CERTAIN IMPROVEMENTS IN STANDS OR FRAMES FOR RECEIVING BOTTLES CONTAINING WINES AND SPIRITS, ALSO APPLICABLE TO OTHER ANALOGOUS PURPOSES
Year: 1881

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by John Middleton at the Office of the
Commissioners of Patents on the 6th August 1881.
'
JOHN MIDDLETON, of Birmingham, in the County of Warwick, Manufacturer.
"CERTAIN IMPROVEMENTS IN STANDS OR FRAMES FOR RECEIVING BOTTLES
CONTAINING WINES AND SPIRITS, ALSO APPLICABLE TO OTHER ANALOGOUS
PURPOSES."
This Invention relates particularly to improvements in stands or frames for
decanters, bottles, and jars. I will describe my Invention as specially applicable to
stands for decanters and bottles containing spirits or liqueurs, or scents, my object
being to lock or secure the same and prevent the abstraction in a surreptitious
manner and by any unauthorized person of the contents.
1. I construct the frame proper somewhat as hitherto, the decanters or bottles
fitting into apertures in the plate; I arrange a tubular pillar perpendicular at cach
end or side of the frame, and in the centre between the decanters a similar pillar;
these receive interiorly a smaller tube or rod passing upwards and forming an
arched figure over the decanters; the inner part of these arches is provided with a
suitable cap, which finds a bearing upon the stoppers, thus securing them. These
arches are connected together by the handle being permanently affixed thereto (the
said handle being of the ordinary kind); the rods which pass down the central
pillar into the frame has a bar horizontally arranged, but secreted in the frame.
At the front is a lock, the bolt of which when shot or locked passes over the said
bar, and the stoppers are secured to the decanters; by unlocking and applying an
upward movement by means of the handle above described, the arched forms will
rise taking the caps from the stoppers; the decanters can then be removed for
pouring out the contents. The principle of this may be described as telescopic.
2. I may in some cases dispense with the tubular side pillars and arched figures but
retain the central pillar; if so, I construct the handle with a tube at its lowest part,
this fitting into the central pillar also carrying the bar as above described, regulated
in its upward and return movements by a slot through which it passes; this is also
secured or locked by the bolt as before described to the said handle; I permanently
arrange, if for a two bottle frame, a cap over each decanter, if more than two, a
cap correspondingly; by unlocking and taking the handle with an upward
[Price 2d.1

page_text: movement the caps will be released from the stopper, and the decanter or decanters
may be removed.
3. According to another modification, the handle of which I should construct with
a tube moving vertically in a central tube or pillar, as before described, the caps
being joined or pinned to the interior tube, the ends passing inwardly, so that when
pressing down preparatory for locking, as before set forth, the said ends come in
contact with a stop, and thus force the caps upon the stoppers, and the decanters
are secured to the frame; upon the return movement the edge of the exterior tube
forces or lifts the caps from their position. In some cases I may prefer to employ a
helical spring fixed in the central pillar at its lower part upon. the base of the
frame, the inner tube bearing thereon sufficiently, so that when the bar is released
by withdrawing the bolt, the pressure will carry the handle and its caps from the
stoppers of the decanters.