IMPROVED MEANS AND APPARATUS FOR TEMPERING AND TOUGHENING BOTTLES AND SIMILAR GLASS VESSELS."
Year: 1876

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by Auguste Jules Marie de Müller at the
Office of the Commissioners of Patents on the 10th June 1876.
26
AUGUSTE JULES MARIE DE MÜLLER, of Tarragona, in the Kingdom of Spain,
Merchant. IMPROVED MEANS AND APPARATUS FOR TEMPERING AND TOUGHENING
BOTTLES AND SIMILAR GLASS VESSELS."
The object of my Invention is to temper and toughen bottles and similar glass
vessels in a more effectual and complete manner than has hitherto been found
possible. The process at present in use is to plunge the bottle neck downwards
into a bath of heated oil, when the entrance of the oil into the bottle through its
neck is impeded by the air contained therein, so that the contact of the oil with the
inner surface of the bottle is either prevented altogether or takes place so long after
its contact with the outer surface that the change in the structure or crystallization
of the glass which effects the tempering or toughening thereof either does not
occur at all or takes place very imperfectly. Now I have found that by inserting
a tube through the neck into the bottle, the other end of which tube communicates
with the open air, on plunging the bottle into the tempering liquid a means of
escape is provided for the air contained in the bottle, which readily flows off
through the tubo under the pressure of the entering liquid, and thus the contact
takes place simultaneously or almost simultaneously at the exterior and interior of
the bottle, and a perfect tempering and toughening thus effected.
In some cases I assist the exit of the air from the bottle plunged in the tempering
bath through the tube by aspiring through the latter by means of a pump or
otherwise.
The substances hitherto used for the tempering of glass have been oils or
substances of a fatty nature; I have found that glycerine is much more suitable
for the purpose than oil or other substance of a fatty nature.
I proceed to describe some methods of carrying my Invention into effect; a
siphon-shaped tube is plunged at its bend into a bath of tempering liquid, the
shorter arm being just above the level thereof, while the other communicates freely
with the open air. The bottle or flask to be tempered is held at its base by a punt
(pontil) or tool and plunged into the bath, its neck passing over the shorter end of
the siphon-shaped tube. The air in the bottle thus escapes under the pressure of
the entering liquid through the siphon-shaped tube, and thus the liquid is

page_text: permitted a free and rapid entry. I have found however that this method is
defective, requiring too much skill on the part of the workman who plunges the
neck of the bottle over the short arm of the siphon tube, and taking too much
time for the air to escape. I have therefore constructed an apparatus involving the
aspiration or withdrawal by suction of the air from within the vessel being
tempered, which I find acts perfectly, especially with ordinary bottle glass.
In this apparatus the bath of tempering liquid is surmounted by a frame, upon
which rests a sort of carriage, upon which a tube like a cannon tilts. The larger
end of this tube is heavier than the other, so that it has always a tendency to
return to the horizontal position after it has been tilted. Opposite to the other or
narrow end of this tube is a gas jet, so that the flame enters the tube for some little
distance; into this tube the workman pushes the bottle to be tempered so that the
tube tilts downwards, causing the bottle to fall out and pass through an inclined
passage, also heated, into the bath of tempering liquid neck downwards, where it
falls upon a tube, by means of which the air is withdrawn from it. This tube is
jointed to another tube leading to the suction apparatus, and is maintained in the
position which causes the bottle to run down it when the latter enters the bath by
means of a counterweight which is not so heavy as the bottle, so that when the
bottle has run down the tube descends with the bottle which falls into a basket
placed at the bottom of the bath to receive it.
The pipe leading to the suction apparatus passes into a cylindrical chamber from
which the air is exhausted, and into which any of the tempering liquid which may
have been drawn through the pipe by the suction falls, and from which it may be
removed at will.
The action will be readily understood, on the bottle falling upon the counter-
weighted tube in the tempering hath the air is at once exhausted from the inside,
the tempering liquid fills the bottle which is thus tempered simultaneously both
inside and out and falling immediately is received into the basket, which is at once
removed from the bath and another inserted in its place.