BOTTLE. A vessel with a narrow mouth or aperture, used to contain liquids; and usually composed of glass or earthen ware. Under these two heads will be found a description of the process of manufacturing them ; we shall, therefore, in this place, briefly notice some inventions connected with them, and which we could not introduce under separate heads.
The first is Masterman's patent apparatus for bottling wine or beer, which, as usually performed, is a tedious and wasteful process; but by the apparatus which we are about to describe, the bottles may be filled uniformly to a precise point, as fast as they can be changed, without the necessity of any examination on the part of the workman. In the annexed engraving, a is the cask con taming the liquid to be bottled; this cask must be closed perfectly air tight; b a cock, a nozzle about 4 or 5 inches in length, and of a bore greater than the area of the whole of the syphons, (hereafter mentioned;) c a trough about 14 inches long, 6 inches wide, and 4 inches deep,—It is attached to the frame d d in such a manner that its distance from the foot thereof may be increased or dimished at pleasure ; e e e e are four metal syphons, having ach a leg of nearly equal length ; one leg of each is fixed to the inside of the front of the trough, the other leg is outside of the trough about 3 inches from the front of it; f is a trough to catch the liquid which may be spilt whilst changing the bottles; it can be elided up and down the frame, and has a rail g for the bottles to stand on while filling; h k represents what the patentee terms an air tube; the cross piece i is of solid brass, bored only so high as to pass the end of the tube soldered into it. The horizontal part of the tube is made of pure tin, on account of its flexibility ; it is connected to the vertical part by a union joint at k; 1 is an iron brace placed across the trough, to retain the air tube firmly in its proper situation. The mode of using the machine is as follows; the trough c is fixed so high in its frame, that the bottom comes within an inch of the orifice of the cock, and the air tube is fixed in the brace, so that its lower orifice may be at least one inch above the orifice of the cock, and at least one inch below the top of the trough, and the other end of the air tube is driven air tight into a hole either through the bung of the cask, or through a hole made for the purpose in the cask above the surface of the liquid therein. Upon opening the cock, the liquid flows
into the trough until it rises so high as to close the orifice of the air tube, when the air no longer having admission to the cask, the liquor ceases to flow. The syphons are then put in action by exhausting the air out of them successively by the mouth applied to a bent tube, one end of which is placed against the syphon so as to form an air tight tube within it. The outer end of each syphon, as it is brought into action, is inserted in the neck of a bottle, and the point to which the bottles are to be filled is brought to a level with the orifice of the air tube, the rail g being adjusted so as to retain the bottles at this elevation. As the bottles fill, the surface of the liquid in the trough sinks until it descends below the orifice of the air tube, when the air rushes into the cask, and the liquid recommences flowing ; and thus by this alternate action, the liquid in the trough is always preserved nearly on a level with the orifice of the air tube. As each bottle fills, it is withdrawn quickly from the syphon and replaced by an empty one ; but if the bottles are suffered to remain, they will never fill higher than the level of the orifice of the air tube, which it has been shown is the level to which the liquid in the trough is confined. Another method of maintaining the liquid in the trough at always the same level is described in the specification, which we think is upon the whole preferable to that described above. It con sists in substituting for the air tube a species of valve, adapted to the lower orifice of the cock, and regulated by a float on the surface of the liquid in the trough, so that as the liquid rises in the trough, the float also rises, and causes the valve to shut when the surface of the liquid has attained its proper level ; and as the level sinks the float also sinks and opens the valve, causing the liquid to flow again. When the float and valve are substituted for the air tube the cask must have vent.