IMPROVEMENTS IN SELF-ACTING BOTTLE- STOPPING MACHINES
Year: 1881

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Charles Max Sombart, of the Firm of Buss, Sombart,
and Company, Engineers and Patent Agents, of Magdeburg, in the Empire
of Germany, for an Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN SELF-ACTING BOTTLE-
STOPPING MACHINES." A communication from Oswald Assmann, of Zwolle,
Holland
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Charles Max Sombart at
the Office of the Commissioners of Patents on the 19th August 1881.
CHARLES MAX SOMBART, of the Firm of Buss, Sombart, and Company, Engineers
and Patent Agents, of Magdeburg, in the Empiro of Germany. IMPROVEMENTS
IN SELFACTING BOTTLE-STOPPING-MACHINES." A communication from Oswald
Assmann, of Zwolle, Holland.
In the present machine the bottles, pitchers, etc., to be corked are held fast by
tongs arranged at the circumference of a periodically revolving horizontal disc.
The one branch of each tong is secured to the said disc, while the other branch is
moveable and carries at its inner end a roller extending downward. In order to
enable to take the corked bottles out of the machine and to put in the bottles
to be corked, there is adapted at a convenient place of the machine a curved rail
on which the said roller rolls in order to open the bits of the tongs. The feeding
of the corks is effected automatically. During the time a cork is pressed into the
neck of the bottle by a piston, the bottle itself is not held fast by a tong, but rests
upon a stand maintained in its position by friction. As the piston rises, the disc,
which carries the tongs for holding the bottles receives an intermittent rotation by
means of a ratchet-wheel and a pawl jointed to the pin of a small crank. The
corks are lodged in a flat casing, having a hinged side-plate for the purpose of
filling it easily with corks, and consisting of a certain number of compartments,
each of which is of sufficient size to receive as many corks as tongs are adapted

page_text: upon the revolving disc. The mechanisms for obtaining the automatic movements
of the stand or platform which supports the bottle may consist of a cam mounted
on the crankshaft, a connecting-rod commanding a double armed lever, a shaft
transmitting the motion to another two armed lever, a counterweight for raising
and lowering the platform as well as of a cam, a connecting rod, a double lever,
and a brake-lever, together with a spiral-spring for fixing and loosening the guide-
bar of the platform. The mechanism for preventing the feeding of the corks, when
no bottle is under the piston, may consist of a lever mounted on a vertical spindle
which carries at the opposite end a sector, and an oscillating tongue provided with
a pin.

page_text: Fig. 3, a top view.
Fig. 4, a horizontal cross-section of the machine after the line a, b, of Fig. 1.
Fig. 5 is a cross section after the line e, f, and
Fig. 6, a similar section after the line c, d, of Fig. 1.
The machine is operated in the following manner :-
The crank shaft A, Figs. 1 and 2, is put into rotation by means of a belt and
wheel gearing, and imparts motion to the square guide-bar B through the connecting
rod a.
The guide-bar B is provided with a horizontal arm b for receiving the
piston C, pressing the cork into the mouth of the bottle. The crank of the shaft A
is of such a radius that about one third only of a complete revolution of the said
shaft is required for pressing a cork into a bottle. The bar B slides in the hollowed
part of the standard D, which consists of two pieces d, d¹, screwed together by the
screw bolts c, c. The projecting part 6' of of the bar B, Fig. 1, is provided with.
slot in which works the roller of the frame q³, q³, of the cork receiving device I, so
that the said frame is moved backward when the bar B descends.
In front of the piston C is a vertical shaft B¹ carrying the horizontal disc E,
Fig. 1, which, being raised or lowered by means of a screw spindle, carries at its
circumference 16 tongs e placed at equal distances from each other, and destined
for holding and conveying the bottles. The bits of the tongs e are internally lined
with india-rubber. Of course the number of tongs may vary, and be more or less
than in the present case.
As the one branch of each tong e is fixed on the disc E, and the other hinged
thereto, the bit of the latter is pressed towards that of the former by the action of
a spiral spring e, thus keeping the tongs in their normal position constantly closed.
The inner end of the oscillating branch extending downwards carries beneath the
disc E the friction-roller e², which comes in contact with the curved rail e³, Figs. 2
and 4, connected with the frame of the machine. The interior radius of this rail

page_text: is a little less than the distance from the outside of the roller e to the centre
of the disc E, so that when the said roller passes over the rail e³, the tong is
opened.
The rail e is sufficiently long to allow the rollers of three or four tongs to pass
upon it simultaneously so that the corked bottles may be removed from the
machine, and those to be corked introduced into the same at this place, where a
wood bench is applied for this purpose.
The vertical shaft B¹ carries at its upper end the ratchet wheel B³, which has as
many teeth as there are tongs e, arranged on the revolving disc E. By means of
the pawl f jointed to the crank f¹ of the short vertical shaft F, Figs. 2 and 3,
which receives its motion through the equal bevel wheels f, f, from the crank
shaft A, the shaft B¹, together with the disc E, are turned forward at a rate of
one tooth of the said ratchet wheel. This partial rotation takes place at every
complete revolution of the crank shaft A, and in such a manner that the tongs e
with the respective bottles are successively placed exactly under the piston Ŏ of
the machine. The shaft B¹ with the disc E is retained in its new position by the
counter-pawls, Figs. 1 and 3. The stroke of the crank f¹ is larger than the
distance of the teeth of the ratchet wheel B2, so that only a third revolution of
the crank shaft A is required for turning the shaft B' forward at the rate of one
tooth. To ensure the locking of the pawls f' and ƒ³, they are jointed to each
other by the spiral spring a.
Before a bottle will occupy its exact position under the piston C, the respective
tonge holding the bottle is already opened on account of the roller e³ of the
Oscillating branch of the tong striking against the edged tappet f4, Figs. 1 and 4.
The bottle then falls upon the head-plate g of the guide-bolt G, and is pushed a
little further on to its exact place by the fixed branch of the tong. At the same
moment the plate g is raised by the double lever h, h², moving about the point hº,
and by the action of the counter-weight h³, bringing thus the neck of the bottle
under the conical cavity of the cork receiving device I exactly in vertical line with
the cork in the latter. A cain J placed on the crank-shaft A acts upon the roller i
of the vertical rod connected with the arms h³ and h* of the horizontal axis I¹.
During the down stroke of the said cam J the lever h³ is raised and during its
upstroke lowered, thus allowing the lever h¹ to drop down, or the guide-bolt Ġ to
rise, by the action of the counter-weight h³..
As soon as the plate g occupies its highest position the bolt G is retained in its
bearings g², g³, by friction produced by the eccentrical eye of the lever g', and
flattened party of the said bolt G, Figs. 1 and 5, at the upward stroke of the
former. The motion of the brake lever g' is controlled by the cam K, rod j', and
levers h³ and h³ placed upon the axis J. At the upstroke of the said cam the
brake lever is released from the lever arm, and thrown upwards by the tension
of the energetic spiral spring j³, thereby producing the friction mentioned
heretofore. In Fig. 4 are shown two tongs e, of which the one directly below the
piston C is represented in its open, the other in its closed state.
When the bottle rests upon the plate g, piston C performs its down stroke in
order to force the cork lying in an upright position in the device I into the bottle-
mouth. After this the cams K and J occupy successively such positions that the
bolt G is released from the action of the brake lever g¹, and lowered by the double
lever h, h¹, operated upon by the lever h³, Fig. 1. Directly after these movements
the shaft B¹ is turned forward in proportion to the pitch distance of a tooth of the
ratchet wheel B. At the commencement of this motion the roller e³ of the tong
goes over the tappet f, and the bottle is held again and transported by the
tong until the latter is reopened at the table et, where the corked bottle can be
removed from the machine, and another bottle to be corked introduced into the
same.
The corks are lodged in a flat casing L, which is divided by vertical partitions
into equally wide compartments, each of them being a little wider than the
thickest sort of corks. In order to be able to remove and introduce easily the

page_text: said casing L, it is loosely placed between the projections 7, l, upon the piece M.
which slides in the groove of the cross bar N connected with the brackets a', a³, of
the crank shaft A, Figs, 1, 2, and 3. The slide piece M is on one side provided
with a rack, the teeth of which have a pitch equal to the width of the separate
compartments of the casing L. By means of the cam a³ on the vertical shaft B',
Figs. 1, 3, and 3ª, operating upon the double lever m, m³, and pawl m³, Fig. 3, the
said slide piece M, together with the casing L, are moved forward at the rate of
one tooth of the rack, or of the width of one compartment. This is performed at
every complete revolution of the shaft B¹. From that it results that each com-
partment of the casing L must contain as many corks as there are tongs e arranged
upon the disc E. It is advisable to place a metal piece hollowed out at its under
side upon the last cork of each compartment for the purpose of pressing the corks
down. The two opposite side plates of the casing L do not reach quite down to
the bottom in order to obtain there sufficient clearance to allow an easy expulsion
of one cork at a time.
The cam N' on the crank shaft A acts upon a horizontal rod n, Figs. 1 and 3,
which slides in the bosses n¹, n³, of the bracket a¹, a¹, and rests with its end
against the lever o placed on the axle O carrying also the lever p, which operates
expeller q. At the outstroke of the cam N' the expeller is moved inwards, thereby
pushing the lowest cork lying in the respective compartment of the casing L into
the channel q¹. The cork then falls into the open cork receiving device I, which
consists of an immovable and a movable cheek p³ and p¹, the latter being attached
to the frame q, q, which slides in lateral guides of the standard D. When the
said frame moves towards the interior of the machine, the cork in its vertical
position being pressed against the fixed cheek p³, is then driven into the bottle
mouth by the piston C. At the same moment the expeller q is thrown outward
by the spring q, and the following cork can fall in front of the expeller. The
lever o, mentioned above, consists of two parts, the part o, Fig. 2, being placed
loosely and the other of firmly upon the axle O. These parts or lever arms are
kept together by a spring o², the tension of which is so regulated that both the
parts o, o', are moved at a normal expulsion of a cork.
If however it should happen that a cork did not lie in a horizontal but in a
vertical position in front of the expeller q, and therefore could not be expelled, or
that the expulsion of a cork be rendered impossible by any other cause, the lever
arm o will loosely oscillate upon the axle O, thereby compressing the spiral
spring o. By this arrangement the breakage of any part of the mechanism is
prevented. As soon as a compartment of the casing L has become empty, the
latter is pushed forward by the cam as fixed on the vertical shaft B', and acting
upon the double lever m, m³, and pawl m³, thus bringing another compartment
filled with corks before the expeller q.
When all the compartments are empty the casing L is removed, and a full one
introduced after the slide piece M has been brought back in its original position.
Each casing has one side plate hinged to it so that it can be opened in order to
render the filling of the compartments easier.
At the back of the casing L, just before the opening through which the corks
are expelled into the channel q', a small tongue r, Figs. 1, 3, and 3b, is applied,
having its fulcrum at 8, and remaining by its proper weight in the position in
which the said opening is closed. Opposite the fulcrum the tongue r is provided
with a pin s¹ resting on the inclined border or rim of the sector & fastened on the
spindles. A cork can only then be pushed into the channel g' when the passage
through the back plate of the casing L is established, which is done by raising the
pin 8, or turning the sector 8².
The neck of the bottle, while the latter is performing its way under the piston C,
strikes against the lever arm t, thereby turning the spindle s³, Figs. 1 and 3, and
the sector & fastened upon the latter, Fig. 3b, and raising the free end of the
tongue r by the pin s¹, which rests upon the inclined rim of the said sector. If
now one of the tongs accidentally holding no bottle comes to stand under the

page_text: against the wague 7, 80 Mat·&t the outstroke of
the rod 'n, which is inevitably performed at every revolution of the crank shaft A,
the lever arm o is turned loosely on the axle O, 'thus leaving the expeller intact.
CLAIMS.
1. The method of automatically feeding bottles under the piston C of the bottle
stopping machine by means of the revolving disc E, and the use of tongse attached
thereto, each tong consisting of an immovable and a movable branch, closed and
reopened automatically by the curved rail e³.and the edged tappet f*.
:
2. The selfacting cork feeding mechanism consisting of the cam N¹ fixed on the
crank shaft A, the rod n, the lever o, o', constructed of two independent parts, the
axle O, the lever p, and the expeller q.
3. The arrangement of the casing L possessing a hinged side plate for the
purpose of filling it easily with corks, and consisting of a certain number of
compartments, each of which is of sufficient size to receive as many corks as there
are tongs e adapted upon the revolving disc E.
.
4. The mechanisms for obtaining the automatic movements of the head plate-g
and of its guide-bolt :G, consisting of the cam J, the rod 2, and the double
levers h³, h, and h, h, together with the counter-weight h³ for raising and
lowering the plate-g; as well as of the cam K, the rod, the double lever j³, ³,
and the brake lever g', together with the spiral springs for fixing and loosening
the guide-bolt G of the plate g.
5. The mechanism for preventing the feeding of the corks when no bottle is
under the piston C, consisting of the lever t, the vertical spindle s³, the sector 8³,
and the oscillating tongue provided with the pin s².
In witness whereof, I, the said Charles Max Sombart, have hereunto set my
hand and seal, this Eighth day of February, A.D. 1882.
CHARLES MAX SOMBART
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