After the bottles are tilled, with the exception of the siphon bottles just described. they must be closed in some manner. The most common method is to cork them. Besides ordinary soak ing and rinsing in pails or tanks of water, the corks may be placed in revolving drums and cleansed by either the wet or the dry process. in the latter process, the corks roll about in 'rum blers' and rub against each other for hours until the loose fragments and the edges that might, easily chip off, together with much dust, are all removed by attrition and shaking. The corks are then thoroughly soaked and rinsed.
The essential feature of corking-machines is a compressor. which shapes the cylindrical corks used in power-corkers, and a plunger-rod, which forces each cork home into the neck of the bottle. The machine may be driven by hand, foot. or other power. The self-feeding machines may be operated at the rate of 2000 bottles per hour. Bottle-wiring machines secure the wire around the corks and necks of bottles at the rate of from several hundred to 1000 per hour, accord ing to the dexterity of the operator. Bottle labeling machines affix labels in place, and in some cases date them, at the rate of 10,000 to 12.000 bottles per day. in some machines the
bottle is stationary and the label is picked up and pressed against the bottle; in others, a plunger forces the bottle against the label. The corks and bottle-necks are covered. chiefly for decoration. with tinfoil by hand, or caps by ma chine. Branding•machines to burn the brand into the corks consist of a heated die or stamp forced home by a lever or other pressure. Be sides the well-known corks composed of the material of that name (see CoRK), there are a great variety of other stoppers. Permanent stop pers are attached to the bottle by means of wires. They often consist of a metal cap. beneath which is a rubber cork or plug. The wiring may be so hinged and bent as to give a leverage to force the cork tightly into the bottle and hold it securely in place. When the chief function of stoppers is to cover a bottle for a brief period, pasteboard disks are sometimes used. They are particularly well adapted to the wide-mouthed bottles in which milk is delivered for final consumption. Millions of these are now made from wood pulp. See PAPER.