Improvements in Closing Jars, Bottles and other Vessels for Preserving Fruit, Vegetables and other Substances.
Year: 1898

page_text: .
Improvements in Closing Jars, Bottles and other Vessels for
Preserving Fruit, Vegetables and other Substances.
I, JAMES ROBERTSON, of 211, Barking Road, Canning Town, in the County of
London, Engineer, do hereby declare the nature of this invention to be as
follows:-
My invention relates to the closing of bottles, jars and other vessels of the
kind provided with caps or covers designed to be held upon the bottles or the like
by atmospheric pressure and wherein joint rings are arranged between the covers
and the bottles.
In closing such bottles it is usual to apply such an amount of pressure to the
stoppers that during the usual heating or cooking operation for expelling the air,
the said air, as it expands within the bottles, can escape.
In practice it is found that a considerable number of bottles treated in this
way are imperfectly closed so that air re-enters the bottles whereby the contents
are damaged or destroyed.
From experiments which I have made I believe that this imperfect closing is
due to the fact that the action of the atmospheric pressure upon the cover during
the cooling of the vessel and its contents is so gradual that the joint ring is not
sufficiently compressed to wholly exclude the air. I propose to remedy this defect
as follows:-That is to say, immediately the requisite temperature is attained and
before any cooling of the vessel or the contents can take place I apply sufficient
pressure to the cover to compress the joint ring to such an extent that during the
subsequent cooling the entrance of air will be impossible.
My invention can be very advantageously carried into practice by means of the
apparatus described in the Specification of former Letters Patent No. 1341 of 1897
wherein a wedge and a bridge piece are employed the said wedge after the heating
is completed, as herein before described, being tightly driven beneath the bridge
piece so as to force down the cover and compress the joint ring.
Dated 1 001 of 1000
G. F. REDFERN & Co.,
4, South Street, Finsbury, London,
Agents for the Applicant.
Improvements in Closing Jars, Bottles and other Vessels for
Preserving Fruit, Vegetables and other Substances.
I, JAMES ROBERTSON, of 211, Barking Road, Canning Town, in the County of
London, Engineer, do hereby declare the nature of this invention and in what
Price 871

page_text: manner the same is to be performed to be particularly described and ascertained in
and by the following statement:
My invention relates to the closing of bottles, jars and other vessels of the
kind provided with caps or covers designed to be held upon the bottles or the like
by atmospheric pressure and wherein joint-rings are arranged between the covers
and the bottles.
In closing such bottles it is usual to apply such an amount of pressure to the
stoppers that during the usual heating or cooking operation for expelling the air,
the said air, as it expands within the bottles, can escape.
In practice it is found that a considerable number of bottles treated in this
way are imperfectly closed so that air re-enters the bottles whereby the contents
are damaged or destroyed.
From 'experiments which I have made I. believe that this imperfect closing is
due to the fact that the action of the atmospheric pressure upon the cover during
the cooling of the vessel and its contents is so gradual that the joint-ring is not
sufficiently compressed to wholly exclude the air. I propose to remedy this defect
as follows, that is to say, immediately the requisite temperature is attained and
before any cooling of the vessel or the contents can take place I apply sufficient
pressure to the cover to compress the joint-ring to such an extent that during the
subsequent cooling the entrance of air will be impossible.
My invention can be very advantageously carried into practice by means of the
apparatus described in the Specification of former Letters Patent No. 1341 of 1897
wherein a wedge and a bridge-piece are employed, the said wedge after the heating
is completed, as herein before described, being tightly driven beneath the bridge-
piece so as to force down the cover and compress the joint-ring.
To enable the invention to be fully understood I will describe it by reference to
the accompanying drawing, in which :-
Figure 1 is a side view of apparatus for closing jars and the like according to the
invention:
Figure 2 is a front view thereof;
Figure 3 is a plan of the device which I employ for tightening up the wedge;
and
Figure 4 is a view shewing the position of the parts when the wedge is being
tightened up.
a is the bottle or jar, the said bottle or jar having the cover b, joint ring e,
bridge-piece d and wedge e as described in the Specification of former Patent
No. 1341 of 1897.
As above mentioned the cover bis pressed down upon the neck of the jar and
the wedge e is tightened up under the bridge-piece before the contents of the
jar a commence to cool after they have been heated in the usual manner in the
cooking tanks and to this end I advantageously employ the press, illustrated,
comprising the head f which is formed with slots f¹, f¹ to pass over the bridge
piece d and with slots f² to enable the said head to fit over the wedge. The
head is provided with a sliding shank or bar g which is mounted in guides h, h
formed upon a frame h¹. A lever is pivoted to the frame at and is connected,
by means of a slot working over a pin ³, to the bar g so that by raising and
lowering the said lever i by means of the handle the head f can be raised from
or lowered upon the stopper of the jar a. The lever is preferably provided with a
counterweight for normally retaining the head f in its uppermost position.
The head is also furnished with two lateral slots f³, f3 in which slides a frame j
carrying at its outer end a handle j¹ and a projection or hammer, the said
hammer being of such a shape that when the frame is pushed up towards the
head f, that is to say, is pushed in the direction of the arrow, Figure 3, the
hammer is driven against the broad end of the wedge e.
The apparatus is employed as follows,-The jar or bottle with the cover in
position having been heated in the usual manner, in the cooking tank, is placed
underneath the head f which is then brought down by means of the lever i so

page_text: that the slots f and f2 fit over the bridge piece and wedge respectively, (Figure 4)
and the cover bis pressed upon the neck of the jar so as to compress the joint ring.
The handle is then grasped and the hammer pushed against the wedge with
sufficient force to drive it tightly under the bridge-piece d so as to force the cover b
tightly upon the jar. By these means the cover is applied upon the neck of the
jar with sufficient pressure to compress the joint ring to such an extent that no air
can gain entrance to the bottle during the subsequent cooling.
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 described improvements in closing preserve jars, bottles and other vessels
of the kind described, the said improvements consisting in applying sufficient
pressure to the cover, immediately the contents of the vessel have been heated to
the requisite temperature, to compress the joint ring and prevent the entrance of air
during the subsequent cooling, substantially as hereinbefore described.
2. The employment for closing jars, bottles and other vessels by the process
described in Claim 1 of the apparatus herein before described and illustrated in
the accompanying drawing.
Dated the 23rd day of January 1899.
G. F. REDFERN & Co.,
4, South Street, Finsbury, London,
Agents for the Applicant.