New Bottle Cleansing Apparatus.
Year: 1892

page_text: Date of Application, 28th Nov., 1892
Complete Specification Left, 24th Aug., 1893-Accepted, 14th Oct., 1893
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION.
New Bottle Cleansing Apparatus.
I, FRIEDRICH SCHULTE, Calculator of Kalk, Neuerburgstrasse No. 11, in the
County of Rhineland, Germany, do hereby declare the nature of this invention to
be as follows:-
Up to the present date all sorts of machines and apparatus have been invented
which are more or less useful. This depends on their construction being simple or
complicated, and whether they can be employed for one kind and size of bottles
only, or for several.
All machines hitherto existing, however, suffer from the drawback of the shot
used in the cleansing having to be introduced by hand separately into each bottle
and afterwards poured out.
The peculiar feature in my invention consists in the fact that the machine is
made in different size for from 3-12 bottles; thats its mechanism is very simple
and that by lowering a lever all the bottles are simultaneously filled with shot and
when the lever is raised again the shot falls back into its receptacle, the water
flows out and by opening a cock all the bottles at the same time receive a second
flushing out by means of water that is injected into them.
My apparatus consists of an oblong box, resting on supports and about half filled
with water. At one end of this box half way from the bottom there is a traverse
which can turn with its extremities in its rests and has in its centre an axle, which
rotates in an eye.
The other end of this axle lies from above in a slit of the side
of the box away from the traverse, and has a crank outside the box, by which the
axle can be made to rotate.
At a short distance from that end of the axle, which rests moveable in the
traverse, there is attached a round metal disk carrying at its circumference as
many little tin baskets as the machine is to clean bottles at one and the same
time.
By seizing the crank and thereby raising one end of the axle, the traverse
rotates in its rests & its axle can be brought into a vertical position.
In this position the little baskets are under the round metal disk, facing the
traverse; they have a perferated bottom like a sieve, and terminate in a narrow
neck pointing to the metal disk, and having above the disk a conical mouth.
The little tin baskets contain shot. Near the other end of the axle, bearing the
crank is a tin disk, which has moveable pegs wound round with spiral springs
pressing on soft india-rubber caps.
These pegs are in the circumference of the metal disk and face the mouths of the
tin baskets.
The necks of the bottles that are to be washed are now placed in the conical
mouths of the tin baskets, while the bottoms of the bottles are held by the pegs
and springs with the india-rubber caps.
When all the bottles are thus firmly fastened, the axle which hitherto has stood
vertically is again laid horizontally into the slit in the side of the box, and the
crank is turned round, causing the bottles to pass through the water in the box.
Meanwhile shot and water, which enters through the sieve-like bottoms of the
little baskets, enter into the bottles and they are thoroughly cleansed.
When they
are clean, the axle is again raised to a vertical position. The shot falls back into
the baskets, and the water runs off through the perferated bottoms of the baskets.
Through each of the conical mouths of the shot-baskets, in which the necks of

page_text: the bottles are resting, a small narrow tube passes, projecting slightly into the
bottles. These tubes are all fixed to a water-pipe running round the disk.
If the water-cock is opened, the water is squirted into each bottle and runs off
through the perferated bottons of the baskets. Thus all the bottles receive a
second cleansing. They are then removed and replaced by fresh bottles.
By means of the soft elastic india-rubber caps which hold the bottom end of the
bottles fast with the springs pressing against them, every shape of bottle is made to
fill the apparatus, and the putting in and taking out of the bottles is such a simple
matter, that one can manage two bottles each time simultaneously one in the right,
and the outher in the left hand.
Dated this Fourteenth day of March 1893.
COMPLETE SPECIFICATION.
New Bottle Cleansing Apparatus.
I, FRIEDRICH SCHULTE, Engineer of Kalk near Cologne, No. 11 Neuerburger-
strasse, Province of Rhineland, Prussia, 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 :-
In a box A resting on supports F there is water about half-way up, which is
used for the washing of the bottles, and is carried off, according to need by the
waste cock C.
In this box A there is the actual cleansing apparatus, consisting chiefly in a
traverse G, an axis B with a crank D and the smaller parts connected with this
axis, g, h, i, k and m.
The traverse G is attached at both ends in the stands f, which are fixed to the
longitudinal sides of the box, in such a manner that it can turn. The axis B lies
in a vertical slit, cut into the diagonal side of the box, with the end bearing the
crank D, while the other end of the axis is fastened to the centre of the traverse G,
so as to be able to revolve. A short distance before this attachment the axis has a
star g, consisting of a nave and several arms (in annexed diagram three), likewise
at the back end a similar star h. Both are pressed by means of a set-screw fixed
to the nave in such a manner against the axis that when the axis revolves, they
must also do so.
The arms of the first star 9 are forked at the outer end, and in the opening of
the fork they have little tin baskets i widening conically from the centre towards
both sides and which serve with the one end to receive the bottle heads and for the
introduction of shot and water into the bottles, and with the other end as shot
receivers. The latter end is closed with a sieve-like perforated bottom, which
allows the water to pass through on its flowing out of the bottles but retains the
shot, and has besides fastened to the front of the bottom a semi-cirular valve-like
fixture, which, on passing through the water present in the box A, serves as ladle,
takes up water and allows it to flow backwards through the sieve bottom into the
bottles. The fork-ends of the star g are fastened one upon the other, and are
closed by a flat iron ring 1, placed round them, which holds the little baskets in the
forks and when the apparatus is in the raised position, marked with dots in the
diagram (see also lower down on the manipulation of the apparatus) lays itself
between the guiding-pegs fastened to the sides of the box, so that the ring with the
star, the baskets and also the bottles can be turned round the axis, so as to make it
possible for the man who is working the machine, in larger apparatuses for a large
number of bottles, to take away, without leaving his place, all the bottles, even
those behind the axis and to put in others in their stead.
The arins of the second star each terminate in an eyelet, where the contrivance k

page_text: is fastened, which seizes the bottom of the bottle from behind, and holds it fast.
This contrivance k is drawn on a somewhat magnified scale in Fig. 4, and consists
as may be seen of an outer case, in which is placed a spindle movable towards the
back. A spiral-shaped spring, wound round the spindle inside the case and pressing
at the back against the top of the case and in the front against a band attached to
the spindle, is continually endeavouring to press the spindle forwards out of the
case and thus firmly against the bottom of the bottles. The front bead of the
spindle, which is pressed into the bottoms of the bottles, has a suction-cap of soft
black gutta-percha, which closely attaches itself to every bottle form by suction.
A tube which is attached to the star g and which by means of a number of little
branch-tubes m enters the bottles through each basket, permits of the attachment
at its tube-end n of a gutta-percha hose, by which all the bottles receive an after-
cleaning and washing in a most convenient manner.
m,
The manipulation of the apparatus is as follows.
The box A having been previously filled with water as far as necessary, the one
end of the axis B is lifted out of the slit by means of the crank, the apparatus is
placed upright, as shown in the dotted lines in Fig. 1, and the baskets are filled
with shot. Then as many bottles as the apparatus can hold are placed with their
necks in the ends of the baskets which have an upward direction, and with their
bottoms under the gutta-percha caps of the contrivance k, the apparatus is then
brought into a horizontal position, and is made to revolve by turning the crank.
In consequence of the somewhat inclined position of the whole apparatus the shot
runs out of the baskets into the bottles; simultaneously the water ladled up by the
ladle of the baskets flows into the bottles, which in the inside are washed by shot
and water, as well as by water alone on the outside. When the bottles are clean,
the apparatus is again placed in the vertical position, as in the dotted lines; the
water now runs out through the sieve-bottom, and the shot is collected together in
the baskets, which transfer it at the next operation by an equally easy procedure
to the next set of bottles, about to be washed. Before the cleansed bottles are
taken away and replaced by others an after cleansing is performed by fixing to the
mouth of the tube n a gutta-percha hose which is connected with the water supply,
and by turning on the water-cock, thus allowing the water to flow into each bottle
through the little branch tubes m m aud to give it thorough cleansing. After the
hose has been removed, the cleansed bottles are taken away and replaced by others,
the process commencing afresh, as has been explained above.
The chief advantages of the apparatus are the following:
Extremly simple solid construction; automatic filling and collecting of the shot,
replacing of all bottles without change of position of the workman; easy and quick
exchange of the bottles, rendered possible by the gutta-percha caps, which in con-
nection with the spiral springs from such an elastic contrivance for holding, that
always two bottles can be taken simultaneously, the one in the right hand and the
other in the left, and put in again; extremly easy working of the whole,
necessitating only a small expenditure of force, so that the apparatus, according to
its size may be even worked by children; a thorough simultaneous cleansing of
several bottles inside and outside, and a convenient after cleansing of the inside
with water.
Having now particularly described and ascertained the nature of my said
invention, and in what manuer the same is to be performed, I declare that what
I claim is,
A new bottle-cleansing apparatus for one or more bottles of every kind and size
distinguished by the axis, lying so as to be able to revolve, with one end in a
traverse, the ends of which hang in rests at the sides of the box, with the other end
in a slit in the top-side of the box; and by the stars fastened to this axis, of which the
one end is provided with a ladle, and a contrivance, conical on both sides, having at
one end little shot baskets, for receiving the neck of the bottles pressed in by a spring

page_text: and movable in a longitudinal direction, and provided with elastic gutta-percha
suction-caps.
Dated this Twenty-first day of Awoust 1893
For FRIEDRICH SCHULTE,
Bernhard Brockhues,
Applicant's Agent.