Improvements in Screw Stoppers for Stopping Bottles, Jars, and other Vessels
Year: 1888

page_text: Date of Application, 27th Nov., 1888
Complete Specification Left, 23rd Aug., 1889-Accepted, 5th Oct.. 1889
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION.
Improvements in Screw Stoppers for Stopping Bottles, Jars, and
other Vessels.
I THOMAS ETHERidge Harper of Pilgrim House, South Weald, in the County of
Essex, Gentleman, do hereby declare the nature of this invention to be as follows:-
The Screw Stoppers now in common use are made with a thread on the Stopper.
which screws into a corresponding thread in the interior of the mouth of the Bottle
the joint being formed by means of a washer of rubber or other elastic substance fitted
to the Stopper above the thread.
I propose by my Improvements to dispense altogether with the thread on the
Stopper and to use a Stopper of wood or other suitable substance with a perfectly
plain impervious peg roughly turned over which I stretch a Cork ring so tightly that
it will neither allow the Stopper to turn in the Cork nor to be driven through it by
the pressure of the gas or other contents of the Bottle the diameter of the Cork ring
should be so much larger than that of the Bottle or other vessel to be stopped that,
while it can be inserted into the mouth by pressure it will on being screwed down;
bulge out into the thread there formed and retain its place with the Stopper carried
by it until released by being turned backwards-by these means I save not only the
cost of making the thread on the Stopper but I am enabled to make a better joint
because extending the whole length of the thread and also to dispense altogether with:
the use of rubber which is apt to decompose and become objectionable.
Dated this 27th day of November 1888.
THOMAS E. HARPER.
COMPLETE SPECIFICATION.
Improvements in Screw Stoppers for Stopping Bottles, Jars, and
other Vessels.
I THOMAS ETHERIDGE HARPER of Pilgrim House, South Weald, in the County of
Essex, Gentleman 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 :-
The object of this Invention is to produce at a cost not exceeding that of ordinary
Corks an effective and impervious Stopper for screw mouthed Bottles which can be
driven into the Bottle to close it by means of the ordinary Corking Machine now in
common use and to provide quick and easy means of opening a Bottle which has
been so closed.
Screw Bottles as generally used are for the most part closed by means of Stoppers
made of Vulcanite or other comparatively costly material fitted with washers of
India rubber which when used in large quantities (especially when used for Aerated
Waters) require specially constructed and expensive machinery to insert and fasten
them and after having been so fastened such Stoppers are sometimes found to be
exceedingly difficult to turn and often cause injury to the hands of the persons
engaged in opening Bottles stopped with them-moreover the Stoppers are so expensive
that after they have been used once time and labour has to be spent in preserving
them for subsequent use-the rubber washers are also liable to decompose and to
impregnate the contents of the Bottle.
The improved Stopper the subject of this Invention is intended to obviate all the
above practical disadvantages attendant upon the use of the ordinary Screw
Stopper.

page_text: The Drawings annexed shew the construction of an improved Screw Stopper and
the means of opening.
Fig. 1 represents an impervious plug of beech or other inexpensive wood cut cross-
wise of the grain-with a round stem and a square head.
Fig. 2 represents a ring or washer of Cork tapered externally according to the
size of the Bottle mouth for which it is intended-the diameter of the hole in
the centre of such ring should be about th of an inch less than the diameter of the
round stem of figure 1.
Fig. 3 represents a complete Stopper formed by driving the stem of figure 1 through
the hole in the centre of figure 2.
Fig. 4 represents a key or opener of box or other suitable material with a square
hole in its centre proportioned in size to the square head of fig. 1 to be used for
turning the Stopper.
The plug depicted in figure 1 may be made of various other materials such as
glass or earthenware and if a hard wood such as lignum vitæ be used the same may
be turned the other way of the grain-the head may be made of any convenient size
or shape but in practice it will be found advisable to make it square and of such
a size as will enable it to pass readily through the tube of the ordinary Corking
machine.
If the Cork ring be steamed before being stretched over the plug it will be less
likely to split in the process and to prevent the possibility of the plug turning in the
Cork the stem of the plug may before insertion be lightly smeared with liquid glue
or some other convenient cement.
Having now particularly described and ascertained the nature of my said Inven-
tion and in what manner the same is to be performed I declare that what I
claim is
1. The construction and use of a Stopper for closing Bottles substantially as herein-
before described and illustrated at figures 1, 2 and 3.
2. In combination with such a Stopper the means of opening substantially as
hereinbefore described and illustrated at figure 4.
Dated this 23rd day of August 1889.
THOMAS E. HARPER.