IMPROVEMENTS IN STOPPERING BOTTLES FOR CONTAINING AERATED WATERS AND OTHER GASEOUS LIQUIDS
Year: 1877

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by Thomas Lewis and Joseph Hughes at
the Office of the Commissioners of Patents on the 5th September 1877.
THOMAS LEWIS and JOSEPH HUGHES, both of Merthyr Tydvil, in the County of
Glamorgan. "IMPROVEMENTS IN STOPPERING BOTTLES FOR CONTAINING AERATED
WATERS AND OTHER GASEOUS LIQUIDS."
This Invention relates to improvements in that class of stoppers known as internal
stoppers for bottles for containing aërated waters and other gaseous liquids, and by
the use of our improved stoppers all necessity for corking or wiring the bottle is
entirely dispensed with.
The first of our improvements consists in making the plug of the stopper of a
cylindrical form, and either of wood or any other suitable material, whereby it
becomes reversible, and both ends thereof work alike in the neck of the bottle.
Round the centre of such cylindrical plug we form a groove (hereafter called the
main groove), which we make sufficiently wide and deep to receive a suitable india-
rubber ring, which ring on being forced over one end of the plug lodges in such
groove, thus forming a flexible washer.
In the stem of the plug, which is so encircled by such washer, we form a second
and smaller longitudinal groove, terminating at each end in a notch-like recess
formed in each shoulder of the main groove. Such longitudinal groove and recesses
form an air passage, which upon the stopper being slightly pressed down when it is
desired to open the bottle permits a portion of the gas contained therein to escape,
and the liquid to flow out, but when it is desired to close the bottle the pressure of
the confined gas therein, forcing one end of the cylindrical plug of the stopper into
the mouth thereof, causes the rubber washer to firmly embed itself in such notched
and thereby effectually closes the air passage, and hermetically seals the
recesses,
bottle.
We prefer that such notched recesses be rounded off, so as to allow of the rubber
washer fitting more closely around the same.
Sometimes, instead of the longitudinal groove just described, we form a perforation
through the stem of the plug, and connect the same by a small groove or channel
with similar notched recesses, one in each shoulder of the main groove; but in this

page_text: case such recesses are formed on opposite sides of the plug, whereby the same facility
of opening or closing the bottle is obtained.
We make such notched recesses in the shoulders sufficiently deep to allow of the
rubber washer becoming tight all round the shoulder, while the main circular groove
formed in the centre of the plug serves to hold the washer firmly in position, and
prevents all risk of its becoming dislodged therefrom.
To apply our Invention to non-reversible stoppers we make one end of the plug
of the stopper considerably shorter than the other, and slightly taper. Just below
such tapered end we form a circular groove, having a smaller longitudinal groove
and notched recesses therein, as already described. We then form just below this
first groove a second circular groove, and we make the lower end of the plug con-
siderably longer than the top, and untapered. The object of the second groove just
described is, that on putting the washer over the lower end of the plug such washer
rests in this second groove, and upon pushing the plug and washer simultaneously
into the bottle, the washer in passing through the neck thereof is forced over the
ridge separating the two grooves, and rests in the topmost groove, while the bottom
of the plug, being longer than the top, it cannot be withdrawn from the bottle.
Such non-reversible stopper, on being pressed down in order to open the bottle, does
not turn therein, but falls to the bottom thereof.
Another of our improvements consists in forming one or more vertical grooves on
the inside of the neck of the bottle just beneath the smallest part. Such vertical
grooves are so formed therein when the bottle is blown in the mould. We prefer to put
one or more of such vertical grooves on each side of the internal surface of the neck
of the bottle, and by so doing we dispense with the longitudinal groove and notched
recesses in the stopper before described, as by simply placing a rubber washer on
the central groove formed in the plug of the stopper, and pushing the stopper into
the bottle, such stopper is by the pressure of the gas forced against the mouth of the
bottle, and the rubber washer embedding itself in the before-described vertical
grooves securely closes the bottle, and prevents all escape of the gas.
We take care
to form such vertical grooves of a sufficient depth to ensure closing the bottle.
Such vertical grooves also greatly facilitate the opening of the bottle, as it is only
necessary to press the stopper slightly down when the gas escapes through the
grooves, and causes the stopper to recede, thus allowing the contents to flow out.