IMPROVEMENTS IN APPARATUS FOR CORKING AND UNCORKING BOTTLES WITHOUT LEAVING ANY AIR BETWEEN THE LIQUID AND THE CORK
Year: 1856

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Julien Denis, of 14, Queenhithe, in the City of
London, for the Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN APPARATUS FOR CORKING
AND UNCORKING BOTTLES WITHOUT LEAVING ANY AIR BETWEEN THE LIQUID AND
THE CORK."-A communication.
Sealed the 22nd May 1857, and dated the 3rd December 1856.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Julien Denis at the
Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the
3rd December 1856.
I, JULIEN DENIS, of 14, Queenhithe, in the City of London, do hereby
declare the nature of the said Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN APPARATUS FOR
Connie & UnconKING BOTTLES WITHOUT LEAVING ANT AIR BETWEEN THE LIQUID
AND THE CORK," "a communication," to be as follows :—
The framework of the corking apparatus is composed of a double platform,
the first standing on four short legs, and the second supported by four uprights
at an elevation of about 18 inches. On the upper platform is fixed a double
console, bearing a lever which works a vertical piston & rod, the latter serving
to drive in the work, & moving up or down through an aperture in the centre
of the upper platform, which is of an oval shape, with a square piece at the
back through which two of the uprights pass & are made fast. In the
aperture through which the piston rod passes is fixed a small conical cylinder,
into which the cork is placed and forced through, so as to compress it before it
enters the neck of the bottle; at the extremity and round this cone are
attached several small blades of mictal, whalebone, or other suitable substance

page_text: (usually the blades are three in number); the arrangement is such that they
enter the neck of the bottle before the cork is sent in. The great utility of
the employment of these blades cannot be too strongly pointed out, as it con-
stitutes the principal feature of the Invention. By means of the said blades
bottles may be corked while completely filled with liquid, & that without fear
of breakago, as the blades between the cork and the interior sides of the neck
of the bottle leave spaces that permit the surplus liquid (after the introduction
of the cork) to flow over into a recipient at the base of the apparatus. On
the first platform is a stand or bearer for the bottlo about to be corked; the
stand is fixed on a ball & socket so that it may not be rigid, & the whole is
attached to a vertical rod passing through an opening in the lower platform;
the said rod is connected with a rack, which serves to lower or raise the stand,
as may be requisite. To one of the uprights, at a suitable elevation from the
bottle stand, is fitted a forked pioce, which clasps the neck of the bottle &
keeps the latter in place, & prevents its being lifted by the withdrawal of the
afore-mentioned blades, which withdrawal allows the compressed cork to
expand, & completely stopper the bottle. The simple conical cylinder through
which the cork has been described to be made to pass can be replaced by a
less simple but more effectual contrivanco; it is as follows:-on the upper plat-
form, and in such manner that the opening through which the piston rod
passes may be kept in the centre, is screwed down a brass plate of hexagonal
form; in the centre of it is a small opening, in which the ring with blades is
fixed. On the said plate is fixed a brass circle, about 2-thirds of an inch thick,
& in which 6 holes are bored horizontally, each hole being in the direction of
the middle of the facets formed by the hexagonal plate. Three brass piccos
forming a circle when brought together are placed in the centro of the brass
circle; these pieces have each a lip of about of an inch in thickness, & are
fixed to three circular wooden wedges; at the middle of the lip of each piece
is screwed a guiding bolt, the bolts passing in three of the openings in the
brass circle. The pieces are fixed to the hexagonal plate, but in such manner
as to allow them to slide freely in the space left between their exterior
diameter & the interior diameter of the brass circle. Sufficient space is also
left to place a brass cylinder, divided likewise in three parts, & which is about
2 inches high. Guiding bolts opposite the three first mentioned are
screwed to them, passing also through holes in the brass circle; to these
guiding bolts & at the exterior of the brass circle are fixed spiral springs,
which draw back from their centre the three parts forming the brass
cylinder. A wooden circle, to which a handle is fixed horizontally at one side,
& having at its interior diameter notches fitting into the projections of the

page_text: triple wedge, serves to draw together the 3 parts of the wedge as well as those
of the cylinder; thus, a cork inserted in the cylinder can be powerfully
compressed.
As necessary appendix to the Invention is an improved corkscrew, by which
a cork may be drawn out without any jerk, such jerk being liable to break
bottles that are completely filled with liquid. On the stem of an ordinary
corkscrew is fixed a small circular plate, at each side of which are two short
spikes, & between the said spikes is a small transverse bar supported by a
spiral spring; on the upper part of the bar are two small projections that catch
with others on the circular plate.
The Inventor does not limit himself to any particular metal or material in
the construction of the different parts of the apparati.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said Julien Denis in the Great Seal Patent Office on the
8rd June 1857.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, JULIEN
DENIS, of 14, Queenhithe, in the City of London, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Third day of December, in the year of our Lord One
thousand eight hundred and fifty-six, in the twentieth year of Her reign, did,
for Herself. Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto me, the said Julien
Denis, Her special licence that I, the said Julien Denis, my executors,
administrators, and assigns, or such others as I, the said Julien Denis, 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 APPARATUS FOR CORKING
AND UNCORKING BOTTLES WITHOUT LEAVING ANY AIR BETWEEN THE LIQUID AND
THE CORK," & communication, upon the condition (amongst others) that I, the
said Julien Denis, my exccutors or administrators, by an instrument in writing
under my, or their, or one of their hands and scals, 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 tho date of the
said Letters.Patent.

page_text: NOW KNOW YE, that I, the said Julien Denis, do hereby declare the
nature of my said Invention, and in what manner the same is to be performed,
to be particularly described and ascertained in and by the following state-
ment:-
This Invention consists of certain apparatus herein-after described for
effecting the corking of bottles without leaving any air between the cork and
the liquid, and also of an improved corkscrew peculiarly applicable for the
uncorking of bottles stoppered in the aforesaid manner.
Sheet 1: Fig. 1 and 2 represents the corking machine in its most complete
form; the framework, as shewn in the Drawing, consists of two tablets
(B and F, F.) supported by uprights. The tablet B is about 8 feet long and
two feet wide; it is supported by four legs (A), fitted into the tablet B, and
made firm by cross pieces. A small aperture is made in the centre of the said
table, see Figure 2. The second tablet F, F, is of oval form, about one and a
half feet long and nine inches broad, and having a squaro piece at the back.
This second tablet has at the centre of its oval part an hegagonal hollow of
the diameter of the hexagonal plate (A) of the cork compresser, shewn in
Sheet 2, Figure 1. At the centre of this hollow is an aperture about three inches
wide, and an aperture about one inch wide, which extends from the central
opening to the mortice, that affords a passage to the part of the pieco D that
passes above the tablet. The second tablet is supported by three uprights
about one foot and a half high; two of these uprights E, E, are placed on the
same line as the aperture through which the rod of the bottle bearer Z passes.
The third upright G is placed at about a foot beyond and between the two
first. These uprights passed through the tablet B, and are fixed by wedge
pieces driven into open mortices made in the portions passing above the tablet.
The upright D which passes through the square bit of the tablet F is also
fixed in the same manner. The tops of the uprights E, E, do not pass
through the oval part of the table F, but are fixed to it by screws a little below
the part to which the uprights of the arched piece G, G, are fixed by screw
bolts. An upright (also of oak) D is placed behind the bottle bearer, and on
a line with the upright G. In this supporting bar is fixed the lock P; in this
latter is the catch R, and through it slides the ratchet. The upper part of the
supporting bar (D) passes through the tablet F a few inches, and the lower
portion which passes through the tablet B is fixed to it in the same manner as
the other uprights. The portion of the supporting bar above the tablet F
serves to maintain the guides G, made of cast iron, and about eighteen inches
high. At the extremity of such of the two perpendicular bars of the guides is
a foot, pieced with a hole in such manner as to receive a screw, which fixes

page_text: the bars to the upright F.. The top of the guides is fixed to the supporting
bar by a screw bolt, and another bolt maintains the moveable picce II, which
acts as a fulcrum to the other lever. These guides are joined at the top by a
small iron cylinder; in front of this cylinder the guides are also joined at the
lower part of an iron cross piece; at the centre of this piece is a small
aperture and two small notches to allow of the passage of the rod (I) of hollow
iron. This rod, about six inches long, is soldered to an iron piece, to which
the lever is fixed, the said piece being fixed to the guides by means of a bolt
passing through it and the lever. The ends of the bolts pivot in the grooves"
of the guides. The lever is of forged iron, and is about three feet long, and
of proportionate thickness. The catch K serves to keep the lever in placo.
Sheet Four. The compressing cylindar consists of an hexagonal copper
plato (A), of a diameter of sixteen centimeters and twelve millimeters thick.
The aperture in the centre of this plate has seventeen millimoters diameter..
The upper surface is perfectly smooth, it hollowed to the depth of eight
millimeters, except an exterior ring of seven millimeters, which is reserved; in
the centre is another circle, of a diameter of three centimeters, in which is an
aperture made to receive the ring with flexible blades. This hollow has at its
lower part a hole two millimeters deep, and three small notches, which allow of
the introduction of three projections reserved at the exterior circumferance of
a steel ring, which serves to maintain in place the ring with flexible blades in-
imparting to it'a circular motion. This ring is soldered to a tin cap (Sheet.
One, Figure Four,) which prevents the liquid spurting against the plate of the
cork compresser. At five millimeters from this circle are perforated -in the
same radius three oblong radius, forming a triangle. Threo similar openings'
are made on a radius of two centimeters behind the first, and triangularly
opposite to the three first. Three holes, pierced at centimeter from the exte..
rior circle, and which also forms a triangle serve to admit three screws, which.
fix concentrically to the plate the circle B. This circle is also of copper,
fifteen centimeters in diameter, of a height and thickness of two centimeters,
and is pierced horizontally in its thickness with six holes in the centres of the
facets of tho hexagonal plate, and correspond with the centre of the said plate.
Three pieces also of copper forming a circle (b) is placed in the centre of the
circle B;
this circle is nine centimeters in diameter and five centimeters thick.
These three parts are separate, and are intended to receive the three circular.
wedges of hard wood D, which are fixed to each of them by two screws, that
pass through the flat portion of the circle. At the centre of the edge of each
of these pieces is screwed one of. the guiding bolts, which passes by three of
the holes of the circle B. A screw with recoil spring is fixed in the flat

page_text: portion of each of these pieces, passing through the openings of the table plate
the furthest from the centre, and allow the three parts of this circle to slide
freely in the empty space between their exterior diameter and the interior
diameter of the circle (B). In the centre of the circle formed by the three
pieces is left an opening of about four centimeters half inch diameter, to allow
of the insertion of a copper cylinder (0) of the same diameter as the opening of
the circle C; this cylinder is five centimeters, pierced at its centre with a holo
of seventeen millimeters, divided also into three equal parts; each of theso
parts has screwed to it at the centre of its exterior diameter one of the three
conducting bolts; these latter have each fixed to them a spiral spring. The
key of hard wood is surrounded by a ring of iron; it is made to fit the angles
of the wedges, and has a handle that acts as a lever to turn it; when it is
turned it brings close together the moveable portions of the compressing
cylinder, and thus compresses the cork placed previously in the central
aperture.
The ratchet is about one foot and a half long at its extremity, fixed or of a
piece with it a bar about four inches long; in this bar is a square hole for the
admission of the square part of the bottle-bearer Y.
The guide O, about six inches long, is fixed to the ratchet. This guide
has at its upper extremity two prongs, to which at the contre aro two steel
springs, so arranged as to form a kind of pincers. This guide serves to clasp
hold of the neck of the bottle, so as to steady the latter during the operation of
corking. The plate of the lock P is of thick sheet iron, and has openings to
allow the ratchet N and the bolt to slide through. In the centre is fixed the
catch R, behind which is a flat piece of iron, which has in it a mortice to
receive the bolt of the lock. The spring of the catch is placed against the
bolt, and fixed by a screw to the lock, and the latter is made fast to the
support D. On the bolt of the lock is fixed a piece S, which may be desig-
nated as pressing paddle; its rod is curved, and has at its extremity a small
plate perforated in its centre; this opening is garnished at the sides with
cork, against which the neck of the bottle presses. Another piece T, of the
same shape as the rod of the paddle, is fixed to the top of the bolt of the
lock, and to this rod T is fixed one end of the rod U, in the manner shewn in
the Drawings. At the other extremity of the rod U is a slide, pierced at the
same distance as the horizontal piece, and which passes through the arm of
the paddle; the portion of the slide piece which protudes beyond the thickness
of the arm of the paddle receives a screw which fastens these picces together;
above this screw is a projection, on which the cap B of sheet iron is placed.
The upper portion of this cap has an opening; a copper piece, of nearly the

page_text: same diameter as the opening, is placed and fixed above this opening by a recoil
screw. The cap is lifted by the ascensional motion of the lever, and is kept in
a nearly vertical position by two pins drivers in the thickness of the lever. In
the opening at the extremity of the horizontal piece T, fixed to the lock of
the bolt, is screwed a copper cylinder ✗; at its base is a collar, which serves
to turn it. The hollow iron rod I, moved by the lever, crosses this cylinder
lengthways, and should freely slide in its opening; the said cylinder serves to
regulate the depth at which the corks are to be thrust.
The piston Y of the bottle bearer consists of a round hollow iron rod, about
6 inches long; the bottom of this rod is soldered to a square bit of iron, and
to this is fixed a small rod with a screw thread, on which is screwed a brass
button, which serves as a nut. In this tube a small rod slides; this rod has
across it a strong pin, that slides in the grooves of the tube, and is employed
to raise the bottle-bearer when small bottles have to be corked; on the top
of this rod is fixed the brass ball, on which the stand of the bottle-bearer is
placed. The rod A, employed to raise the bottle, is moved by a handle fixed
at its upper part.
The ring M is composed of a cylindrical circle of a conical shape; in the
interior, above the conical part, is a small interior circle, divided into three
parts; another conical circle is also inserted, and rests on the first interior
circle. Three notches, forming a triangle, are made in the thickness of the
reserved circle of the cone; three holes divide in the centre the space left
between the notches, pass through the two rings, and have a screw thread,
so as to admit screws, which fasten together with two rings. The notches
made in both rings being exactly opposite to each other, leave spaces, in
which small flexible blades are inserted; these blades should be made of
any inoxidable substance; the outer part of the blades is made convex all
round it, so as to leave greater spaces between the cork and the interior
of the neck of the bottle, in order to allow the surplus liquid to escape. A
long square box of sheet iron is hung up in front of the lock and protects it
from injury; two semicircular tin sheets, fixed between the two uprights E, E,
protect the machine from any sudden overflow of liquid; a small tin recipient,
fixed to the upper tablet, receives the liquid stopped by the cap, and from
thence falls into a larger recipient placed under the bottle-bearer; a tin box,
which slides in grooves under the lower tablet, receives the surplus liquid.
The manner of operating with the machine is to pass to the left of the
lever and seize it with the right hand, pressing on it till it is completely
lowered, then press with the left hand on the handle of the bottle-raiser, so as
to make its piston descend. This accomplished, the lever must be raised and

page_text: the bottle placed on the bottle stand; pressing the neck against the opening
left between the springs of the guide it is made to enter between these
springs. The handle of the bottle-raiser must then be taken hold of and the
bottle lifted till the neck touches the cork of the paddle; a sharp blow after
this is struck on the handle of the key of the cork compresser, imparting to it
a motion of from left to right, till the handle touches the guides of the lever;
the cork is placed in the compresser, then seizing with force the said handle, a
reverse motion is given it, until the moveable parts of the compressing cylinder
came close together; the lever is pressed down until the bottle resumes its
original position. The bottle is then withdrawn.
Sheets Numbers 2 and 3 represent a simplification of the corking apparatus
herein described without the cork compresser, but it is far from being as effective
as the first apparatus herein-before described.
The configuration of the improved corkscrew is shewn in Fig. 3, Sheet 3;
it has two or more spikes fixed on a small rotary plate at the top of the screw,
which enter the cork by pressure after the spiral screw has entered to a certain
length in the cork.
this
There are two pins on a small transversal plate, which is kept down by a
spring. When the plate arrives at the top of the cork, it is forced up, and
forces through two appertures in the rotary plate, so as to project above it;
brings them in contact with a pin passed transversibly through the shaft of the
corkscrew, which prevents the further rotation of the plate carrying the spikes,
so that by continuing the action of the corkscrew the cork is twisted bodily
round, and withdrawn by a slight lifting or pulling motion.
I claim the general arrangement of the corking apparatus herein described,
but more especially the ring with flexible blades, used to afford a passage to
the surplus liquid, and inserting and withdrawing the said blades mechanically.
Second, I claim the cork compresser.
Third. I claim. as herein described, the novel kind of corkscrew herein
described.
In witness whereof, I, the said Julien Denis, havo hereunto set my hand
described.
In witness whereof, I, the said Julien Denis, havo hereunto set my hand
and seal, this Thiru day of June, One thousand eight hundred and
fifty-seven.
J. DENIS. (LS.)