AN IMPROVEMENT IN BOTTLES, FLASKS, AND OTHER LIKE RECEPTACLES FOR LIQUIDS
Year: 1856

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Alfred Watson and Alfred Hamlyn Williams, of
Cornhill, in the City of London, Stationers, for the Invention of "AN
IMPROVEMENT IN BOTTLES, FLASKS, AND OTHER LIKE RECEPTACLES FOR
LIQUIDS."
Sealed the 4th November 1856, and dated the 31st May 1856.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Alfred Watson and Alfred
Hamlyn Williams at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with
their Petition, on the 31st May 1856.
We, ALFRED WATSON and ALFRED HAMLYN WILLIAMS, of Cornhill, in the
City of London, Stationers, do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention
for "AN IMPROVEMENT IN BOTTLES, FLASKS, AND OTHER LIKE RECEPTACLES FOR
LIQUIDS," to be as follows:-
Our Invention consists in forming an orifice or air vent in the neck of
bottles, flasks, and other receptacles for liquids, to allow of the entrance of air,
and consequently the ready outflow of the contents from the bottle, &c.
The main object of the Invention is to enable parties to drink easily out of
flasks, which they cannot very well do with flasks as at present formed, owing
to their placing the mouth to the only orifice in the flask, and to there being
no means provided for the inflow of air.

page_text: SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said Alfred Watson and Alfred Hamlyn Williams in the Great
Seal Patent Office on the 29th November 1856.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, wc, ALFRED
WATSON and ALFRED HAMLYN WILLIAMS, of Cornhill, in the City of London,
Stationers, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Iler Letters
Patent, bearing date the Thirty-first day of May, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and fifty-six, in the nineteenth year of ler
reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto us,
the said Alfred Watson and Alfred Hamlyn Williams, Her special licence
that we, the said Alfred Watson and Alfred Hamlyn Williams, our executors,
administrators, and assigns, or such others as we, the said Alfred Watson and
Alfred Hamlyn Williams, our executors, administrators, 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 "AN IM-
PROVEMENT IN BOTTLES, FLASKS, AND OTHER LIKE RECEPTACLES FOR LIQUIDS,"
upon the condition (amongst others) that we, the said Alfred Watson and
Alfred Hamlyn Williams, or one of us, our executors or administrators, by an
instrument in writing under our, or their, or one of our or their hands and
seals, should particularly describe and ascertain the nature of the said Inven-
tion, and in what manner the same was to be performed, and cause the same
to be filed in the Great Seal Patent Office within six calendar months next
and immediately after the date of the said Letters Patent.
NOW KNOW YE, that we, the said Alfred Watson and Alfred IIamlyn
Williams, do hereby declare the nature of our said Invention, and in what
manner the same is to be performed, to be particularly described and ascer-
tained in and by the following statement thereof, reference being had to the
Drawings hereunto annexed, that is to say :-
Our Invention consists in forming an orifice or air vent in the neck of
bottles, flasks, and other receptacles for liquids, to allow of the entrance
of air, and consequently the ready outflow of the contents from the bottle
or other receptacle.
The main object of the Invention is to enable parties to drink casily out of
flasks, which they cannot well do with flasks as at present formed, owing to

page_text: their placing the mouth to the only orifice in the flask, and to there being no
means provided for the inflow of air.
Figure 1 of the annexed Drawings is a side elevation, and Figure 2 a sec-
tional view of a travelling flask, with our improvement applied thereto. The
flask is shewn with the top removed, in order to expose the neck. A is the
body of the bottle; B, the neck, which is screw-threaded to receive the top;
a is an orifice or air hole in the neck, through which air enters to assist the
ready outflow of the contents of the flask. Instead of only one orifice or air
hole, as shewn in the Figure, two or more such orifices may be made in the
neck of the bottle if preferred.
And having now described the nature of our said Invention, and in what
manner the same is to be performed, we declare that we claim the making of
flasks and bottles for drinking from with one or more air holes or orifices in
the neck thereof.
In witness whereof, we, the said Alfred Watson and Alfred Hamlyn
Williams, have hereunto set our hands and seals, this Twentieth day of
November, One thousand eight hundred and fifty-six.
ALFRED HAMLYN WILLIAMS. (L.S.)