IMPROVEMENTS IN BOTTLING APPARATUS
Year: 1867

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Stephen Stackard, in the employ of Messrs. Farrow
and Jackson, of 18, Great Tower Street, in the City of London, for the
Invention
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Stephen Stackard at
the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the
24th October 1867.
I, STEPHEN STACKARD, in the employ of Messrs. Farrow and Jackson, of
18, Great Tower Street, in the City of London, do hereby declare the
nature of the said Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN BOTTLING APPARATUS,"
to be as follows:-
This Invention has for its object the so arranging bottling apparatus that
the bottles may automatically or without requiring the attention of the
bottler be all filled to the required level, and this without involving the
exposure of the liquor to the air, as when an open trough is employed,. such
as is used in other bottling apparatus where the filling of the bottles to a
given level is effected automatically. For this purpose I employ a filling
chamber, which is able to be raised or lowered on a frame which carries it;
this filling chamber, which may be at some distance from the cask in any
convenient positon, is connected by a flexible or jointed pipe with the cask
containing the liquor, aud is so kept constantly full; it has upon it the

page_text: bottling nozzles which are thus arranged:-Each nozzle consists of a tap with
its cone or plug arranged vertically, and the escape passage for the liquor is
at the top of the plug; to this passage at the top of the plug there is adapted
a pipe rising from the plug, and then descending in a syphon-like form; the
lower end of the syphon pipe is perforated, and it is inserted into the bottle
which it is desired to fill. The bottle is applied when the syphon is projecting
to the front of the apparatus, and the plug of the tap to which the syphon is
fixed is then in such a position as to prevent the flow of liquid from the
chamber. As soon as the bottle has been applied the syphon and the bottle
are turned to one side and the neck of the bottle enters a fork-formed holder
which holds the bottle by embracing the collar at the top of its neck. The
same movement of the syphon to one side so places the plug of the tap as to
allow of the flow of the liquid from the chamber until such time as the liquor
shall stand in the bottle at the same level as it does in the cask, and the
filling chamber is so adjusted that this takes place just when the bottle is
properly filled; the bottle is then removed from the syphon. The fork
holders are so formed that the bottles cannot be taken off until the syphons
have been moved out to the front sufficiently to cause the tap completely to
stop the flow of liquor from the filling chamber. The prongs of the fork
holders are jointed and fitted with a spring, so that they may receive and hold
securely bottles having necks of different sizes.
A gauge glass is applied in
connection with the filling chamber to indicate the level of the liquor in the
cask, and by so adjusting the position of the filling chamber as to keep the
liquor in the gauge glass up to a mark suitably placed thereon the filling of
all the bottles to the same height will be ensured. It will be seen that the
'so arranging the apparatus that the bottles may always fill up to the level of
the liquor in the cask, and that the bottles may be held whilst filling on a
support which is adjustable up and down as may be required is one important
feature of my Invention. Also bottling apparatus may be arranged as
follows: A closed filling chamber of a capacity somewhat in excess of the
largest bottle it is desired to fill is applied to the tap of the cask; this chamber
has an inlet tap and an outlet-tap, the first admits liquor to the chamber from
the cask, the second allows the liquor to pass from the filling chamber into
the bottle, and it has upon it the bottling nozzle, which is a tube with ar
When the nozzle
opening at its lower end entering down into the bottle.
is forward towards the front the outlet tap is turned off; the bottle is placed
upon it when it is in this position, and it with the bottle upon it is thor
pushed back, and this action opens the outlet tap; the neck of the bottle i

page_text: now retained in a fork-formed holder, such as that already described; it is so
formed that the bottle cannot be removed without turning off the outlet tap
of the chamber. The inlet tap of the filling chamber is so connected with
the outlet tap that when one is turned on the other is closed. The filling
chamber also has an air tube rising up within it; it passes through the outlet
tap down to a perforation in the side of the filling nozzle placed just at the
level to which it is desired to fill the bottles. There is a valve at the top of
the air pipe which has a float in connection with it. The action of this appa-
ratus is then as follows:-Whilst the outlet tap is closed the filling chamber
receives the liquor from the cask, and the air escapes by the air pipe until
such time as the float is raised by the liquor and closes the air valve; then
when a bottle is applied the inlet pipe being closed and the outlet opened, as
already described, the liquor escapes from the filling chamber into the bottle
until the liquor covers the air orifice in the nozzle, and then the flow from the
chamber ceases. When the bottle is removed the chamber refills, and so the
work goes on.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said Stephen Stackard in the Great Seal Patent Office on the
24th April 1868.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, STEPHEN
STACKARD, in the employ of Messieurs Farrow and Jackson, of 18, Great Tower
Street, in the City of London, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Twenty-fourth day of October, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and sixty-seven, in the thirty-first year of Her
reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto me, the
said Stephen Stackard, Her special licence that I, the said Stephen
Stackard, my executors, administrators, and assigns, or such others' as I,
the said Stephen Stackard, my executors, administrators, and assigns, should
at any time agree with, and no others, from time to time and at all times
thereafter during the term therein expressed, should and lawfully might make,
use, exercise, and vend, within the United Kingdom of Great Britain and
Ireland, the Channel Islands, and Isle of Man, an Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS
IN BOTTLING APPARATUS," upon the condition (amongst others) that I, the said
Stephen Stackard, my executors or administrators, by an instrument in writing

page_text: under my, or their, or one of their hands and seals, should particularly describe
and ascertain the nature of the said Invention, and in what manner the same
was to be performed, and cause the same to be filed in the Great Seal
Patent Office within six calendar months next and immediately after the date
of the said Letters Patent.
NOW KNOW YE, that I, the said Stephen Stackard, do hereby declare
the nature of the said Invention, and in what manner the same is to be per-
formed, to be particularly described and ascertained in and by the following
statement thereof, that is to say:-
This Invention has for its object the so arranging bottling apparatus that
the bottles may automatically or without requiring the attention of the bottler
be all filled to the required level, and this without involving the exposure of
the liquor to the air as when an open trough is employed such as is used in
other bottling apparatus where the filling of the bottles to given level is
effected automatically. For this purpose I employ a filling chamber which is
able to be raised or lowered on a frame which carries it; this filling chamber,
which may be at some distance from the cask in any convenient position, is
connected by a flexible or jointed pipe with the cask containing the liquor,
and is so kept constantly full; it has upon it the bottling nozzles which are
thus arranged:-Each nozzle consists of a tap with its cone or plug arranged
vertically, and the escape passage for the liquor is at the top of the plug; to
this passage at the top of the plug there is adapted a pipe rising from the
plug and then descending in a syphon-like form. The lower end of the syphon
pipe is perforated, and it is inserted into the bottle which it is desired to fill.
The bottle is applied when the syphon is projecting to the front of the
apparatus, and the plug of the tap to which the syphon is fixed is then in such
a position as to prevent the flow of liquid from the chamber. As soon as the
bottle has been applied the syphon and the bottle are turned to one side, and
the neck of the bottle enters a fork-formed holder which holds the bottle by
embracing the collar at the top of its neck. The same movement of the
syphon to one side so places the plug of the tap as to allow of the flow of the
liquid from the chamber until such time as the liquor shall stand in the bottle
at the same level as it does in the cask, and the filling chamber is so
adjusted that this takes place just when the bottle is properly filled; the bottle
is then removed from the syphon. The fork-holders are so formed that the
bottles cannot be taken off until the syphons have been removed out to the
front sufficiently to cause the tap completely to stop the flow of liquor from
the filling chamber. The prongs of the fork holders are jointed and fitted

page_text: with a spring so that they may receive and hold securely bottles having necks
of different sizes. A gauge glass is applied in connection with the filling
chamber to indicate the level of the liquor in the cask, and by so adjusting
the position of the filling chamber as to keep the liquor in the gauge glass up
to a mark suitably placed thereon the filling of all the bottles to the same
height will be insured.
In the annexed Drawing Figure 1 is a front view of a bottling apparatus
thus arranged; Figure 2 is a plan of the same with the bottling nozzles and
their reservoir and parts in connection therewith removed; Figure 3 is a side
view of the parts shewn at Figure 2;. Figure 4 shows to a larger scale a
transverse section through one of the bottling nozzles and reservoir, and it
also shews other parts in connection therewith; Figure 5 is a plan of the
parts shown at Figure 4.
a, a, is the frame of the machine; on its two standards a¹, a', rack teeth
are formed, and with them gear pinions b, b, on an axis 6, which turns in
bearings fixed upon the bottling reservoir c. The reservoir c is held to the
standards a¹ by the pinions b at the back of the standards and the guide
strips c which are fixed to the reservoir and bear against the standards in
front. One of the strips c¹ can be removed by unscrewing the thumbscrew c³,
and the reservoir is thus set free, and may be taken out of the frame to be
cleaned or for any other purpose. 63 is a crank handle at the end of the
axis 6; by turning it the reservoir may be rapidly raised or lowered on the
standards. d is a treadle jointed to the frame, and to it is connected the
rod e, which at its upper end is controlled by the link f jointed to it, and to
the frame g is a spring to cause the return of the treadle when the pressure.
of the foot is removed. Thus it will be seen that when the treadle is pressed
down the rod e is caused to approach the adjacent standard a¹, and as the
treadle rises the rod recedes from the standard. h is a slide on the rod e; it
is pin-jointed to the upper arm of the escapement lever i, which works into
the rack on the standard, so that when the treadle is depressed the
upper arm of the escapement is made to engage with the rack teeth, whilst
the lower arm is free from them, and when the treadle rises the reverse action
results, so that as in bottling the level of the liquor in the cask falls
the bottler can lower the reservoir c in accordance therewith, and step by step
by from time to time placing his foot upon the treadle d. When the handle b².
is to be used to rapidly raise or lower the reservoir c the pin connecting the
escapement lever i and the slider h is removed. is a dome on the reservoir G,
it is fitted with a gauge glass to indicate the level of the liquor in it and in

page_text: the cask, the reservoir c being connected with the cask by a flexible hose or
pipe connected by a screw coupling with the pipe c; this dome serves when
the bottle is full to receive the wave flowing to it from the cask, otherwise the
bottle might overflow notwithstanding that the top of the neck was above the
level of the liquor in the cask. There is a stop-cock at the top of the dome c³
to close it during the adjustment of the apparatus, but it is open whilst
bottling. are sockets on the reservoir c, and in them hollow. conical plugs.c
work; c' are syphon pipes springing from the tops of the plugs ce. There is
a slot in the side of each socket and in each plug, and these slots coincide only
when the syphon pipes are in the position in which they are shown at the left-
band side of Figure 1, and then the liquor is free to flow from the reservoir c
through the syphon pipe into the bottle which is then supported by the fork c³,
one limb of which is fixed to the reservoir c, whilst the other is able to turn
on a centre cx upon it, but as is shown it is pressed up towards the fixed
linib by a spring. The red lines in Figure 4 indicate the manner in which
the bottle is held in the fork by the flange on its neck. The bottles to be'
filled are placed so that the syphon pipes enter into them whilst the pipes are.
turned outwards and the flow of the liquor through them is cut off; the bottles
are then put into their places in the fork holders, and the same action turns
on the liquor. When the bottles are full they are removed, and as will be
observed the form of the fixed limb of each fork is such that the bottle cannot
be withdrawn until the syphon pipe is turned into such a position that the
flow of liquid is cut off. In some cases in using the apparatus above described
it is convenient not to connect it directly with the cask, but with a trough in
which the liquid is kept at an uniform level by a float.
Figure 6 is a plan view, Figure 7 a front view, and Figure 8 a transverse
section of such an apparatus. a, a, is a trough connected with the cask
at a¹ and at a² with the apparatus already described; 6 is an equilibrium valve
connected by its stem with the float c, which is so formed that it almost com-
pletely covers the surface of the liquor in the trough; d, d, are arms with
hooks at their ends, which catch upon the axis 6 of the bottling apparatus and
sustain the trough at a suitable level. The valve stem has two valves upon it,
and the pressure upon one of them balances that on the other, so that the
valves open freely and with a very small movement of the float. It will be
seen that the so arranging the apparatus that the bottles may all fill up to the
level of the liquor in the cask, and that the bottles may be held whilst filling
on a support which is adjustable up and down, as may be required, is one
important feature of my Invention and is claimed by me.

page_text: I also claim the arrangement of bottling apparatus, as herein-before
described.
I also claim the employment to support the bottle whilst it is filling of a
holder consisting of two prongs or jaws, which are adapted to grip.the neck
of the bottle immediately underneath the flange of the neck, as above
described.
Also according to another part of my Invention bottling apparatus may be
arranged as follows:-A closed filling chamber of a capacity somewhat in.
excess of the largest bottle it is desired to fill is applied to the tap of the
cask. This chamber has an inlet tap and an outlet tap, the first admits liquor
to the chamber from the cask, the second allows the liquor to pass from the
filling chamber into the bottle; and it has upon it the bottling nozzle, which
is a tube with an opening on one side of its lower end entering down into the
bottle. When the nozzle is forward towards the front the outlet tap is turned
off. The bottle is placed upon it when it is in this position; it, with the bottle
upon it, is then pushed back, and this action opens the outlet tap. The neck
of the bottle is now retained in a fork formed holder, such as that already
described, but somewhat modified in form. The inlet tap of the filling
chamber is so connected with the outlet tap that where one is turned on the
other is closed. The filling chamber also has an air tube rising up within it;
it presses through the outlet tap down to a perforation in the side of the filling
nozzle placed just at the level to which it is desired to fill the bottles: There
is a valve at the top of the air pipe which has a float in connection with it.
The action of this apparatus is then as follows:-Whilst the outlet tap is
closed the filling chamber receives the liquor from the cask, and the air.
escapes by the air pipe until such time as the float is raised by the liquor and
closes the air valve; then when a bottle is applied the inlet pipe being closed
and the outlet opened, as already described, the liquor escapes from the filling
chamber into the bottle until the liquor covers the air orifice in the nozzle,
and then the flow from the chamber ceases: When the bottle is removed the.
chamber refills, so the work goes on.
Apparatus arranged according to this part of my Invention is shewn in
front view at Figure 9, several bottling nozzles each with its own reservoir
and other parts being combined together. Figure 10 is a side view of the
This apparatus may be suspended from a clip applied to the front of
the cask and by the pipe a; it is coupled with an ordinary tap applied, to the
bung hole of the cask; a branch from this pipe a conveys the liquid to each
of the cocks b, through which the reservoirs c. are filled, as is more clearly
same.

page_text: seen in Figure 11, which is a transverse section of the working parts in
connection with one bottling nozzle. The plug of the cock 6 is governed by
the link & connecting it with the bottling nozzle e, and in position to allow the
liquor to enter the reservoir c when the bottling nozzle is in the position in
which it is shewn by the red lines in the Figure. The air which the reser-
voir c contains then escapes past the valve f at the top and down the small
tube g, which leads to an orifice e' in the side of the bottling nozzle. When
the liquor reaches the float fi in connection with the valve fit lifts it, closing
the valve and so preventing the further escape of air from the reservoir c,
and consequently the further entry of liquor into it. No change now takes
place until a bottle is placed on the nozzle e, and the nozzle with the bottle is
pushed back until the neck enters the holding fork or jaws h; this motion
then turns the cock e upon which the bottling nozzle is formed, and with it
the cock 6, so as to shut off the communication with the cask. The position
of the cock is now such as to allow the reservoir c to empty down the bottling
nozzle into the bottle, and this it does, air entering the reservoir by the
orifice e¹ and air tube g past the valve f until the liquid in the bottle rises
above the orifice e', and stops the action by arresting the entry of air to the
reservoir; the bottle is then drawn forward to release it from the holding fork
or jaws h, and it is taken away, the same motion replacing the parts in the
positions in which they were at the commencement. The air tube g it will be
understood communicates with a passage in the socket of the cock 6³, and a
similar air pipe from the orifice e¹ communicates with a passage in its plug,
and whatever the position of the plug the air passage through the cock e³ is
clear.
The jaws h of the bottle holder turn on horizontal axes at their outer edges,
and they open upwards to admit the neck of the bottle between them, their
curved form and inclined positions causing them to lift as the neck of the
bottle is inserted between them, the weight of the bottle when it hangs upon
them causes them to grip its neck. The arrangement may be simplified by
using one cock only at the bottom of the reservoir, as is shewn in front view
in Figure 12, this cock baving in it both the inlet and outlet passages, as is
shewn at Figures 13 and 14, which are transverse sections through the cock
taken at the lines 1, 1, and 2, 2, respectively. In place of hanging the appa-
ratus from the cask it may be, as is here shewu, mounted on a stand, and the
liquor conveyed to it by a flexible tube. In other respects the apparatus is
similar to that already described.
What I further claim as respects this part of my Invention is the arrange-

page_text: ment of bottling apparatus in such manner that the liquor being first drawn
into a closed vessel is afterwards caused to run from such vessel into the
bottle until the bottle is sufficiently full by the entry of air into the vessel by a
passage so placed as to become covered by the liquor in the bottle when the
flow is required to be stopped.
I also claim the general arrangement of bottling apparatus as described.
In witness whereof, I, the said Stephen Stackard, have hereunto set my
band and seal, this Twenty-third day of April, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and sixty-eight.
STEPHEN STACKARD. (L.S.) ·