IMPROVEMENTS IN OR APPERTAINING TO BOTTLE STOPPERS
Year: 1885

page_text: We, FELIX MAC ILVENNA and WILLIAM THOMPSON of one Hilton Street,
Manchester in the County of Lancaster, Shop fittings Manufacturers, do hereby
declare the nature of our said invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN OR APPERTAINING
TO BOTTLE STOPPERS," to be as follows:-
In bottles stoppered with a screw stopper, the latter is the most expensive part
of the apparatus costing more than the bottle. This invention is for an arrange-
ment by which very much cheaper stoppers can be made.
It consists in making the stopper, or at least the screwed portion of it of cork or
other suitable elastic material cut or moulded into the form of a screw so that it
can be screwed out. We prefer to form the stopper with a wooden core and cap in
one piece and an annulus of cork or other suitable elastic material cemented or
otherwise fixed round it. This stopper is then screwed up till the flange comes
against the neck of the bottle, the elastic nature of the material of the internal
Bcrew holding it firm and water-tight with very much less close fit or compression
of the elastic material than where smooth necks and stoppers are used.

page_text: We, FELIX MCILVENNA and WILLIAM THOMPSON of 1 Hilton Street, Manchester,
in the County of Lancaster, Shop Fitting Manufacturers do hereby declare the
nature of this invention and in what manner the same is to be performed, to be
particularly described and ascertained in and by the following statement :-
This invention has for its object a screw stopper that shall not give a taste to the
liquids bottled and shall be cheap and effective. An india rubber and vulcanite
screw stopper has been largely made in Great Britain, and for ease of bottling and
drawing is well liked, but, the rubber gives a taste to the bottles and the cost is
great thirteen shillings a gross, whereas the cost of our improved stopper is less
than half this.
=
Our invention consists first in cutting a coarse thread in cork, second to enable
the cork to stand the torsive strain, we put a céntre and top of wood third to.
enable the whole to have an agreeable appearance, to have a milled edge and to be
able to, stamp the name of the bottler on it we cover it with a metallic cover,
preferably of thin tinned iron stamped with the name and trademark of the bottler.
In the drawing Figure 1 is an elevation of stopper with bottle neck. Figure 2
section of same Figure 3 view of cork without bottle. In these A is the head
with inturned edge. B. tinned iron cover. C central peg of,.wood. D cork;
E thread turned therein. F bottle neck. The centre of core and top can be of
other material such as unglazed or partly glazed pottery if desired..
The cork is cut rather larger in diameter than the bottle neck and is bored with
a round hole for the core. The top and core turned in one piece, or in two pieces
and firmly glued together as desired, is smeared with glue and the cork forced onto
it. Previous to this the cover made of tinned iron is stamped and pressed outo
the top as shown with a tool giving it a corrugated or milled edge. As it is found
that the cover of tin is apt to slide round on the wooden cap if the latter be quite
round, a few depressions are made in the said cap G G, and the tin being pressed
into these, it is prevented from slipping. The screw on the cork is now cut, but
not quite up to the cap. The object in having the wood cap and centre is two-
fold. It is found very difficult to cut a screw in a cork without a wood end and
core to take the strain, and it is also found that without the core the cork is apt to
screw off and break up in corking and especially in uncorking the bottle. If
pottery be used, we prefer a glazed top and unglazed or roughed shank or core, in
which case no tin cap is used. We are aware that it is possible to screw a plain
cork into a screwed bottle, and that the screw of the bottle dinges into the cork
and forms temporary threads on the cork, but it is found that the trough of the
thread in the bottle is never filled and the cork leaks, also that it is very difficult
to cork and uncork this arrangement. If screwed in tight enough not to leak even
with a centering of wood and a wood cap it requires great strain and the cork is
apt to tear off under that strain, whereas if the thread be cut in the cork, it screws
in quickly, easily, holds perfectly water tight, and can be as quickly and easily
uncorked

page_text: In place of cork, cork composition or other like material can be used, but we
prefer cork,
Having now particularly described and ascertained the nature of our said
invention, and in what manner the same is to be performed, we declare that what
we claim is
1st. The process of making screw cork stoppers which consists in boring out the
centre of the stopper, and filling the same with a hard tough (preferably with
enlarged head core) cemented to the cork, then cutting the thread on the cork,
whereby a thread is produced without fear of fracture of the cork through torsive
strain.
2nd. As a new article of manufacture a screw stopper having a surface of cork
only in contact with the bottle and its contents, the surface having a thread made
in it to fit the thread on the bottle, substantially as described.
3rd. The combination of the metallic covering with name plate and milled angular
or indented edge, the head and core of hard tough material, and the screwed cork
covering, substantially as described.
4th. The combination with a screw stopper of the metallic covering and the
wooden or other head formed with indentations or other form than circular into
which the metallic covering is indented, whereby the covering is prevented from
turning round on the head when exposed to the torsive strain used in corking and
uncorking.
5th. A stopper formed of a core and milled head of hard, tough material, and a
covering formed of softer material moulded or cut with a screw thread outwardly
and cemented to the core, covering all that part thereof that is inside the bottle,
substantially as described.