IMPROVEMENTS IN SECURING CORKS OR STOPPERS IN BOTTLES OR OTHER VESSELS
Year: 1878

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by Constantine Henderson and Charles
Hay Coghlan at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents on the 2nd January
1878.
CONSTANTINE HENDERSON, of 20, Cockspur Street, London, in the County of
Middlesex, and CHARLES HAY COGHLAN, of 57, Margaret Street, Cavendish Square,
London, in the same County. "IMPROVEMENTS IN SECURING CORKS OR STOPPERS
IN BOTTLES OR OTHER VESSELS."
This Invention relates to a method of corking or stoppering bottles, particularly
applicable to the corking of bottles containing aerated waters, beer, or any
effervescent liquid or gaseous fluid.
The corks of bottles containing beer and effervescent or gaseous fluids are usually
held securely in the neck of the bottle by means of a ligature of wire or of string,
passing over the head of the cork and round the neck of the bottle beneath a
shoulder or collar at the top of the neck, the wire being secured in this position by
the twisting of the two ends together.
The above described operation of wiring or stringing the corks requires con-
siderable dexterity, and becomes very costly to the bottler from the price of skilled
labour and the time occupied by the operation.
The object of this Invention is to provide a more simple, certain, and economical
mode of securing such corks.
This improved method consists in securing the cork in the neck of the bottle by
means of a screw, pin, or bar passing transversely through the neck of the bottle
and the cork within it. For this purpose the bottle will be formed or pierced with
two or more openings or holes in the neck, these holes being exactly opposite
each other, and at such a distance from the mouth of the bottle as experience may
prove to be most suitable.
When the cork is driven into the bottle in the ordinary manner, a piece of wire,
or a pin, peg, or screw of any kind of metal or material is passed through the hole
on one side of the neck, through the cork and out by the opposite hole; thus it will
not be possible for the cork to be driven out of the neck by any pressure from
within the bottle until this lock pin is withdrawn.

page_text: The lock pin may be a piece of wire bent over and twisted to form a loop at one
end and a double point at the other, so that when passed through the cork and
neck these points may be separated and bent back against the sides of the neck.
When it is desired to open the bottle, the two points of the lock pin will be
again drawn together, and the pin withdrawn by passing the point of the corkscrew,
or of any other instrument used for forcing out corks from bottles through the loop;
or it may be simply pulled out by the thumb and finger.
Although we may use a double pointed pin, we do not bind ourselves thereto,
and the point of the lock pin might not even project from the neck when the cork
is fastened, and the neck itself might be pierced with only one hole for the admission
of the lock pin, a groove or recess on the opposite side receiving the point after it
has traversed the cork. The head of the lock pin may also be of any suitable form
and size, as may be found most convenient for its insertion and withdrawal. Or
the lock pin may be made without a head, one or both ends of the pin being bent
over against the side of the neck. This mode of securing corks or stoppers in bottles
is not only applicable to bottles containing effervescent or gaseous fluids, but to
other bottles, jars, or vessels.
We may also apply this mode of fastening to securing capsules over the mouth of
bottles and other vessels.