Bottle
Closures:
Since
the there were bottles, man has been looking for a better stopper. A
stopper held the contents in and protected them. Early stoppers were
leather or anything soft that could be pushed into the lip of a bottle to
seal it. Eventually, the cork became the preferred bottle closure.
At times tar or pitch was applied to the cork to help seal it.
Closing
of soda bottles was problematic because of the pressure of the
contents. If the stopper leaked, the soda water would go flat.
If the cork remained moist, it would not shrink and thus protect the
contents. This is the reason some soda bottles will not stand
up. When a bottle rested on its side the contents would keep the cork
moist. Other bottles were stored and shipped upside down to
accomplish the same goal. Often a string or wire was fastened around the neck
and over the cork to secure it against the pressurized contents.
As
the industrial age dawned, there started a slow but steady number of patents
for closures for soda and beer bottles. The earliest patent for
a soda water bottle stopper was in 1859, and issued to Henry William Putnam. This patent
was for a heavy wire bail attached to the bottle's neck that could swing
over the cork to hold it in. In 1885, there were
over 80 patents granted for these closure. As the number of bottlers
deceased, as national brands flooded the market and as automation of the
bottling process became standard, the number of closure patents
decreased. The crown cork effectively replaced all bottle closures and
became the standard by 1920. The crown worked well on the automated
bottling lines and was more sanitary than other stoppers.
The
closure used on a bottle has something to say about a bottle's age.
Closures used
on soda and beer bottles have periods of use that are not reflective of the
closures general used for other bottles. For example, the screw-on top
was used on many types of bottles, but try and find a true screw top soda bottle.
Other closures were designed for use on soda or beer bottles. For
example the Hutchinson and Codd stoppers were designed for carbonated
beverages. They both needed the pressure of the charged gases to seal
them. You will not find these stoppers on any other type of
bottle. Stoppers were often patented and the patent date establishes
the earliest date of the bottle. Some stoppers were only used on a
single bottle, often on the bottles of the inventor. The Roorbach and
Tucker stopper is a prime example. Other, like the ABC Patent, gained limited
success. While some were extremely popular. Those that were popular
spawned imitators who made minor improvement to the widely used
stopper. There are no doubt over one hundred different patents for a
bail type stopper for beer bottles that are all variations of the
"Lightning" stopper.
As
more economical and easier to use stoppers were invented, older styles fell
out of style. Health laws in the United States and eventually
elsewhere in the world doomed many stoppers as unsanitary. These events all help to
mark the end of a stoppers use.
Stopper
achieved different levels of popularity in different countries. The
Codd stopper was immensely popular in England and it's empire, but rare used
in the United States. The Hutchinson stopper was the stopper of choice
in the United States, but virtually nonexistent in Britain. Regions
can also have an influence on a bottles stopper. William Painter's
1885 patent bottle stopper, popularly called the Baltimore loop seal, was
widely used in Baltimore and the Mid-West, but scarcely used in
Philadelphia.
Below
are listed some of the more popular stoppers, some rarities and those that have implemented
some modification to the glass:
 |
Cork, circ:
pre-1600-1905, By far
the most common closure used on soda and beer bottles until about 1885 on
American soda bottles when the Hutchinson stopper became the standard and
in 1880 on American beer bottles when Lightning Stopper became standard.
Initially, string or a wire was used to secure the cork to the
bottle. Later, a wire bail became the standard. Some bottlers still used corks into the Twentieth Century. |
 |
Putnam
Stopper, circ: 1859-1905, Invented
by: Henry William Putnam American
Patent: March 15, 1859, Number: 23, 263 This cork
fastener was the standard used on corked soda and bottles during the 1870s
and 1880s when it was replaced with the more popular Hutchinson internal
stopper. The bail was reusable and the bottler was not required to
rewire the cork with every refilling of the bottle. |
 |
Codd
Stopper, circ: 1872-1920, Invented
by: Hiram Codd in 1872, England American
Patent: April 29, 1873 A marble
in the neck was pushed up against a rubber gasket in the lip to seal the
bottle. The pressure of the carbonated beverage inside kept the
marble in place. Theses bottles had to be filled upside down in order for
the marble properly seat. The indentations in the neck kept the
marble from clogging when the contents were poured out. There were
many similar patents that all worked on the same basic principle. |
 |
Lightning
Stopper, circ: 1875-1910, Invented
by: Charles De Quillfeldt, American
Patent: January 5, 1875, Number: 158,406 This
stopper revolutionized beer bottling and was an almost instant success for
Karl Hutter who acquired the patent rights and popularized this stopper
when it was reissued in 1877. In 1878, Henry Putnam also acquired
and interest in this stopper and in 1882 adapted it for use on fruit
jars. There were many imitators of this patent over the years, but
they all worked on the same principle of leveraging a rubber disk into the
lip of the bottle to make a seal. |
 |
Hutter
Stopper, circ: 1893-1920, Invented
by: Karl Hutter, American
Patent: February 7, 1893 This
stopper was an improvement to the Lightning stopper and was extremely popular and
eventually replaced the Lightning as the preferred beer bottle
stopper. A tapered porcelain plug was fitted with a rubber washer on
the bottom and forced into the lip of the bottle to seal it. This
stopper was replaced with the crown cork. |
 |
Hutchinson Stopper, circ:
1879-1915, Invented
by: William H. Hutchinson, American
Patent: April 4, 1879 Number: 213,992 This
was an improvement to Matthews gravitating stopper and worked on the same
principle. When the stopper was raised, the pressure of the
carbonated contents sealed the rubber gasket against the base of the
neck. Unlike Matthews, it was cheaper and more efficient to
use. Also, the bottle did not have to be filled upside down.
To bottle, the stopper was put in the downward position, the contents were
injected into the bottle with a nozzle. This nozzle contained a hook
that grabbed the top loop of the stopper and pulled it upward thus sealing
the bottle. This
stopper was deemed unsanitary because dust and dirt could settle above the
stopper and contaminate the drink when the contents were dispensed. Its
replacement was the crown cork. |
 |
Screw
Stopper, circ: 1880-1920, Invented
by: American
Patent:
This stopper was never popular in the United States, however it was
widely accepted in England and its colonies. A composite stopper was
screwed into the lip of the bottle, which had screw threads on the
inside. In the United States this closure was known as the
"American Screw Stopper." |
|
|
Roobach
Stopper, circ: 1883-1885, Invented
by: William L. Roorbach American
Patent: February 20, 1883 This stopper was similar to Codd's patent
although it used a ceramic marble to seal the bottle. The marble was
held in place by the pressure of the carbonated contents. Additionally,
the indentations to hold the marble and keep it from clogging the neck
during pouring were located near the base of the bottle. These bottles had
to be filled upside down to properly seal the bottle.
|
 |
Floating
Ball Stopper, circ: 1885-1910, Invented
by: William L. Roorbach American
Patent: June 23, 1885 and August 4, 1885, Numbers: 320,701 and 323,737 This
was also known as the Twitchell Floating Ball stopper. This stopper
gained some popularity in the United States. A hollow composite ball
or marble was held against a rubber washer that was secured in a neck
groove by the pressures of the carbonated contents. This stopper was
an improvement on Roorbach's 1883 patent. The bottles can be
identified by the large groove in the neck.
|
 |
Self-Closing
Stopper, circ: 1889-1895, Invented
by: William L. Roorbach and George W. Tucker American
Patent: October 14, 1889, Number: 429,482 This stopper was never popularity in the United
States and George W. Tucker may have been the only user. A hollow composite
bullet with a rubber gasket was held against the neck by the pressures of the carbonated contents. This stopper was
an improvement to Matthews' gravitating stopper. This stopper became
the Trademark of the Pennsylvania Bottling & Supply Company of
Philadelphia and is embossed on their bottles.
|
 |
Matthews
Gravitating Stopper, circ: 1864-1885, Patented
by: John Matthews American
Patent: October 11, 1864, April 15, 1872 This stoppers was an
improvement to the Albertson stopper, which was patented in 1862. This stopper
consisted of a glass rod that was tipped with a rubber nipple. The
glass rod fitted into the neck of the bottle and the attached rubber
nipple sealed the contents when the pressure of the
carbonated contents pushed the rubber nipple against the base of the
neck. To open the bottle, the glass rod was pushed down to break the
seal. The bottle had to be filled upside down so that the glass rod
could fall into place. The stopper gained popularity after an
improvement was made in 1872 and most of the bottles date after this
point. Glass rods of these bottles bear the Albertson and two
Matthews patents. If the stoppers are missing, the bottles can
be identified by the elaborate patent embossing on the base, which is not
present on latter bottles, and the straight neck and inverted taper
lip. The glass rods were fragile and had a tendency to break.
As a result, the cheaper and more durable Hutchinson stopper quickly
replaced the Gravitating stopper during the early 1880s.
|
| No Picture Yet |
Arthur
Christian Stopper, circ: 1875-1880, Patented
by: Arthur Christian American
Patent: April 13, 1875 This stoppers was an adaptation of the
Gravitating stopper. Its improvement was the placing of the sealing
gasket in the lip of the bottle and not on the stopper itself. A
tapered composition stopper was pulled up into the lip and wedged against
the rubber gasket in the lip creating a seal. The bottle was opened
by pushing the stopper down into the bottle. This stopper was never
widely accepted, even though it was used by a number of bottler across the
country. Due to the limited numbers that are found, it was mostly
tried and abandoned by those who were looking for an improvement over the
cork stopper.
|
Still under
construction!!! More to come.
