A most useful appendage to the foregoing apparatus, is the patent machine for corking bottles, invented by Mr. J. Masterman, by the use of which all risk of breaking the bottles is avoided ; the necessity of biting the corks, (a practice highly injurious to the health of the workmen,) is done away with, the bottles are corked in a very superior manner, and the whole operation conducted with cleanliness, economy, and unprecedented dispatch. The following is a descrip tion of the machine, (with reference to the annexed engraving,) and of the man ner in which it is worked : a a a a represents the frame, b b two vertical guide rods, connected at to by the bridging piece c ; d a cross head sliding upon the upper ends of the guide rods, and connected by the side rod k k, to the levers g g, which are united at the handle h, and which have their fulcrum at i. In the cross head d are secured by nuts on its upper face three cylindrical• metal bolts, termed by the patentee " impellers ;" ,f is a cross piece of wood firmly fixed to the guide rods, at such distance from their tops, as that when d is raised close to the bridging piece c, there may be a space between the bottom of the impellers, and the top off, at least equal to the length of a cork. In f, are fitted three conical metal tubes, immediately beneath, and concentric with, the impellers. These tubes have their mouths larger, and their lower apertures smaller than the corks, and are of three different sizes, which is sufficient to meet the variations in the size of the bottles, whether for wine or beer; 1 is a treadle which, by means of the iron rod m fixed to its axis, raises and depresses the wedge n ; this wedge slides on a cross piece of wood, (firmly fixed to each side of the frame a,) in such a manner that the upper surface of the wedge is always preserved in a horizontal position ; a loop of iron is fixed below its thicker end, and in it the upper end of the bar m works. To use the machine, the workman seats himself beside it with his right foot on the treadle; he then places a bottle so that its mouth is under, and in contact with, that tube which is of the proper size for introducing the cork into it, and retains the bottle in that position by, raising the wedge against its bottom by means of his foot acting on the treadle ; then raising the impellers by means of the lever, he puts a proper sized cork into that tube which is in contact with the mouth of the bottle, he depresses the lever, by which action the cork is forced by the impeller into the neck of the bottle ; then lowering the wedge by the pressure of his foot on the treadle, he removes the bottle, which completes the operation. This
we think is a most meritorious invention, and one deserving of general adop tion. The patentee states, that " more than half the time is saved, owing principally to the compression of the cork, and the impelling it into the bottle being effected at one operation or motion of the lever. Twelve bottles have been corked in one minute by way of experiment, and thirty dozen in an hour; but one workman could cork with ease at the rate of five and twenty dozen per hour throughout the day. The bottles also are better corked, partly owing to the corks being compressed and compacted, instead of being crushed or broken, as in the common methods; and partly from the corks, at the moment of entering the bottle, being subjected to a pressure both on their tops and sides, which causes them to become firmer and closer in the bottles, than when driven in after being crushed by any of the common methods.
A patent has been obtained by Mr. H. Berry for forming bottle stoppers of India rubber with the view of preventing the escape of volatile and other fluids, which cannot be well retained by the usual means of stopping. To effect this object several methods are described by the patentee in his specification ; that which is shewn in the engraving represents the section of an ink bottle for the pocket. a is the glass bottle with the extre mity of the neck ground to an angular edge, where it is brought into contact with a disc or button of caoutchoc b fixed into the top of the exterior case, which is of hard wood ; the top being screwed down as shewn in the figure, the glass edges of the bottle are forced into the elastic substance, so as to form a close and perfectly air-tight stopper. For volatile salts, the patentee uses the ordinary glass stoppers, and applies a collar of caoutchoc under a projecting flange of the stopper, which presses upon the upper surface of the neck.