HutchBook.comCharles G. Hutchinson Bottle Stopper
U.S. Patent Number: Reissue 8,755 Patented: June 17, 1879
UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE
CHARLES G. HUTCHINSON, OF
IMPROVEMENT IN BOTTLE-STOPPERS.
Specification forming part of Letters
Patent No. 213,992,
Reissue No.
8,755,
dated June 17, 1879; application filed April 28, 1879.
To all whom it may concern:
Be it known that I, CHARLES G. HUTCHINSON, of
Figure 1 is a vertical central section of the upper
part or neck of a bottle provided with my improved stopper, showing the
latter in its highest position, or when the bottle is closed; and Fig.
2, a like representation, showing the position of the stopper when the
bottle is open.
In the drawings,
A represents the neck or
upper portion of a bottle.
The neck is contracted slightly, as shown at
a, between its upper or outer
end, a’, and its lower end or
portion, a’’, which merges
into the body of the bottle.
B is the stopper,
which may consist, as heretofore, of a disk of rubber.
C is a
laterally-yielding spring, to which the stopper is attached.
This spring extends above the stopper and enters the contracted
portion of the neck of the bottle, as shown.
In order that the stopper
B may be suspended below or
away from the neck of the bottle, so that the neck will open, I extend
the spring C upward, but make
this upper part sufficiently large to prevent it from falling down
through the neck accidentally, and not so large as to prevent the lower
part of the spring from being pushed through, and far enough below the
narrowest part of the neck to fully open the latter, as shown in Fig. 2.
To admit of the stopper or plug
B being held up to or into
the contracted part of the neck by means of the spring, so as to close
the neck, I make the lower part of the spring sufficiently yielding to
pass through or into the contracted part of the neck, and to press upon
the same outwardly, thus holding the stopper in its closed position, as
shown in Fig. 1.
It will be perceived that, the spring being laterally
yielding, and some of its parts being at all times in contact with the
contracted neck, the stopper will be held by it either in such a
position as to close the neck or in such a position as to keep it open,
as may be desirable or necessary, and that the stopper when open will be
held from contact with the bottle.
In other words, the friction or pressure of the spring against
the interior wall of the neck holds the stopper either in a position to
close or open the bottle, according as to whether the spring be drawn up
or pushed down.
The chief novel feature of my invention, so far as I
am aware, consists of a laterally or outwardly yielding spring applied
to the stopper or plug proper, and adapted to extend up through and
press against the interior of the neck of the bottle, so that the
stopper will thereby be suspended in a position to either close or open
the neck as the spring is moved either up or down, and be held in either
its closed or open position by the action of the spring.
I do not, therefore, here intend to be restricted to the precise
form of spring herein shown; neither do I regard a neck made contracted
between its upper end and its junction with the body of the bottle
absolutely essential, for it is obvious that a laterally-yielding spring
properly fitted into a straight neck would suspend the plug or stopper
adjustably by the mere lateral pressure of the spring against the
interior of the neck.
A simple and inexpensive way of constructing a spring
for the purposes set forth, and uniting it in all the advantages now
recited, is to make it of flexible wire, bending the wire so that the
spring will approximate the figure 8 in form, as shown, leaving one end
free, and attaching the other to the stopper.
A small hook may be employed to draw the stopper up into the
neck, the top of the spring serving as a loop to receive the hook.
The stopper, however, may be drawn up by grasping the spring with
the fingers; but it is not essential that the spring should intersect or
cross itself, or that it should, except when used in a contracted neck,
approximate the figure 8 in form.
Having thus described my invention, what I claim as
new, and desire to secure by Letters Patent, is –
1. The combination, substantially as
described, with the neck of a bottle, of a bottle-stopper arranged in
the body of the bottle, and provided with a laterally-yielding spring
connected thereto and extending upward therefrom and forming a part
thereof, when the said spring and stopper are adjustable together
vertically in the neck, and the spring is adapted, substantially as
described, to hold the stopper alternately in its open and closed
positions by pressing outwardly against the interior of the neck,
according to the adjustment vertically of the spring in the neck, for
the purposes set forth.
2. A bottle-stopper consisting of the plug
B, provided on its upper face
with the continuous flexible wire
C, rigidly attached thereto at one end, and bent to approximate the
figure 8 in form, the other end of said wire being bent back to a point
near the end attached to the plug, and the end so bent back being left
free or loose, in combination with a bottle having a neck somewhat
narrower, interiorly, than the said bent part or extension of the
stopper, substantially as shown and described, and for the purposes set
forth.
CHARLES G. HUTCHINSON.
In presence of – F. F. Warner,
H. C. Ballard.
Comments:
Charles G. Hutchinson’s five bottle-stopper patents
are included in their entirety to serve as reference sources for
tracking their design evolution. Also
see:
U.S. Patent Number: 285,488 Patented: September 25, 1883