HutchBook.comJames Terry Bottle Stoppers (1)
James Terry’s patent application
was filed February 20, 1885 and specified:
I, James Terry...of
Figure 1 is a sectional view of my bottle-stopper,
partly in elevation. Fig. 2
is a plan view of the packing-disk and its hub.
Figs. 3 and 4 are like views of the same, of slightly modified
forms; and Fig. 5 is a sectional view, partly in elevation, of my
stopper, showing a modified construction of the packing-disk and its
hub…
In placing the stopper into the bottle, the free end
of the stop-wire A will press
against the upper end of the hub and push the packing-disk
a through the neck of the
bottle.
In order to remove the stopper, it is only necessary
to insert a proper tool into the mouth of the bottle and grasp the hub
by the flange b. Then pull the stopper
out of the bottle. In doing
so the packing-disk and its hub first slide upward on the straight part
of the wire A, after which the
pressure-head B is so far
removed from the packing-disk a that the latter may bend downward into a
sort of funnel shape as it strikes the neck of the bottle, and thereby
reduce its diameter sufficiently to let it out of the bottle…
My stopper cannot be removed by meddlers or others
without proper appliances for entering the neck of the bottle and
lifting the packing-disk, thereby insuring a return of the stoppers with
the bottles when the latter are returned to the bottlers.
Comments:
This is the first of three closely-related patents
filed by James Terry. This
one illustrates the similarity of his stoppers to Charles G.
Hutchinson’s, and also shows his desire that his bottles be returned
with stoppers intact. His
next two patents provide details about the “proper appliances” needed to
remove his stoppers. It is
unknown whether or not Terry achieved any success at marketing his
stoppers.