Bottles and Jars.
Year: 1887

page_text: Date of Application, 11th May, 1887.
Specification Accepted, 14th June, 1887.
Bottles and Jars.
I, CYPRIEN LAURENT, of No. 1, Mornington Road, Regent's Park, in the County of
Middlesex, Manufacturing Chemist, 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 :-
My invention relates to improvements in the art of closing bottles and jars air-tight,
and is especially applicable to the method of metallic capsuling described in the
specification filed in pursuance of Letters Patent No. 2481 of A.D. 1878.
Bottles and jars to be capsuled by the machine described in the said specification
are made with broad top edges which are afterwards ground flat. When these have
been used to contain such substances as meat essences, it has always been necessary
to interpose between the capsule (generally made of tin plate) and the top of the
bottle or jar, some elastic packing which would, when the capsule was pressed heavily
upon the top of the bottle or jar and closed under the rim formed upon the side
thereof for the purpose of making an air-tight joint, be compressed between the capsule
and the bottle or jar, as the case might be.
But the effectuation of the above described air-tight joint is not all that the nature
of the case demands.
Meat essences are not improved in bottle by coming into contact with a tin
capsule, and many alimentary preparations would be spoiled if they were allowed
access to a metal capsule upon which their natural acids could act or from which they
could and most likely would receive an unpleasant flavour.
It has therefore been found necessary to combine with the packing sufficient by
itself to make the air-tight joint, a layer of material impervious to the contents of the
bottle and, at the same time, incapable of flavouring them.
One combination in general use has been a disc of cork (known as a wad), a disc of
sheet indiarubber, and a disc of tinfoil.
It has always been difficult to procure cork wads free from small natural cavities,
even when the wads have been cut from cork of the best quality procurable, generally

page_text: known as satin cork, and of a correspondingly high price. The consequence has
been that the essence in the bottle has percolatod through the cork to the india-rubber
and acquired a colour and flavour from the latter which have sufficed to spoil said
essence.
The object of my invention is to provide a cheap and efficient air-tight packing
which will prevent the contents of the bottle or jar from coming into contact with the
tin capsule, and which will not either colour or flavour said contents.
I attain the objects of my invention by means of the devices illustrated in the
following figures which illustrate the application of my invention to a glass bottle, and
in which
Fig. 1 is an elevation of a bottle closed and packed according to my invention.
Part of the capsule has been broken away.
Fig. 2 is an elevation partly in section.
J
Figs. 3, 4 and 5 illustrate my improved method of making the tops of bottles and
jars.
Fig. 6 is a plan of a cork wad illustrating the inferior quality of cork I use, and
Fig. 7 is a plan of a disc of skin.
A is a glass bottle; a, its top; B, the tin capsule'; C, the cork wad; D, the skin
discs; and a', the grooves in the bottle tops.
According to my invention, instead of using wads cut from satin cork, I use wads C
cut from cork of middling or third quality-i.e., spungey cork-and therefore of a
correspodingly low price.
To make these wads impervious, I use the inside skin of the bung gut of bullocks,
commonly known as gold beater's skin.
I prepare this skin in the ordinary or any convenient way, and after it has been
stretched and dried, it is cut up into discs D of the proper size which is that of the
inside of the capsule. The cork wads C are cut to the same size.
Two or more skin discs D are laid concentrically upon the top a of the bottle A.
These may be moistened to make them adhere to each other and to the bottle top to
prevent them slipping out of position while the capsule B is being placed upon the
bottle and closed. A wad C is then laid upon them, or is preferably pushed into the
capsule up to the top thereof, the capsule is laid upon the skin and closed upon
the bottle top in the capsuling machine which forms the subject of the above mentioned
Letters Patent.
I use wads a little thicker than it has been the practice to use them in combination
with discs of india-rubber and tinfoil, and if the operation of closing the capsule round
the bottle top has been properly performed, a perfectly air-tight connection will be
made between the capsule and the bottle.
The pressure to which the skin discs are subjected during the process of capsuling
in the machine will force them close to the bottle-top and into the minute cavities of
the ground surface, so that no air can pass between them and said top, and if any air
should by accident get between the cork wad and the tin capsule it will be prevented
by the skin discs from gaining access to the contents of the bottle.
Skin discs prepared as above described are insoluble in meat essences or extracts, or
in the juices of preserved fruits, and are also quite tasteless, and it is these two
properties which adapt them for the purpose of my invention.
According to my present invention I improve the before described flat top of the
bottle or jar for the purpose of said invention by forming an annular groove a therein.
I do not confine myself to any particular section of groove. It may be V-shaped,
semi-circular, wide and shallow, or of any other section.
Whilst the bottle or jar is undergoing the process of capsuling according to the
method described in the specification above mentioned, the packing is pressed into the
groove. The two edges of this groove with the inner edge of the bottle top make
three edges, past and up to which the packing is accordingly pressed, and an air-tight
closure correspondingly more perfect in the direction of permanence than when the
packing is used on a flat top, accordingly effected.

page_text: 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 combination of capsule, bottle or jar, cork wad, and skin discs, substantially
as and for the purpose hereinbefore described and set forth.
2. Rendering a wad of middling or common and therefore spongey cork, used as a
packing for the top of a capsuled bottle or jar, impervious to air, by interposing gold-
beater's skin between it and the bottle or jar top, substantially in the manner
hereinbefore described.
3. The annular groove in the top of a bottle or jar substantially as and for the
purpose described with reference to the accompanying figures.
PHILLIPS & LEIGH,
Patent Agents,
22, Southampton Buildings, Chancery Lane, W.C.,
Agents for the Applicant.