Improved Means for Preventing and Detecting the Fraudulent Refilling of Bottles.
Year: 1899

page_text: Date of Application, 12th Apr., 1899
Complete Specification Left, 12th Jan., 1900-Accepted, 24th Feb,, 1900
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION,
Improved Means for Preventing and Detecting the Fraudulent
Refilling of Bottles.
I, GEORGE EDWARD BUTLER, of 15, Peak Hill, Sydenham, Kent, Gentleman,
do hereby declare the nature of this invention to be as follows:-
The present invention has reference to improved means for preventing the
refilling of bottles after the contents have been withdrawn, and also for detecting
the fraud, should such refilling be accomplished.
According to my invention, the neck of the bottle is furnished with a non-
removable plug secured in any convenient manner. This plug is provided with
a passage through which the liquor may be withdrawn, which operates in con-
junction with an air inlet, to facilitate the pouring.
To prevent the refilling of the bottle by the said passage, it is connected by
a tube or its equivalent with the air-inlet inside the bottle. This tube is pierced
with holes at suitable points, to allow of the proper pouring of the bottle, but
so arranged that any attempt to refill the bottle by means of a funnel will cause
the incoming liquid to cut off the air-hole, and so interrupt the refilling by stop-
ping the air exit. An attempt to refill the bottle by gradually exhausting the
air through the air-hole while the other passage is in connection with a supply
of liquor, will also fail, because the connection is such that the liquor will
follow the air along the connecting tube, and find its way out by the air-hole
nearly as fast as it can enter the bottle.
A second similar arrangement, inserted lower down in the neck, will cooperate
with the first in excluding the liquid.
A bell pendent from the tube may also be used to enclose a ball valve.
To detect the fraud, should the refilling of the bottle be successfully accom-
plished by apparatus which will first exhaust the air from the bottle, and, while
there is a vacuum therein, admit a supply of liquor thereto, I provide in the
bottle a bulb, the normal condition of which will be destroyed by the vacuum
and cannot be re-established.
This device may consist of a bulb which will normally float in the liquor, but
which, having been exhausted of air, will fill, and fail to float if the liquor is
fraudulently introduced.
Instead of a floating bulb, one containing colouring matter may be used,
which, in vacuo, will yield up its contents, and thus destroy the bottle entirely
for use in a fraudulently refilled condition.
In conjunction with my invention may be used, if desired, the usual ball and
other valves commonly employed with other methods, which, although in them-
selves imperfect in their action, at all events assist in the prevention of the
fraud which this invention is designed to preclude.
Outside the non-removable plug, a removable cork or stopper is employed,
which is withdrawn when the contents of the bottle are required for consumption.
Tinted this 12th day of April 1899.
NEWTON & SON,
Agents for the Applicant,

page_text: Improved Meang for Preventing and Detecting the Fraudulent
Refilling of Bottles.
I, GEORGE EDWARD BUTLER, of 15, Peak Hill, Sydenham, Kent, 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 present invention has reference to improved means for preventing the
refilling of bottles after the contents have been withdrawn, and also for detecting
the fraud, should such refilling be accomplished.
According to my invention, the neck of the bottle is furnished with a non-
removable plug or, stopper, provided with a passage through which the liquor
may be withdrawn, and which operates in conjunction with an air inlet, to
facilitate the pouring.
The arrangement of the liquor passage and air inlet is such, that should there
be any attempt to re-fill the bottle by means of a funnel, the incoming liquid
will cut off the air-hole, and so interrupt the refilling by stopping the air exit.
An attempt to refill the bottle by gradually exhausting the air through the air-
hole, while the other passage is in connection with a supply of liquor, will
also fail, because the tendency of the liquor will be to follow the air, and find
its way out by the air-hole, nearly as fast as it can enter the bottle.
To detect the fraud, should the refilling of the bottle be successfully accom-
plished by apparatus which will first exhaust the air from the bottle, and, while
there is a vacuum therein, admit a supply of liquor thereto, I provide in the
bottle a bulb, the normal condition of which will be destroyed by the vacuum
and cannot be re-established.
This device consists of a bulb, which will normally float in the liquor, but
which, having been exhausted of air, will fill, and fail to float, if the liquor is
fraudulently introduced.
In conjunction with my invention may be used, if desired, the usual ball and
other valves commonly employed with other methods, which, although in them-
selves imperfect in their action, at all events, assist in the prevention of the
fraud which this invention is designed to preclude.
To firmly secure the plug in the neck of the bottle, so as to prevent its sur-
reptitious removal for refilling, a bayonet joint is employed, co-operating with
a key or peg, which is incapable of being withdrawn, without fracturing one of
the engaging parts.
In the accompanying drawings,
Fig. 1 represents, in sectional elevation, a bottle embodying my invention.
Fig. 2 is a top plan of the cap for securing the plug.
Fig. is an inside plan of the same.
Fig. 4 is an outside view of the plug, removed.
Fig. 5 shows a bottle-neck in section, taken at right angles to Fig. 1, with the
plug in outside view inserted therein.
Fig. 6 shows, in sectional elevation, a modified form of plug and
Fig. 7 is a similar view of another modification, connected direct to the bottle
neck.
Fig. 7 is a plan of the plug, detached.
A is the bottle, and B is the non-removable plug, of porcelain or similar
material, inserted in the neck thereof.
For securing this plug against removal, an annular glass cap Ç is employed,

page_text: is
having a bayonet-joint connection with the bottle neck. In the drawing,
a projection adapted internally to the cap C, and arranged to co-act with the
vertical and horizontal grooves a in the outside of the lip of the bottle. The
cap C is slipped on over the flange 6 of the plug B, and rotated so as to bring it
into locking position with the projection c, in the horizontal position of the
groove a. To prevent the cap from being unlocked, a peg c¹ is driven into a
groove a, formed between the cap C and bottle A (see Fig. 5). This peg is a
close fit, and terminates flush with the top of the cap, and cannot therefore be
removed without breaking the cap.
The plug B is furnished with two passages, 1 and 2; 1 is the liquor passage
and 2 the air-hole. These passages run parallel, and are separate for the greater
portion of their length, but communicate near their lower extremities. Each
passage, at its lower extremity, is open to the interior of the bottle neck, pre-
ferably in a lateral direction. 3 is a ball having a pendant tail 4. which ball
forms valve in the neck of the bottle, where a waist, 5, is formed to make a
valve-seat. The ball 3 and its tail 4 are so weighted, and so arranged, that
the ball is caused to occupy its seat continually, except at the moment of pouring
out.
Within the bottle itself, inserted before the plug B and ball 3 are placed in
position, is a detector or tell-tale, D. This tell-tale consists of a hollow bulb.
which normally floats on the surface of the liquor in the bottle, by reason of
the air which it contains. This bulb is not air-tight, but it is capable of yielding
up its air, and of taking in liquor instead, in which case it no longer floats,
thereby giving a sure indication that fraudulent re-filling has been attempted.
At the top of the plug B is a socket for the insertion of an ordinary cork, or,
as an alternative, the plug may be externally threaded, to receive a screw-cap,
if preferred.
The modifications which appear in the Figures 6 and relate to a form of
plug which may be substituted for that having definite and separate liquor and
air passages, as before described.
In these cases, reliance is placed mainly on the ball-valve and tell-tale, to
prevent and detect fraudulent refilling, the zig-zag passages through the plug
being intended to frustrate the tampering with the valve by the insertion of
a wire.
The removal of the plug (where it is secured by a collar C) may be effected if
the collar be fractured, and, in that case, the bottle may be re-used, although
not fraudulently refilled.
It will be found that bottles fitted as above described will successfully resist
every attempt to fraudulently refill them. For instance, if it be attempted to
force liquor through the liquor passage 1 into the bottle, the liquor will at once
return by the air-pasage, 2 in preference to passing through the ball-valve, or
if the liquor should be successfully forced into the bottle past the ball valve,
the tell-tale will immediately fill by reason of the pressure, and cease to float.
If an attempt is made to exhaust the air by suction thro' the air passage, the
liquor is likely to follow the air through the air-hole, thus finding its way out
of the bottle again. Moreover, the exhaustion of the air from the bottle exhausts
also the air from inside the tell-tale D, thereby causing it to take in liquor,
which destroys its buoyancy, and causes it to sink, if, by any means, the bottle
should be filled.
The passages for the liquor and air, it will be noticed, are so contrived that
the insertion of wire through them, to disarrange the ball-valve, is rendered
impossible.
Having now particularly described and ascertained the nature of my said in-
vention and in what manner the same is to be performed, I declare that what
I claim is:-
1. The means for preventing and detecting the fraudulent re-filling of bottles,

page_text: comprising, in combination, a non-removable plug or stopper, having passages
therethrough, a ball-valve, and a float, all arranged and operating substantially
as described with reference to the accompanying drawings.
2. The combination with the herein before described means for preventing
the fraudulent refilling of bottles, of a plug or stopper, and a securing cap
furnished with a bayonet joint attachment, and a pin for fixing the same, sub-
stantially as set forth.
3. In means for preventing the fraudulent refilling of bottles, a plug or stopper
having air and liquor passages arranged as described, and in communication
near their extremities, substantially as set forth with reference to the drawings.
4. A detector for fraudulently refilled bottles consisting of a hollow bulb
located within the bottle, and arranged to operate substantially as above
described.
Dated this 19th day of Januar 1000