US65533A

US65533A - Improvement in the manufacture of stopples for bottles

Info

Publication number: US65533A
Authority: US
Publication date: 1867-06-11
Anticipated expiration: 1884-06-11

Description

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LEVERETT BISHOP, OF PARIS, YORK.

Lam Patent No. 65,533, dated June 11, 1867; I

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TO ALL WHOM IT MAY CONCERN;

Be itknown that I, LEVERETT BISHOP, of the town of Paris, county of Oneida, and. State of New York, have discovered a valuable and highly useful substance out of which to manufacture andfabricate all kinds of Stopples for Bottles containing fluids, jars for canning fruits, &c.,,and for all purposes for which the native or natural cork is now used. as aforesaid, of which the following is a full, clear, and exact description of preparing the substance and forming it into suitable artistic shapes for the uses aforesaid.

My invention consists in converting the wood of any or all the varieties of willow, cedar, pine, bass-wood, or any species of wood that may be found commercially or artistically the most economical, into a substance known and described in books on chemistry and general science asjg ipe ,or an approximation thereto, just as different woods used are found to require, and'of porous woody fibre without chemical change, as hereinafter more fully explained. V a

The wood intended for the fabrication of stopplcs as herein specified is first wrought into blanks of the desired length of-the stopple. 'These blanks are cylinders corresponding'in diameter to the base of the cone or .stopple to be formed. Thus wrought, they are immersed in a bath of diluted sulphuric acid, (oil of vitriol of commerce,) one part acid to three of water, more or less, and should remain in this bath three or four days, or until the acid has penetrated to nearly the centre of the blank, whichmay be known by inspection. The blanks should then be removed from the bath and suffered to dry, the decomposition and breaking up of the cellulose or stiffening principle going on the meanwhile and becoming more and more perfect throughout the entire blank. The blanks may be treated with nitric acid, as above, (or other chemical agents or acids,) thereby avoiding the dark color produced bysulphuric acid. By adding nitric acid to the sulphuric acid bath after two or three days immersion, the blanks are restored to the light orange color produced by the use of nitric acid alone.

After the blanks are removed from the chemical bath they will improve for a long time, and when nitric acid alone is used do not generally require an alkaline bath before washing out the remains of nitric acid and its compound in running water. When blanks are prepared by sulphuric acid alone, care should be taken to wash out all traces of the remaining acids and sulphates from them before compression, now to be described. For the purpose of'shapiiigthe blanks into suitable artistic forms for stopples, and securing by m'eans of compression the quality of rapid'expansion on coming in contact with liquids and of somewhat cork-like elasticity,

these blanks are forcedinto moulds of iron or other metallic substances, or of wood, (when in a. proper stage of dampness,) and allowed to remain in such moulds or forms until they become set or fixed. Blanks formed of very light, porous wood admit of sufiicient compression Without decomposition of the cell structure, as before explained, forming thereby stopples of less cost and commercial value, but in many cases of equal temporary utility as the former. Blanks of this sortshould, before compression, be made to absorb a small quantity of gum arabic solution, or some other inert and similar substance, whereby they retain their conical or cork form until coming in contact with liquids. The protruding ends of the blanks after being forced into the moulds should be pared off, and to the-larger end of the stopple a little linseed oil applied.

What I claim as my invention, and desire to secure by Letters Patent, is- The right to make and use in the fabrication of stopples for bottles a substance called lignine, or an approximation thereto; also light,'porous woody fibre, (as both herein specificd',) by means of compression into moulds or forms herein mentioned and described.

I claim compression as above only for the specific purpose of securing to such stopples the quality ofrapid expansion by moisture and somewhat of cork like elasticity, and not for giving them certain definite artistic shapes.

' LEVERETT BISHOP.

Witnesses:

B. D. Rrcnnans, WILLIAM KNIGHT.