IMPROVED APPARATUS FOR FILLING GLASS BOTTLES AND JARS WITH Soups, JELLIES, FRUITS, AND OTHER EDIBLES FOR THE PURPOSE OF PRESERVING THEM, THE SAID APPARATUS BEING ALSO APPLICABLE FOR FILLING BOTTLES WITH SAUCES, WINES, SPIRITS, BEER, LIQUEURS, AND OTHER STILL AND EFFERVESCING BEVERAGES, ALSO MACHINERY IN COMBINATION WITH THE ABOVE APPARATUS FOR CORKING OB STOPPERING SUCH SAID BOTTLES AND JARS
Year: 1870

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by James Winter at the Office of the
Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the 4th October
1870.
I, JAMES WINTER, the younger, of Wardour Street, Soho, in the
County of Middlesex, do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention
for "IMPROVED APPARATUS FOR FILLING GLASS BOTTLES AND JARS WITH Soups,
JELLIES, FRUITS, AND OTHER EDIBLES FOR THE PURPOSE OF PRESERVING THEM, THE
SAID APPARATUS BEING ALSO APPLICABLE FOR FILLING BOTTLES WITH SAUCES, WINES,
SPIRITS, BEER, LIQUEURS, AND OTHER STILL AND EFFERVESCING BEVERAGES, ALSO
MACHINERY IN COMBINATION WITH THE ABOVE APPARATUS FOR CORKING OB
STOPPERING SUCH SAID BOTTLES AND JARS," to be as follows:-
This Invention relates to certain improvements on a former Invention
for which Letters Patent were applied for on the 17 day of January
1868, numbered 171, but in consequence of certain defects in the said
former Patent which rendered it practically useless and of no commercial
value the said Patent was not proceeded with to completion. Now the
object and intention of this present Invention is to remedy the defects
of the former Invention aforesaid, and to render it practically useful,
which I have succeeded in accomplishing by constructing and operating

page_text: the apparatus in the following manner and by the following means, that
is to say:
The apparatus comprises the following leading parts:-First, a vessel
to contain the bottles or jars that are to be filled and stoppered; secondly,
a vessel to contain the soup or jelly that is to be preserved; thirdly, a
vessel to receive the air as it is discharged from the bottles or jars;
fourthly, a steam chamber for heating the necks of bottles; fifthly, a
valve for the escape of steam from the bottle as it is being filled with
hot soup or jelly; sixthly, a mechanical arrangement for raising and
lowering and turning round the bottle or jar holder and for bringing
each cork in succession under a plunger that forces it into the necks of
the bottles or jars; and lastly, a steam boiler and small steam engine for
working an air pump and supplying steam to the bottle holder and
vessel containing the soup or jelly to be preserved.
open
The above parts are connected to a suitable framing and are con-
structed as follows:-The bottle or jar holder is formed hollow and
steam-tight with hollow recesses therein, say six for example, of the
same diameter and depth as the bodies of the bottles or jars which they
are intended to receive. On the axis of this holder I fix a steam
chamber at the bottom and closed at its top and sides permanently,
its ends being closed by spring doors which open to allow the necks of
the bottles to enter the steam chamber at one end and to pass out at the
other, and the said doors closing immediately after each bottle or jar
has entered and passed out of the said steam chamber. The vessel to
contain the soup or jelly to be preserved is formed of cylindrical shaped
steam-tight vessels placed one over the other, the upper cylinder being
of the same diameter as the lower one, but only about 1th of the depth
thereof. These two cylinders are connected together a few inches
asunder by upright pipes passing from the bottom of the upper cylinder
to the top of the under cylinder, one pipe reaching nearly to the bottom a
of the inside of the under cylinder, and the other pipe reaching nearly
to the top of the inside of the upper cylinder; this cylinder receives its
supply of soup or jelly from a reservoir connected therewith, these
vessels are heated by steam, and are designed to operate upon the well-
known principle of the circulation of hot water, the cold or tepid soup
or jelly enters near the bottom of the under cylinder, and when heated
ascends and is drawn off from the top of this cylinder by a cock and pipe
or valve leading to a hollow air-tight nozzle against the under surface of

page_text: which the neck of the bottle is forcibly pressed and kept air-tight during
the filling of the bottle or jar with soup or jelly. The aforesaid hollow
nozzle is fitted with a plunger for forcing the cork into the neck of the
bottle by means of a lever, through this plunger one end of a small
exhaust pipe passes, the other end being connected to a glass vessel in
which a vacuum is formed continually by means of an air pump or
otherwise, cocks being suitably placed and actuated for establishing and
shutting off the communication between the aforesaid nozzle and glass
vessel at the proper times. The use of the aforesaid small pipe in the
plunger is for drawing off a portion of the contents of the bottle when
filled so full that the cork could not be inserted without breaking the
bottle. It serves also to guage the exact quantity allowed to enter each
bottle.
The action of this exhaust pipe is as follows:-Suppose the bottle to
be filled but not corked, and that it is required to remove some of the
soup or jelly therefrom without removing the bottle for that purpose.
The operator by means of a lever causes the exhaust pipe to descend
and enter the liquid soup or jelly that is in the neck of the bottle, and
simultaneously with the descent of the exhaust pipe a cock will be
opened and establish a communication with the aforesaid glass vessel,
the vacuum in which will aspire the soup or jelly from the neck of the
bottle into the said glass vessel, and when sufficient has been removed
the operator raises the exhaust pipe, thereby shutting off the com-
munication with the glass vessel and the bottle is then ready to receive
the cork. In connection with the before-mentioned hollow nozzle is a
pipe fitted at its outer and open end with a self-acting spring valve for
the exit or escape of steam and air from the bottle previous to filling it
with that which is to be preserved. The air is discharged from the
bottles partly by heating the body thereof and partly by the heated soup
or jelly as it fills the bottle displacing any remaining air that may be
therein, or if necessary a communication may also be established with
the vacuum vessel before mentioned.
The operations of the above apparatus and machinery are as follows:
―The bottle holder being heated with steam and the bottles placed
therein the operator turns the bottle holder partly round by hand, or
this may be rendered self-acting, thereby forcing the necks of three or
more bottles at a time into the before-described steam chamber, and
when sufficiently heated he presents one of them under the nozzle as

page_text: aforesaid, and by a lever forces the neck of the bottle air-tight against
the nozzle, the air then escapes from the bottle which fills with soup
or jelly, and finally the bottle. is corked, all of which operations are
performed in vacuo, and in this manner each bottle may be filled in
succession. It will appear obvious that bottles may be filled with wines,
beer, and other cold beverages, and corked by a simple modification of
the above apparatus.