drawings forming part of this Specification,
Figure 1 is a section of the neck of the bottle showing the external groove or
crease, the internal groove or shoulder near the mouth of the bottle, a cork stopper
below the external crease, a glass or hard stopper, and a spring locking device.
Figure 2 shows a glass stopper with its groove and a spring fastening device or
lock detached.
1 is the bottle neck, 2 the outside groove or crease, 3 the inside groove or shoulder,
4 the hard stopper having recesses as shown, 5 a spring locking device for holding
the hard stopper in its seat, and 6 a cork below the outside groove.
It will be observed that the contents of the bottle cannot be used without destroy-
ing or breaking off the upper end of the bottle neck. Such being the case, a
purchaser will know when he buys a filled bottle, that it is possible that the contents
may have been tampered with or may have been substituted for the original contents
unless the bottle is unbroken and remains an original package.
The spring locking device consists of a bow spring of thin plate or wire bent into
the form shown at 7 in the drawings, its mode of operation being that when the
stopper and spring are inserted the sharp angle at 7 will be crowded into the recesses
in the stopper and will be held in such groove by the interior walls of the bottle neck
until it has been carried below the shoulder 3 in the bottle, when its resiliency
causes it to fly out against the shoulder. This device makes it impossible for the
hard stopper to be removed without breaking the neck of the bottle.

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:
1. The combination of a bottle having a groove or crease around the outside of
the neck, and a shoulder or notch around the inside of the neck, with a hard stopper
and means for locking the hard stopper in the neck of the bottle, substantially as
described..
2. The combination of a hard stopper provided with recesses, a bottle provided
with a groove or shoulder near its mouth, and a spring locking device having its
extremities formed in a shape substantially as shown and described.
Dated this 2nd day of September 1897.
EDWARDS & Co.,
65 and 66, Chancery Lane, London, Agents for the Applicant.