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- Collectors Corner: Bottle Caps
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I well remember the potato that closed the spout of the coal-oil can, and the pottery jug of something or other that grandfather kept hidden in the barn, stoppered with a corn cob. When home and commercial preparation and packaging of preserves, jams, and jellies started in the early s with the greater availability of sugar, one closure method was simply a cover of waxed paper, cloth, parchment, leather, or skin, stretched across the opening, tied, and shorn off just below the tie. It was usually then dipped into hot wax. It was not paraffin as some have stated, because paraffin had not yet been discovered.
Neither was this hermetic sealing to preserve sterility - the products involved did not need such protection, nor had the principle of heat sterilization itself been discovered. All that was needed was to keep the contents from drying out, and to keep them clean, as from dust and other unwanted materials. These products did not need the more expensive, handcut, cork stoppers, and such closures were not immediately used. Traditionally the monk, Dom Perignon, cellerer and butler at the Benedictine Abbey at Hautvillers, France, from to , is supposed to have started the use of whittled cork stoppers to hold the internal gas pressure of the wine that became known as champagne.
With that said we move on to the closures most commonly found on bottles made during the era covered by this website - the 19th through mid 20th centuries. The first is the ubiquitous cork closure, the use of which was at least partially pioneered by Dom Perignon. The most common closure during the mouth-blown bottle era was the simple and highly effective cork or cork stopper.
Virtually all major bottle types from the mouth-blown bottle era can be found with finishes that accepted some type of cork closure, so there is little if any cork closure related typing utility for mouth-blown bottles empirical observations. Because of its familiarity and versatility, the cork was popular well into the machine-made bottle era of the early 20th century Illinois Glass Co.
Cork comes from the bark of the cork oak tree Quercus suber and Q. Cork as a stopper for vessels goes back to antiquity, being mentioned for such use by the Greek author Pliny the Elder during the first century A. In addition, its chemical inertness made it ideal for sealing almost any type of bottled product - liquid or solid - while imparting no flavor to that product Faubel Cork when kept moist by the contents of the bottle would also stay plumper and maintain its seal over a long time, which is one of the reasons cork is still used for wine bottles today Riley The properties of cork were perfect for the irregularly formed mouths of mouth-blown bottles which had finishes that were hand tooled with a commensurate lack of precision.
The author of this website has many cork sealed bottles which are well over years old but still have their contents virtually totally intact. Cork being somewhat porous does breathe ever so slightly so some evaporation occurs over a long period of time even though securely sealed. Corks were soaked in water and then squeezed into the proper shape for insertion in bottles with a tool called a "cork press" - see the illustration to the left Richardson Click cork press for a picture of an ornate, late 19th century, small hand operated cork press.
The following is from Holscher , from Berge about the early history of cork: While wax and resin mixtures were used in the 15th century as a stopper, the cork is also mentioned in English literature in the early s for the same purpose, in connection with bottles. And it was the stopper which permitted the development of the true champagne. The cork was not immediately "tied-on" in the early period for, in England, at least, the wired-on cork dates from In the early champagne and wine days, the corked sealed bottle section was inverted in a wax, compound, or oil to coat the cork; the seal was thus improved.
Wax stoppers, used in Mid-Continental Europe for alchemy and medicine, were replaced by tight corks after the latter's discovery. Thus, corks became the common bottle stopper during a year period, from early development before to almost complete use following Corks were also used extensively during the early part of the fully automatic machine-made bottle era, i.
The bottle pictured to the above left is a s era machine-made bottle made during the transition time when corks were still very common on medicinal bottles like this one from Atlanta, GA. The top illustration shows a cork finish i. The bottom illustration shows the same type bottle with a screw thread finish with the metal cap on.
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This catalog shows the availability of both closure types from the same manufacturer in the late s with the note that the screw caps are ". Because of this wide span of use and popularity, the presence of a cork accepting finish is not indicative of age for the majority of bottles made up until at least the s - mouth-blown or machine-made. The utility of cork closures for dating is that certain types of machine-made bottles made the transition from cork accepting to screw-thread or other non-cork finishes primarily from the s into the mids; see the illustrations to the left Berge ; empirical observations.
Corks were held in place in a lot of different ways. The most common and easiest method was simply the compression induced friction of the cork against the inside of the bottle bore and sometimes upper neck. An additional sealing safeguard entailed the placement of a lead or foil wrapper or "capsule" over the upper neck, finish and cork much like champagne and some liquor bottles are sealed today. This foil wrapping held the cork quite firmly in place for most non-carbonated liquids and helped seal the bottle from the atmosphere.
A capsule by itself would be inadequate for carbonated products; wire was often used under the capsule to more fully secure the cork. This bottle dates from the early 20th century. Click Ferro-China-Berner tonic bottle to view a picture of this entire bottle, which the label states is from New York, though the bottle and possibly contents were probably manufactured in Europe. With carbonated beverages soda, beer, champagne the cork had to be secured more positively to prevent the content pressure from loosening the cork and slowly leaking the carbonation or even popping out prior to consumption of the contents.
To accomplish this some type of tightened wiring or strong cord or string was wrapped in various ways around the upper neck and finish area with a portion looping over the cork to maintain it securely in the bottle. Though somewhat loose now, the wire that held the cork secure is also still present.
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The upper, thicker wire looped over the top of the cork which was pushed in level with the top of the bore and was held tightly in place by the smaller wires tightly originally encircling the neck just below the lower portion of the finish. This type closure is called a " wired cork stopper.
Without the original closure still in place, it is not often possible to tell if a given blob finished bottle utilized a cork as the closure or some other type, like a Lightning closure covered later which has disappeared. For example, the bottle to the right could have initially been sealed with a Lightning stopper which was used until it became non-functional or removed, then refilled and corked with a simple wire to hold the cork in place. The first Lightning-type stoppered bottle covered in that section below has the same finish as the malt tonic bottle to the right.
Without the original closures in place, one can not state for sure what the closure was. Besides the frequent inadequate sealing problems, cork had several other problems that slowly led to its demise. One was that it was often difficult to initially unseal the bottle with the cork intact and unbroken so that it could be used to reseal the partially utilized contents of the bottle.
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This is still a problem with wine bottles and has lead to numerous innovative and non-destructive cork removing tools in recent decades. Also, the process of bottling and sealing with a cork was slow and inefficient. The following is quoted from David Graci's recent book entitled Soda and Beer Closures It outlines the laborious efforts of hand corking early carbonated beverage bottles which was likely similar to the bottling of any product in cork closured bottles: An early method of bottling carbonated drinks was called "Hand and Knee Bottling", and involved an operator who sat at a hand operated bottle filling machine.
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Holding a bottle to the machine he raised a board under his knee, pressing the bottle's mouth to a tight fit and manually filling it, allowing excess pressure out before inserting a cork, which was then driven into the bottle with a wooden mallet. In this manner dozen bottles a day could be filled by a skilled knee bottler Undoubtedly, that mallet strike broke many bottles.
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It was this type of relatively slow, labor intensive method in hand with the other noted problems of cork that lead many pioneering inventors to thinking and tinkering towards making both better closure types and machines to speed up and make more safe the process of bottling products. Though cork was effective, most of the early closure efforts by inventers and bottlers were directed at finding a substitute for cork Graci The rest of this page discusses some of the more successful "substitutes.
One of the most common, non-cork closures is the large and diverse group of threaded closures. They come in both externally threaded and internal threaded versions. The internal or inside thread closures have a couple main variations that are fairly similar except for the materials the closures are made from: The closures for externally threaded finishes vary widely and are made from many materials - typically various metals and more recently plastic, but on occasion glass, rubber, and likely others.
Collectors Corner: Bottle Caps
Externally threaded closures and related finishes are arguably the most significant closure method of all time given that is has had one of the longest runs of any closure method with ubiquity to this day. The outside of the finish looks similar to other finishes of the era. There were two primary types of internal or inside threaded closures: Both are covered separately below. The tooled inside thread finish to the left inside of a "straight brandy" finish is on an S. Inside thread finishes on flasks were much less common than on cylinder fifths and quarts of that era, but common enough to warrant mention here.
Chevalier Company between and This is an era typical inside threaded cylinder liquor bottle.
Bottle caps with an expiration date
This Old Castle Whiskey bottle is also embossed with the maker's mark P. This allows for an earliest manufacture date of , outside of the Wilson's range. Toulouse's date is considered more accurate than Wilson's date range which was their best estimate at that time, pre-dating Toulouse's publication by 3 years.
This is and example of why - if possible - it is wise to consult several sources to confirm date ranges for bottles. Unfortunately, many or most bottles don't provide the luxury of multiple information sources. The stoppers also included a softer rubber gasket right below the head of the stopper which sealed against the rim of the finish missing on the pictured stopper. These are much easier to screw tight and unscrew than the inside thread stopper noted next. Most if not all of these hard rubber stoppers were made in England and imported for use on American made bottles Jones The finishes that accepted this type of stopper on American made bottles are almost always tooled finishes, though there some exceptions which have Western American product identification embossed on them but have applied finishes.
These were likely foreign made and imported Thomas This bottle has the Samuel A. Whitney patented Patent 31,, January 1, inside thread finish that accepts a glass threaded stopper. The patent noted that this finish arrangement was " Patent Office ; Lockhart et al. In the experience of the author, bottles with the Frank closure and finish are much less common than the Whitney version. These earlier glass inside thread stoppers have much more distinct thread ridges than the later rubber stoppers. This made it a bit harder to screw tight as well as unscrew from the finish.
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Click Whitney glass stopper for a close-up picture of the glass stopper showing the patent date embossed on the top the stopper is about 3 cm long. As with the hard rubber stopper, these had a soft rubber gasket just below the top cap part of the stopper, that sealed against the top surface of the finish. These bottles most definitely held liquor as labeled ones have been observed by the author noting that they contained "Old Bourbon Whiskey. This stopper is seen rarely on U.
Whitney Glass Works pint flask ; close-up pictures of the base, finish, and stopper. Glass inside thread stoppers were occasionally used on English nursing bottles; click English nursing bottle for a picture of an example. External thread finishes are so commonly used today that further explanation is probably not necessary; everyone is familiar with "screw-top" bottles.
Types or Styles of Finishes. That information is not repeated here since the major differences between varieties is related more to the finish conformation than the cap. Plastic caps for external threaded finishes: Plastic caps for screw thread finishes can be an excellent tool for bottle dating. Bakelite - an early thermosetting plastic - made its debut in as a screw cap closure material though was first patented in Berge This provides a terminus post quem earliest date of use of for bottles with the plastic cap still present.
The illustration above is from a Owens-Illinois Glass Co. Click external screw thread flask to view an image of this entire liquor flask.