Today in 1948, US Patent D152196 S was issued, an invention of Arthur R. Glidden, for his “Design For a Combination Key Holder and Bottle Opener.” There’s no Abstract, although in the description it includes this summary:
I have invented a new, original, and ornamental Design for a Combination Key Holder and Bottle Opener, of which the following is a specification, reference being had to the accompanying drawing, forming a part thereof.
Today in 1965, US Patent 3225510 A was issued, an invention of Robert J. Weichhand and Wickliffe Jones, for their “Article Cartoning Machine.” There’s no Abstract, although in the description it includes this summary:
This invention relates to article packaging and more particularly to a machine for packing beer bottles in conventional six-pack or eight-pack cartons.
More specifically, the machine of this invention is intended for packaging beer bottles in cartons which are formed of paperboard material and which are furnished in a fiat collapsed condition. The collapsed cartons are loaded in stacked formation into a magazine, which includes mechanism for withdrawing the collapsed cartons individually from the lower portion of the magazine subsequently to be erected and loaded. In order to obtain the high loading rate, as indicated above, the bottles, which are fed in a continuous stream, are segregated into groups and the groups advanced into the erected carton from opposite ends. After being loaded with the bottles, liquid adhesive is applied to the flaps of the cartons, then the flaps are folded to a closed position and sealed before the loaded cartons are discharged from the machine.
To perfect a cartoning machine which will handle 600 to 1,200 or more bottles per minute and package them in an automatic manner, the bottles must flow in a substantially straight line continuous movement without any stopping or starting. At the rate of movement of this machine, the inertia of stopping the bottle and starting it again or of jerky acceleration and deceleration would break the bottle or at least scar and tear the paper label. It has thus been an object of this invention to provide a bottle cartoning machine which utilizes smooth acceleration and deceleration substantially straight line continuous flow of the bottles to be packaged and which eliminates abrupt impact reciprocating or oscillating elements which might break the bottle or at least scar the labels upon the bottles. It should be understood that while this machine has been described with reference to packaging bottles, it is equally adaptable to packaging other articles. Of course a machine operable to handle fragile glass is capable of handling metal containers such as beer cans.
The machine includes a series of continuous motion conveyor systems for advancing and erecting cartons after they have been withdrawn individually from the magazine. Thus, the first conveyor apparatus receives the carton blank as it is withdrawn from the bottom of the magazine and includes means for handling the flaps which project outwardly from the opposite open ends of the advancing blank. A first stage conveyor apparatus advances the blank toward a main carton transport conveyor and concurrently partially erects the carton. The partially erected carton is then transferred to a main carton conveyor and during transfer is completely erected by con- Patented Dec. 28, 1965 ice tinuously advancing spacer lugs on the main carton transport conveyor. These lugs coact with the first stage conveyor apparatus to completely erect the carton. The spacer lugs of the main carton conveyor confine the carton firmly in its erected condition and advance it toward the bottle loading zone with the several carton flaps extending outwardly to an open position to avoid any interference of the bottles as they are advanced into the open end of the erected carton.
As the erected carton advances to the loading zone, six cans (or eight cans in the case of an eight-pack) are fed laterally from a pair of parallel bottle conveyors into the opposite ends of the carton by stationary converging guide rails. The bottles are segregated into groups of three each (or four in the case of an eight-pack) and fed into the carton. The segregating mechanism consists of restraining fingers which enter in front of every third bottle. These restraining fingers move at a slower rate than the bottle conveyors so that the restraining fingers slow the movement of the bottles. The down stream finger then releases a group of three which move away from the finger or move downstream at a rate determined by the bottle conveyor which is moving faster than the restrained bottles. As soon as the group of three bottles have moved downstream so as to establish a gap between the restrained bottles and the unrestrained ones, spacer fingers enter the gap so as to maintain the spacing between the now grouped bottles. Guide rails then force the group of bottles across a continuously moving bucket conveyor which maintains the spacing of the groups and into the open sides of the cartons. After the bottles are loaded into the carton, liquid adhesive is supplied to the flaps and the flaps are folded to a closed position and sealed as the carton advances toward the discharge end of the machine.
A further objective of the invention has been to provide an improved segregating mechanism for forming articles into groups while advancing the articles toward a packaging zone where the segregated groups are fed transversely into the open end of an advancing carton.
Today in 1938, US Patent 2140187 A was issued, an invention of James Kantor, assigned to the Liquid Carbonic Corp., for his “Bottle Filling and Gassing Machine.” There’s no Abstract, although in the description it includes this summary:
My invention relates to improvements in bottle filling machines particularly adapted for filling bottles with beer, and to a method of filling bottles with beer.
It ha been found that air has a decidedly deteriorating effect on beer and it has been found that where beer has been bottled and the content of air in the bottles is comparatively large, that after storage for a short period the bottled beer not only deteriorates as to color but as to the taste.
As a matter of fact, in the bottling of beer, if the air content of the bottle, after it has-been crowned, is greater than two per cent, the deteriorating effect is decidedly noticeable.
It is one of the objects of my invention to provide a machine and method for filling bottles with beer and to fill the same in such a manner that the air content of the bottle after crowning is reduced to the In the apparatus and in the method in which I am able to fill the bottles, I am enabled to deliver filled and crowned bottles with approximately not more than four-tenths of one per cent of air.
Today in 1894, US Patent 530600 A was issued, an invention of Valentin Oppl, for his “Apparatus For Bottling Beer.” There’s no Abstract, although in the description it includes this summary:
My invention relates to an apparatus for bottling beer, and the invention consists in the construction of apparatus substantially as shown and described and particularly pointed out in the claims
Today in 2003, US Patent 6659298 B2 was issued, another invention of Chio Fai Wong, for his “Polyester Beer Bottle.” Here’s the Abstract:
A polyester beer bottle comprising a bottleneck, a body and a bottom of the bottle, which are once blown and shaped with polyester blank, in which arc portion in a vertical section extended from the joint of shaped bottom and body of the bottle to a plane of the bottom has a radius ranging over 15-25 mm; an arc radius in a vertical section of the concave quaquversal portion projecting inwards at a bottom surface of said bottle is in a range of 20-35 mm, and the distance between a top of the concave quaquversal portion to the plane of bottom is in a range of 7-15 mm; an outward projecting support flange portion is formed at the joint between said concave quaquversal portion and the bottom plane of the bottle, a height of the flange portion is in a range of 0.1-5 mm; and a side-face of the bottle is connected to said concave quaquversal portion at the bottom of the bottle via the transition arc portions respectively having different radius, in which the radius of first transition arc is in a range of 3-8 mm, and the second transition arc radius is in a range of 0.5-2 mm. The ratio between the maximum outer diameter of the bottom of the bottle and the diameter of the flange portion on said bottom plane of the bottle is in a range of 1.2-1.7.
Today in 1948, US Patent 2455496 A was issued, another invention of Thomas Kaskouras, for his “Can and Bottle Opener.” There’s no Abstract, although in the description it includes this summary:
My invention relates to an opener adapted to open a can or remove a bottle top.
Today in 1890, US Patent 441477 A was issued, an invention of William H. Foye, Jr., and William H. Foye, Sr., for their “Bottling-Machine.” There’s no Abstract, although in the description it includes this summary:
Our invention relates to improvements in bottling-machines used in bottling fermented liquors and other fluids which contain carbonic acid gas or are to be charged with the same.
Our objects are, first, to provide a machine capable of adjustment to any size or shape of bottle; second, to force out the atmospheric air contained in the bottle and fill the same with carbonic-acid gas; third, to fill the bottle with fluid and prevent the same from coming in contact with atmospheric air, if desired, thereby preventing the escape of carbonic-acid gas and preserving the life and aroma of the fluid; fourth, to saturate the fluid with carbonic-acid gas, when required, by pressure and agitation, and, fifth, to cork and secure the same by wiring before removing the bottle from the machine, if desired.
And here’s the original drawing filed with the application:
Today in 1934, US Patent 1981627 A was issued, an invention of Ralph S. Merriman, assigned to the Closure Service Company, for his “Coaster.” There’s no Abstract, although in the description it includes this summary:
My invention relates to an article of manufacture designed for use as a tray or holder for glass tumblers, bottles or the like.
Today in 1956, US Patent 2868247 A was issued, an invention of Aloysius J. Feit and Sydney R. Weisberg, for their “Bottle Filling Apparatus.” There’s no Abstract, although in the description it includes this summary:
Among the principal objects of the present invention are: to provide bottle filling apparatus where the opening of a valve discharging fluid or other material into a lbottle is initiated by the depression of an actuator member by the bottle as it is positioned below a supply outlet controlled by the valve, where the valve is closed preferably automatically by an automatic timer and, under certain circumstances, upon operation of a manual switch, and where the valve is thereafter prevented from again opening until the bottle is removed from the actuator member and another bottle is moved against the same to depress the actuator member to begin a new filling cycle; to provide bottle filling apparatus of the type above described wherein, although the actuator member may be spring urged to an extended position, the actuator member is held in its depressed position at least during the actual filling operation so that the bottle need not he forced against the actuator member during the filling operation, making the system particularly suitable in the filling of very light bottles where the bottles would otherwise require an externally applied force to keep the bottles in the proper filling position against the actuator member; to provide bottle filling apparatus as just described wherein the aforementioned valve is an electrically controlled valve, such as a solenoid valve, which is associated with a control circuit which selectively provides for controlling the solenoid valve either through an automatic electric timer or a manual switch, and which becomes operative to control the valve after the aforesaid actuator member has been depressed to thereby provide flexibility of operation; to provide apparatus as just described wherein there is further provided during manual or timer operation a means for instantaneously shutting off the valve should this be desired for any reason, such as due to a malfunction in the control circuit or timer control circuit which fails to shut off the solenoid valve; to provide such apparatus where means is provided for readily shifting the position of the supply outlet so that the apparatus may be readily adapted for use with bottles of different sizes; and to provide such apparatus which is inexpensive to manufacture and is reliable in operation.
In accordance with the invention, the aforesaid actuator member is preferably arranged to move the. armature of a relay into a position where the contacts controlled thereby initiate, preferably through electric timer, opening of a control valve, preferably a solenoid valve, and also the energization of the relay which holds the actuator member in its depressed position. In such case, the armature, which is spring biased away from the relay core, does not apply any backward force to the bottle which would tend to push it out of alignment with the supply outlet. Both the solenoid valve and the relay are preferably connected in series with a set of contacts controlled by the electric timer which contacts close for an adjustable interval to open the solenoid valve and energize the relay, and open at the termination of such interval to close the solenoid valve and de-energize the relay. An emergency cut-off switch in series with the solenoid valve is provided for instantaneously shutting off the solenoid valve independently of the timer, where this is necessary or desirable. The electric timer is not re-set for a new cycle of operation until the bottle is removed from the actuator member. Once the bottle is filled, the overall weight of the bottle is usually sufficient to hold the actuator member fully depressed even after the relay is de-energized. The resetting of the electric timer is effected by removing the bottle to return the relay contacts to their normal positions, and, upon subsequent closing of the actuator member, a new timing interval is initiated.
In the interest of system flexibility, switching means are provided for disabling the timer circuit from operation and for inserting the relay in series with its own contacts and also the latter in series with the solenoid valve so that, upon depression of the aforementioned actuator member, a holding circuit is established for the relay and the solenoid valve is opened. Closing of the solenoid valve and defenergization of the relay is effected through manual operation of the switching means.
Today in 1988, US Patent 4782969 A was issued, an invention of John C. Henning, for his “Twist-Off Bottle Cap.” Here’s the Abstract:
A tamper-proof closure is disclosed for use with a bottle having a neck, a lip with a downwardly and inwardly sloping peripheral wall and a plurality of outwardly extending ribs disposed at the juncture of the sloping wall and outer wall of the neck. The closure includes a top wall, a depending ribbed skirt and a plurality of rectangular tabs extending from the bottom edge of the skirt between each pair of ribs. The tabs are bent inwardly and upwardly and include a serrated edge for engagement with the ribs on the bottle. When the cap is applied, the tabs form compressive members holding the lid in sealed position against the bottle neck. The closure is removed by twisting, which causes the tabs to be shifted outwardly beyond the bottle ribs so that the cap can be lifted from the bottle. The closure cannot be reapplied since, during removal, the tabs have been bent outwardly to a point where they can no longer engage the bottle ribs.
