IMPROVEMENTS IN AND APPLICABLE TO STOPPERING BOTTLES OR OTHER RECEPTACLES CONTAINING LIQUIDS, WHETHER GASEOUS, AËRATED, OR OTHERWISE
Year: 1875

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by Howard Busby Fox at the
Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the
22nd September 1875.
I, HOWARD BUSBY Fox, of Oxton, in the County of Chester, do
hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN
AND APPLICABLE TO STOPPERING BOTTLES OR OTHER RECEPTACLES CONTAINING
LIQUIDS, WHETHER GASEOUS, AËRATED, OR OTHERWISE," to be as follows:―
My Invention relates to a novel form of internal stopper for bottles
and other receptacles, also to a novel method of constructing the necks
of bottles or other receptacles to suit such stoppers, and to a novel
method of attaching such stoppers to the bottles or other receptacles,
whereby the stopper is rendered applicable to be used for retaining in
bottles or receptacles aërated or non-aërated liquids.
My Invention consists in constructing a stopper of wood, cork,
earthenware, metal, stone, or any other suitable material, and of any
suitable shape, namely spherical, semi-spherical, conical, cylindrical,
washer-shaped, or otherwise capable of being forced through the neck of
the bottle or other receptacle and into the interior thereof. ·

page_text: When the stoppers are composed of elastic material, such as cork or
india-rubber, I trust to the expansive reaction of such stopper to ensure
it retaining its place and being of sufficient size to suit the neck of the
bottle or other receptacle.
When the stopper is composed of wood, earthenware, stone, metal, or
other hard substance I form a ridge or groove thereon, over which I
place an elastic washer or ring of india-rubber, cork, leather, or other
suitable material, which ring or washer may be placed on the stopper
before insertion-into the bottle or after insertion. The top of the
stopper is made fast to, attached to, or jointed to a curved wire or arm,
the other end of which is hinged to the bottle neck on the outside
thereof, either to a provision on such bottle neck or to a wire passing
round tho neck of such bottle or other receptacle. The neck of the
bottle or other receptacle is made comparatively speaking very short,
and developes immediately into a square or nearly square shoulder or a
sharp curved shoulder for the purpose of allowing the curved wire or
arm, upon pressure being applied, to throw back or on one side the
stopper to which it is attached or jointed. The shortness of the neck of
the bottle or other receptacle has also another utility, namely, that the
washer or packing of the stuffing box of the filling machine can abutt
against the shoulder of the bottle to cause a joint during the process of
filling.
When the bottle or other receptacle is filled with aërated or gaseous
liquids, it will be evident that the internal pressure will be sufficient to
retain and force the stopper into position for stoppering the bottle or
other receptacle, but when the bottle or other receptacle is filled with
still, non-aërated, or only partly aërated liquids, I use a plug or other
provision which I insert across the bottle mouth and through or under
the curved wire or arm supporting the stopper, such plug or provision
being made tapered or wedge-shaped and driven tightly in, serves to
keep the bottle stopper against the neck of the bottle, and ensures a
perfect joint or stoppering of the bottle.
A bottle or other receptacle stoppered according to this Invention has,
amongst others, the following advantages:-
Firstly. The stopper is capable of reuse.

page_text: Thirdly. That in pouring out the stopper is thrown into and held in
the upper shoulder of the bottle and does not come into contact with
the liquid in the bottle or re-stopper the. bottle during the process of
emptying.
Fourthly. The bottle is capable of being re-stoppered if the entire
contents of the bottle or receptacle are not required for immediate
use.