IMPROVEMENTS IN STOPPERS FOR BOTTLES TO CONTAIN AERATED LIQUIDS
Year: 1874

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to George Read, of the Town of Leicester, Mineral
Water Manufacturer, for the Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN STOPPERS
FOR BOTTLES TO CONTAIN AERATED LIQUIDS.”
Scaled the 2nd April 1874, and dated the 2nd February 1874.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said George Read at the
Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the
2nd February 1874.
I, GEORGE READ, of the Town of Leicester, Mineral Water Manu-
facturer, do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for
"IMPROVEMENTS IN STOPPERS FOR BOTTLES TO CONTAIN AERATED LIQUIDS," to be
as follows:-
My improvements consists in the employment of a plug made wholly
of metal, or a compound plug composed of wood and metal, or cork and
metal, or other suitable materials; either the metal plug or compound
plug is inserted in a capsule of india-rubber or similar suitable material;
the diameter of the capsule with either plug inserted is of greater
diameter than the orifice of the neck of the bottle or other vessel

page_text: required to be stopped. The capsule is somewhat thicker at the open
end, such thicker part contracts more than the thinner part, and closes
partly over the broadest end of the plug. The plug is first inserted in
the bottle or other vessel and then the capsule, and for covering the
plug with the capsule I employ two wires, one has a ring or loop at one
end and a handle at the opposite end. This wire I insert in the bottle
or other vessel and place the ring or loop over the thin end of the
capsule and shake the point of the plug into the open end of the
capsule, and by means of the other wire press it quite home within the
capsule, and then withdraw both wires, leaving the covered plug within
of greater diameter than the orifice to be closed.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent,
filed by the said George Read in the Great Seal Patent Office on
the 30th July 1874.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, GEORGE
READ, of the Town of Leicester, Mineral Water Manufacturer, send
greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Letters Patent, bearing date the Second day of February, in the
year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and seventy-four, in
the thirty-seventh year of Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and
successors, give and grant unto me, the said George Read, Her special
licence that I, the said George Read, my executors, administrators, and
assigns, or such others as I, the said George Read, my executors, admini-
strators, and assigns, should at any time agree with, and no others,
from time to time and at all times thereafter during the term therein
expressed, should and lawfully might make, use, exercise, and vend,
within the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, the Channel
Islands, and Isle of Man, an Invention for " IMPROVEMENTS IN STOPPERS
FOR BOTTLES TO CONTAIN AERATED LIQUIDS," upon the condition (amongst
others) that I, the said George Read, my executors or administrators,
by an instrument in writing, under my, or their, or one of their hands
and seals, should particularly describe and ascertain the nature of
the said Invention, and in what manner the same was to be performed,
and cause the same to be filed in the Great Seal Patent Office within

page_text: DIA
Letters Patent.
HVAV 444
பு
after the date of the said
NOW KNOW YE, that I, the said George Read, do hereby declare the
nature of my said Invention, and in what manner the same is to be
performed, to be particularly described and ascertained in and by the
following statement, reference being had to the Drawings hereto
annexed:-
My improvements consist in the employment of a plug made wholly
of metal, or a compound plug composed of wood and metal, or cork and
metal, or other suitable materials;; either the metal plug or compound
plug is inserted in a capsule of india-rubber or similar suitable material;
the diameter of the capsule with either plug inserted is of greater
diameter than the orifice of the neck of the bottle or other vessel
required to be stopped. The capsule is somewhat thicker at the open
end, such thicker part contracts more than the thinner part, and closes
partly over the broadest end of the plug. The plug is first inserted in
the bottle or other vessel and then the capsule, and for covering the
plug with the capsule I employ two wires, one has a ring or loop at one
end and a handle at the opposite end. This wire I insert in the bottle
or other vessel and place the ring or loop over the thin end of the
capsule and shake the point of the plug into the open end of the capsule,
and by means of the other wire press it quite home within the capsule,
and then withdraw both wires, leaving the covered plug within of greater
diameter than the orifice to be closed.
Figures 3 and 4 are sectional views of capsule.
And Figure 5 is a sectional view of the plug seen at Figure 1, inserted
in the capsule seen at Figure 3.
My improvements consist in the employment of a plug of either of
the forms seen at Figures 1 and 2, or of plugs of a shape approaching
thereto, the said plugs may be made wholly of metal, or of wood and
metal, or cork and metal, or of glass or porcelain or of other suitable
materials; each such plug I insert in a capsule of india-rubber or similar
suitable material of either of the forms seen at Figures 3 and 4. The

page_text: interior diameter of the capsule before being placed upon the plug,
being of less diameter than the plug, will be temporally enlarged during
the passing of the plug into it, the capsule then contracting will firmly
embrace that portion of the plug which it surrounds, the narrowest end
of the capsule lying close to the shoulder formed on the plug. A plug
being inserted in a bottle and then placed within a capsule the diameter
of the two combined will exceed the internal diameter of the bottle neck,
thus effectually stopping the bottle by the pressure of the aerated liquid
within.
The unstopping of bottles supplied with plugs and capsules con-
structed as above is greatly facilitated, and the force required is
considerably less, as there is no washer to form a cone which requires
to be partially reversed before the stopper can be released, a slight
pressure on the outer end of the improved stopper being sufficient to
instantly displace it.
Having now described the nature of the said Invention, and in what
manner the same is to be performed, I declare that I claim, the improved
stopper constructed as herein-before described and illustrated in the
above Specification and Drawings annexed.
In witness whereof, I, the said George Read, have hereunto set
my hand and seal, this Twenty-ninth day of July, in the year of
our Lord One thousand eight hundred and seventy-four.
Witness,
H. W. GOUGH, C.E.,
Nottingham.
GEORGE READ. (L.S.)