Bottle Finishes & Closures

Part III: Types of Bottle Closures
HOME: Bottle Finishes & Closures: Types of closures

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A. GENERAL CLOSURE TYPES

This section covers closures that were used on a wide array of bottle types, i.e., closures which are generally not identified with only one or two types or classes of bottles.  Inherently these closure types saw wide use for many types of bottles - implying higher than usual functionality - and because of that also experienced a long time span of use.  This unfortunately limits the utility of the closure adding much refinement to the dating of a bottle that these closures are found on.

The earliest closure types for bottles were crude and variably effective.  The following concise view of early closures is quoted from Dr. Julian Toulouse's book "Fruit Jars" (1969a):

There have been many kinds of closures for bottles, ever since glass and pottery have been used for container materials. Roman and Grecian containers used straw, rags, leather, and the like, luted (sealed) with clay, resins, natural waxes , and other binders.  Some of those newly discovered had their closures intact.  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 1700s 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 1700 to 1715, 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.

CORK CLOSURES

The most common closure during the mouth-blown bottle era was the simple and highly effective cork or cork stopper.  All types or classes of bottles 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. 1920; Obear-Nester Glass Co. 1922).

Cork comes from the bark of the cork oak tree (Quercus suber and Q. occidentalis) and is still, of course, in use today.  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. D. (Faubel 1938).  The elasticity of cork - the ability to assert its normal size after compression - was its primary attribute allowing it to be squeezed into the bore of a bottle and create a seal (Faubel 1938; Jones & Sullivan 1989).  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 1938).  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 1958).  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 100 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 2003).  Click cork press for a picture of an ornate, late 19th century, small hand operated cork press.

The following is from Holscher (1965, from Berge 1980) 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 1500s 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 1675-1700.  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 300 year period, from early development before 1600 to almost complete use following 1900.

Corks were also used extensively during the early part of the fully automatic machine-made bottle era, i.e., 1905 into the 1920s when cork's reign of dominance really began to run out (Lief 1965).  The bottle pictured to the above left is a 1920s era machine-made bottle made during the transition time when corks were still very common on medicinal bottles like this one from Atlanta, GA. which was made by a glass company in Chattanooga, TN.  (Click S.S.S. bottle to view a picture of this entire bottle.)

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 1920s - 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 1920s into the mid-1930s; see the 1928 illustrations to the left (Berge 1980; empirical observations).  The bottle types that mostly made the switch during this era are a large majority of medicinal/druggist, food, and ink bottles; the majority of liquor/spirits bottles; and some non-alcoholic, non-carbonated beverage bottles, though there are exceptions with just about all these categories.  Cork is still commonly used for sealing bottles containing wine and champagne, occasional "higher end" liquor/spirits bottles (i.e., single malt Scotch), and rarely some specialty food product bottles.

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.

The picture to the right shows an alcohol laced (18%) medicinal bottle (Ferro-China-Berner Tonic) with the full contents and sealed with a foil capsule over 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.  A similar cork sealing method was to dip the corked finish in hot wax instead of a foil wrapper (Jones & Sullivan 1989).

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.  The picture to the lower right shows an early 20th century (1900-1910) King's Pure Malt "beer tonic" bottle (Boston, MA.) with a blob finish and the cork in place.  Though somewhat loose now, the wire that held the cork secure is also still present.  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."  Another popular type of simple cork retainer was the more solid wire Henry Putnam patented (1859) design as pictured below.  This type wire bail had the benefit of being reusable and was particularly popular on soda and mineral water bottles during the 1860s through 1880s like the Hoffman & Joseph "blob-top" soda pictured which dates from the mid-1880s (Fowler 1981).  The utility of the blob type finish was that it provided a large ridge for properly securing the wire below the finish.  Many variations on these basic themes can be found on 19th and early 20th century cork sealed bottles (Lief 1965; Jones & Sullivan 1989; Graci 2003). 

(NOTE:  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.  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 (2003) entitled Soda and Beer Closures 1850-1910.  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.  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 200 dozen bottles a day could be filled by a skilled knee bottler..."

Undoubtedly, that mallet strike broke many bottles.  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 2003).  The rest of this page discusses some of the more successful "substitutes."

THREADED CLOSURES

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: primarily hard rubber or glass.  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.  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.
 

Internal Threaded Stopper/Closure
The distinctive feature of this closure/finish combination is the continuous type threads which are found on the inside of the finish.  The outside of the finish looks similar to other finishes of the era.  There were two primary types of internal or inside threaded closures: hard rubber and glass.  Both are covered separately below.

Hard Rubber:  This closure/finish is by far most commonly found on U.S. made mouth-blown, tooled finish liquor bottles produced between the late 1880s and National Prohibition in 1920; and in particular between 1895 and 1915 (Wilson & Wilson 1968; Root 1990).   The tooled inside thread finish to the left (inside of a "straight brandy" finish) is on an S. A. Arata & Co. (Portland, OR.) pint flask that dates between 1905 and 1911 (Thomas 1998a).  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.  The amber tooled inside thread finish (what would otherwise be called a brandy finish without the threads) below left is on an Old Castle Whiskey (San Francisco, CA) that was, according to Wilson & Wilson (1968), produced by the F. Chevalier Company between 1895 and 1901.  This is an era typical inside threaded cylinder liquor bottle. 

(Note: This Old Castle Whiskey bottle is also embossed with the maker's mark P. C. G. W. on the base for the Pacific Coast Glass Works (San Francisco, CA.) which did not commence operations until 1902 (Toulouse 1971).  This allows for an earliest manufacture date of 1902, 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.)

This era's bottles usually had the standardized hard rubber type stopper with rounded and somewhat vague thread ridges as shown close-up in the picture to the right (Wilson & Wilson 1968; Munsey 1970).  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.  During this era a few other types of bottles were made with inside thread finishes including some soda/mineral waters (most were foreign made), chemical and/or ammonia bottles, perfumes and colognes, some ink bottles, and even some baby nursing bottles (Elliot & Gould 1988; empirical observations).

This style of closure/finish combination appears to have been used most commonly on liquor bottles from Western American companies made between 1895 and 1915, though inside threads are known on occasional liquor bottles on the Eastern Seaboard - most notably on the South Carolina Dispensary bottles (Wilson & Wilson 1968; Teal & Wallace 2005).  Most if not all of these hard rubber stoppers were made in England and imported for use on American made bottles (Jones 1961).  This type of threaded stopper/finish was also very common on English ale and mineral water bottles during the same general era - mid to late 19th to early 20th century - though not covered by this website.  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 2002).

Glass:  An earlier and less common type of inside thread finish/closure which utilized a threaded glass stopper was used primarily on liquor bottles and flasks dating from 1861 to probably the late 1870s.  The applied inside thread finish (inside of a "straight brandy" finish) in the two pictures here are on a Weeks & Potter (Boston, MA) liquor bottle that dates between 1861 and about 1870.  This bottle has the Samuel A. Whitney patented (Patent #31,046, January 1, 1861) inside thread finish that accepts a glass threaded stopper.  The patent noted that this finish arrangement was "...applicable to a variety of bottles and jars...(but) is especially well adapted to and has been more especially designed for use in connection with mineral-water bottles, and such as contain effervescing wines, malt liquors, &c..." (McKearin & Wilson 1978; U. S. Patent Office 1861).  A later, subtle variation of this type closure and finish was patented in 1872 by Himan Frank (one of the sons of the William Frank & Sons Glass Company [Pittsburgh, PA.]) and was comprised of two patents - one for the finish and stopper (Patent #130,208)  and one for the tool that formed the finish (Patent #130,207) (U. S. Patent Office 1872; Lockhart et al. unpublished manuscript 2007).  Bottles with the Frank closure and finish are much less common than the Whitney version in the experience of the author.

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.  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.  Weeks & Potter was a Boston proprietary medicine (and apparently liquor) concern, founded in 1852 and operating well into the 20th century.  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 mineral water and/or ale bottles and even on at least one bitters bottle - Old Homestead Wild Cherry Bitters (Ring & Ham 1998; Graci 2003).  It is most often observed (though rarely seen overall) on pint & half pint liquor flasks as well as tall cylinder liquor bottles like the Weeks & Potter bottle, all of which often (but not always) have Whitney Glass Works embossed on the base.  Images of a pint union oval type flask with WHITNEY GLASS WORKS embossed on the base is available at the following links:  Whitney Glass Works pint flask; close-up pictures of the base, finish, and stopper.  Glass inside thread stoppers were also occasionally used on English nursing bottles; click English nursing bottle for a picture of an example.
 

External Threaded Screw Cap
The external threaded finish/closure combination is one of the most common bottle closures of the 20th century and has a wide array of variations.  This ubiquitous finish/closure combination is distinguished by having some type of raised ridge or ridges on the outside surface of the finish that accepted an appropriately shaped cap which tightened and sealed the bottle when twisted.  External thread finishes are so commonly used today that further explanation is probably not necessary; everyone is familiar with "screw-top" bottles.  For more information on some of the varieties of externally threaded finishes and their closures, click Bottle Finishes & Closures: Part II: 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.

The flask pictured twice above (with cap in place (left) and cap removed (right)) is a mouth-blown bottle in which the mold formed the threads.  Click external screw thread flask to view an image of this entire liquor flask. The rough top surface of the finish, where the blowpipe was removed, was ground down flat to facilitate sealing between the cork liner on the inside top flat surface of the cap and the top of the finish.  This flask dates from just before National Prohibition went into effect in 1920, as it is maker marked ("M" in a circle) on the base by the Maryland Glass Co., Baltimore, MD. (Toulouse 1971).  (Note: This flask also originally had a shot cup screw cap that was placed over the cap shown and tightened down on the screw threads that are just below the bottom of the small cap.  See the Double Screw Thread closure section at the bottom of this page for more information.)

By about 1920, machines dominated the production of bottles (Barnett 1926).  The higher levels of precision attainable with automatic bottle machines and the adoption of industry-wide standards for external thread finishes and metal screw cap closures between 1919 and 1924 spelled the end of cork as the dominant closure type (Lief 1965).  Externally threaded bottles probably dominated the market by the late 1920s with cork sealed bottles becoming increasing more uncommon after that date with the exception of wine bottles, many liquor bottles, and bottles sealed with the revolutionary crown caps (Lief 1965).   Bakelite, an early thermosetting plastic, made its debut in 1927 as a screw cap closure material though was first patented in 1907 (Berge 1980).  The machine-made external threaded finish/closure combination pictured to the left (with cap on) and right (with the cap removed) is on an ointment jar that was produced by the Owens-Illinois Glass Company in 1940 based on the mold markings on the base.  These jars were produced at least as early as 1935 and probably continued to be manufactured through the 1940s (Owens-Illinois Glass Co. 1935).

The dating of bottles with external screw thread closures follows, of course, the dating for the finish it fits.  For more dating information, click Bottle Finishes & Closures: Part II: Types or Styles of Finishes to view the portion of that page (#16 "small mouth external threads" and #17 "wide mouth external threads") which discusses the general dating of various types of external screw thread finishes/closures on different types of bottles and jars.

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LIGHTNING-TYPE CLOSURES

The "Lightning" toggle or swing-type closure is covered under this section because of its widespread use on a lot of different bottle types, though its primary application was for carbonated beverages (soda, beer) and canning jars (both also covered later on this page).  The sealing surface for these two main types of Lightning-type closures was different; that information is found below.  There have been many subtle variations and imitations of this style; thus the reference to "Lightning-type" closure.  This important closure was invented and patented first by Charles de Quillfeldt of New York City on January 5, 1875.  The design was intended initially for beverage bottles.  Click Charles de Quillfeldt's Bottle-Stoppers Patent #158,406 to see the original patent (U. S. Patent Office).

To quote Toulouse (1969a) about the de Quillfeldt patent: "This patent covered all the basic details.  The seal was composed of a neck tie-wire, a lever wire, and a bail.  The bail passed through a hole in the metal, rubber faced, lid.  The lever wire was hooked into loops in the heavy neck tie-wire on opposite sides of the bottle.  Movement of the lever wire past the line of centers of force was stopped by the neck of the bottle."   Looking at the picture to the left while reading this description is helpful.  The illustration to the right shows the configuration of the closure without the bottle (Lief 1965, courtesy of the Glass Container Manufacturers Institute).  The actual "stopper" or lid portion of this closure was usually made from either metal (true Lightning closure) or porcelain/ceramic (Hutter style discussed below) with a round rubber gasket attached to the shank of the stopper to seal the bottle (gasket shows in picture below).  The picture above is of a classic Lightning closure with a metal lid with the gasket missing on a Buffalo Brewing Company bottle (Sacramento, CA.) with a tooled blob finish that dates between 1890 and 1902 (Toulouse 1971; Groff 2002).  Note: on this website the Lightning and Hutter type swing stoppers are just called Lightning or Lightning type.

Shortly after patenting the design, de Quillfeldt sold the patent rights to several individuals, including Henry Putnam (for fruit jars primarily) and Karl Hutter (for beverage bottles; transferred June 5th, 1877).  The history of competing designs, contentiousness, and lawsuits between these and other individuals using this basic form of closure is fascinating, but beyond the scope of this website.  See Toulouse (1969a) or Graci (2003) for more information on this subject.  Pictured to the left is a Lightning-type closure, on a pint beer bottle of a style common between 1890 and 1915, which is marked on the underside of the ceramic stopper with "Hutter's Patent" which is likely related to a later (1892) Hutter patent based on the original design.  (Click Karl Hutter's Bottle Stopper Patent #491,113 to see this patent.)  The sealing surface for small bore (beverage type) Lightning-type closures was the rim (top surface) of the finish and extreme upper portion of the bore just inside the bottle; where the rubber gasket shows to the left.  As one can see in comparing the Hutter closure with the other two pictured beer bottles, there are no real functional differences between them.  Click W. E. Earl beer bottle to view a picture of the entire beer bottle (W. E. Earl / Newton, N.J.) with the Hutter closure. 

Other Lightning-type toggle closures with variably subtle differences though still with the toggle portion at the lower part of the finish or upper neck,  were patented by F. Perry (1878),  N. Fritzner (1880), E. Manning (1896), L. Brome (1899), J. Alston (1900), F. Thatcher (1901), M. Landenberger (1901), W. Cunningham (1901), L. Strebel (1903), and others.  Closure names included the "Electric" (1889), "Pittsburgh" (1889), "Porcelain-special" (date unknown), and others (Berge 1980).  All of these variations saw some limited use during the same period as the "true" Lightning (including the Hutter) closures.  The bottles these Lightning type closures are found date in the same range, though likely closer to the actual patent date since none received the widespread acceptance of the original Lightning.   During this same era there were numerous related closures that utilized a toggle or "lever" on top of the closure instead of below like with the Lightning-types.  Click Walker Patent stopper for an example of one - the James T. Walker 1885 patented closure.  For more information on soda & beer closures, see Graci's book (Graci 2003).

Lightning-type swing closures were most popular on beer and many soda bottles from the 1880s into the 1920s.  Use after that time was limited though occasional.   The bottle/closure pictured to the right is a modern Grolsch® Lager (Dutch) bottle having a pretty "classic" Lightning-type closure.  That company's current marketing internet site calls it the "Swingtop" closure and notes that it has been used by them since 1897 (Grolsch® website: http://www.grolsch.com).   The only difference between the "Swingtop" and Lightning-type closures is that the "Swingtop" has no neck encircling wire.  Instead the closure is attached to the finish via two dimple holes on opposite sides of the lower finish.  Lightning-type closures are also found today on various foreign beer bottles, some decorative storage bottles & jars sold in "import" stores, and likely other bottle types.  The lid portion of modern Lightning-type closures are usually made from plastic but still have the rubber gasket for sealing.

One of the best known Lightning-type variations is the closure found on canning jars (pictured below).  Though the term "Lightning" was used by de Quillfeldt in reference to the sealing method, its application and use on fruit jars gave rise to the actual name of the Lightning fruit jar and the popularity of the term for the closure.  The sealing surface for the Lightning closure on fruit jars was the shelf that the lower edge of the lid sat on; a rubber gasket was placed between that shelf and the bottom surface of the glass lid which when the closure is tightened forming a seal.

Henry Putnam's contribution to this world is that he slightly altered the original de Quillfeldt design in that the bail is not actually attached to the lid, which would not work on wide mouth jars.  Instead, the lid is held in position by centering the bail in a groove or between two raised dots in the center of the lid.  This securing point has been called a cover groove (White 1978).  The other minor difference is that two metal "eyes" replaced the loops on the tie-wire as fulcrums for the lever wire.  In collaboration with de Quillfeldt, Putnam patented this closure in 1882.  Click Lightning jar closure and lid for a close-up picture that shows the cover groove and one of the metal "eyes" (visible on upper part of tie-wire) on a quart sized Lightning fruit jar.  Click Henry Putnam's Stopper for Jars Patent #256,857 to see the original patent for this specific jar closure (U. S. Patent Office).  The linked patent illustrations also show well the conformation and functioning of the Lightning closure.   Though not as ubiquitous as the Mason screw thread type jars, Lightning jars were quite popular with home canners and date from 1882 to the early 1900s.  "PUTNAM" - for Henry Putnam - is embossed on the base of most Lightning canning jars.  Lighting-type closures are found on various fruit jars made from as early as the late 1870s until at least the mid-20th century (Toulouse 1969a; Creswick 1987).

As noted, Lightning-type closures were utilized most commonly on carbonated beverage bottles and canning jars.  The beauty of this closure on the carbonated beverage bottles of the era is that it was adaptable to the existing cork accepting finish bottles (typically with mineral and blob finishes) and did not need entirely new bottles to function correctly, like some other closures covered below.  This closure has been observed occasionally on other types of bottles including most citrate of magnesia bottles, some ginger beer bottles (glass or crockery), and very rarely bitters, liquor, wine, and a few other bottles.  The pre-dominant period of use for all of these types of bottles with the Lightning-type closure was from the 1880s through at least the late 1920s (Illinois Glass Company 1920, 1928; empirical observations).  Given the wide utilization of this type closure over a long period of time, there is limited dating or typing (i.e., what a bottle contained) information to be gained from the presence of this closure; other manufacturing based diagnostic features must be utilized.  One exception is that if a bottle is known to date in the above date range and has a narrow mouth Lightning-type closure (i.e., not a canning jar), it is highly likely that it held either beer, soda water, or possibly citrate of magnesia.  (Note: Citrate of magnesia bottles have a fairly distinctive shape; see the Bottle Typing/Diagnostic Shapes page for more information.)
 

STOPPERS

Generally speaking, a stopper is any closure which fits inside the neck (bore) of a bottle to make a seal, rather than on top of the finish - like a crown cap - or around the outside of the finish, like a screw cap (White 1978). The use of stoppers as closures for bottles dates back to antiquity, with some glass ones dating back as early as 1500 B.C. (Holscher 1965).  Ground glass stoppers appeared in the U.S. by 1790 though the serious use of glass as a stopper - especially for food containers - began in the U.S. during the 1840s and 1850s (Bender 1986).  In the bottle world, the term stopper is often used in reference to non-cork type closures made of glass (sometimes in combination with cork however), though sometimes porcelain, ceramic, metal, or hard rubber are used.  Bender (1986) defined a stopper as "A closure held in place by means other than gravity and engaged primarily within the vessel bore."  A simple cork is, of course, a type of stopper. 

This section briefly covers various types of stoppers beginning with glass by itself, followed by glass and cork combinations, then other non-glass materials.  Since cork by itself was discussed separately above it is not addressed again here.  Glazed crockery is often found as the "stopper" part of the Lightning-type closures which was also covered above.  Canning or fruit jar stopper type lids are discussed later on this page.

Glass
Excluding cork and crockery, a glass stopper was likely the most common material that was used as a bottle stopper, that that perception could be skewed by the higher likelihood of a glass stopper surviving to the present than most other materials.  Glass stoppers can be either solid glass (two stoppers below) or hollow (green stopper to the left).  The configuration and shapes of glass stoppers vary widely from the simple utilitarian (two stopper below) to the ornate and decorative - like on the decanter pictured to the left below).  Click W. T. Co. 1880 catalog page to see an illustration of available stock glass stoppers for various types of bottles from the 1880 Whitall, Tatum & Company catalog (Whitall Tatum Co. 1880).   Some glass stoppers were designed for disposable bottles like the club sauce bottle stoppers pictured below which had the shank of the stopper sheathed in cork (see the "Glass & Cork" discussion below).  Other stoppers were intended for re-useable or decorative bottles like the colorless glass decanter below.  Regardless of the shape of the stopper, they were all intended to perform the same function - insert securely in the neck of a bottle and seal the contents from evaporation, oxidation, and/or contamination.

Glass stoppers are made up of three parts - the shank, which is the part that inserts into the bore/neck of the bottle; the finial which is the portion above the shank that one grasps to remove the stopper from the bottle; and the neck, which is the transition point between the shank and finial.  Click on the emerald green bottle above to view a larger picture of this bottle illustrating these parts. 

Most glass stoppers were molded to shape then the shank ground to a more precise shape.  However, some very early bottles and decanters (first half of the 19th century and before) were free-blown or pattern-molded with the stopper shank (and matching bore) not molded or ground to shape (McKearin & McKearin 1941).   If a more or less airtight seal was desired (and it usually was and is) then the shank of the stopper had to be ground down to precisely fit the bore of the bottle.  The bore was also ground to the accept the stopper shank.  The two ca. 1890-1910 glass stoppers pictured to the above right have the shanks ground to fit the bore of the bottles they were intended for.  Since the stopper was ground to fit the neck of a specific bottle, each stopper is a relatively unique fit to a specific bottle.  If the shank of the stopper and bore of the bottle show no evidence of shape grinding it is likely a bottle or jar intended to hold some type of dry substance, the grinding evidence was polished away (discussed below), or the shank of the stopper was originally fit with a strip of shell cork to ensure a seal (Jones & Sullivan 1989).  See the "Glass & Cork" discussion below.

The emerald green bottle pictured at the beginning of this section is a small smelling salts or cosmetic bottle with a ground glass stopper that likely dates from the early 1900s, though could be from as late as the 1920s as it is a "specialty" bottle that is hard to precisely date.  This small bottle is mouth-blown in a three-mold as indicated by the absence of mold seams on the bottle body except right at the junction between the upper body and the narrow shoulder.  This bottle may or may not have been intended for re-filling and re-use, though many of these type bottles were purchased and kept indefinitely because of their decorative appearance - an example of attractive packaging selling the product.

The modern (1990s) mouth-blown specialty decanter pictured to the left was produced to hold some of the world's most expensive liqueur - Remy Martin Louis  XIII Grande Champagne Cognac , which is engraved on the real gold neck collar.  The attention to detail on this expensive to produce bottle is evidenced in that it has a ground glass stopper and bore where the grinding evidence was polished away.  Click Remy Martin stopper for a close-up picture of the stopper which shows no obvious evidence of the grinding it did receive.  (These type expensive decanters, though produced primarily to sell the even more expensive contents, were (and are) intended to be re-used and are rarel thrown away.  These decanters even have the etched signature of the glassmaker as well as what number bottle it was of the production.)

Glass stoppers of varying shapes and sizes were utilized in a wide array of different type bottles over a very long period of time.  Because of that fact there are few dating opportunities inherent with glass stoppers.  Other manufacturing based diagnostic features must be used to date a bottle with a glass stopper.  Glass stoppers are most common in bottle types that were intended to be either re-filled/re-used or the original contents utilized over a long period of time.  This includes: perfume bottles,  bulk chemicals and pharmaceutical product bottles and jars, liquor and wine bottles/decanters, some non-perishable food type bottles, and many inkwells.

Glass stoppers are rarely if ever seen in the majority of bottle types where the contents were intended to be consumed all at once, the contents were incompatible with glass stoppers, and/or the bottle was intended to be thrown quickly away (most bottles).   Bottles with ground glass stoppers were 2 or 3 times more expensive than the equivalent bottle without a glass stopper so it is not surprising that most bottle types never or rarely were made with glass stoppers.  This larger group of bottle types includes: most all patent/proprietary medicines and bitters; druggist bottles; beer, soda/mineral water, and champagne bottles (glass stoppers are not compatible with carbonation); food bottles; milk bottles; most ink bottles; and most liquor, wine, and champagne bottles (Jones & Sullivan 1989).

Glass & Cork
A very common category of bottle stoppers merged cork and glass in combination.  The shank of the glass stopper was molded to shape, like most of the glass stoppers described above, but neither the shank nor the bore of the bottle were ground to mesh with each other.  Instead, a cork sheath (a cork with a hollow center called "shell cork" in the trade) was placed around the stopper shank allowing for a tight seal of the bottle because of the pressure of the glass stopper shank against the shell cork which pressed against the bore of the bottle.  This is shown in the picture to the left and the illustration below.  The use of cork in combination with a simple glass stopper was much cheaper than hand ground glass stoppers (Illinois Glass Company 1920).

A very common configuration of the glass and cork combination closure were the club sauce type stoppers, several of which are pictured below right without their shell cork sheaths which deteriorated long ago.  This type stopper has a flat, circular, horizontal top portion (finial) with a tapered shank on the underside perpendicular to the finial; there is no neck between the finial and the shank.  This conformation of stopper was also called a "flat hood" stopper (Whitall Tatum & Co. 1902).  A diagnostic feature of a finish that accepts a club sauce type stopper is that just inside of the bore, about 1/2" below the finish rim, there is a distinct ridge or cork seat surface on which the cork rests.  This gives rise to the alternative name for this finish/closure of a "stopper and cap seat" (Boow 1991).  The picture to the left above shows a club sauce type stopper in the bore of a more or less "mineral" type finish with the cork still present and encircling the stopper shank, though the cork is actually adhering to the walls of the bore.  Click and enlarge this picture as the cork seat ledge is just slightly visible right where the lower edge of the cork shell ends.  With the cork and stopper missing, the cork seat ledge can be seen or easily felt by sticking ones finger in the bore.  Be aware that not all bottles that originally had a club sauce type stopper have this ledge, but bottles/finishes with a cork seat ledge present were made for this type of closure.  When opening these type bottles, it is not clear if the cork was intended to remain around the stopper shank or remain in the bore of the bottle; probably both ways depending on the product.

The flat top portion of the glass stopper often has embossing on it identifying the product brand - virtually always a sauce product.  The most commonly found embossed stopper is from the Lea & Perrins® Worcestershire sauce bottles, which began importation into the U.S. in 1849.  The picture to the right shows one stopper (facing towards the camera; click to enlarge) which is embossed Garton's, an English competitor of the Lea & Perrins® company.  Garton's began production of their HP Sauce in 1903 giving an earliest possible date for this particular stopper.  In 1930, HP acquired ownership of Lea & Perrins® and both products are still produced by the same company (HP Foods Ltd. which was recently acquired by H. J. Heinz).  Embossed Lea & Perrins® stoppers can date back to the third quarter of the 19th century, as is likely of the various competing sauces.

The club sauce type glass stopper/cork combination closures were also used on an assortment of different, non-sauce types of bottles from the mid-19th century through the mid 20th century.  They were quite commonly used on mouth-blown liquor flasks and some larger cylinder liquor bottles from the late 19th century (primarily 1890s) to into the mid 1910s.  They were also used after that time on machine-made liquor flasks into Prohibition ("medicinal" liquor) and likely through the 1920s and possibly later.  Many of the liquor bottles that used the club sauce type stopper/cork are identifiable in that the inside of the bore has the cork seat ledge in evidence.  Click IGCo. 1908 catalog page for an illustration excerpt from the 1908 Illinois Glass Company catalog showing a couple flasks with club sauce type stoppers in place.  This closure was occasionally used on some larger sized, mouth-blown, patent/proprietary medicine bottles from the late 19th to early 20th century.  The tooled "reinforced extract" finish to the left with the glass stopper in place is on an Oregon Blood Purifier (Portland, OR) bottle that dates from the 1890s.  This bottle has the distinctive and diagnostic cork seat ledge on the inside of the bore. 

Club sauce type stoppers were uncommon on types of bottles outside of those noted, but were likely used occasionally on virtually any type bottle intended to hold non-carbonated substances.  These stoppers are very commonly excavated from sites intact since they have no weak spots to break like the "neck" of the regular glass stoppers noted earlier (Jones & Sullivan 1989).  No embossed club sauce type stoppers are known to the author from any product but sauce bottles; all of the stoppers used in medicines and liquor bottles were apparently unmarked.

The other relatively common glass and cork combination stopper was the peg stopper. It was similar in application to the club sauce stopper except that the shank was straight (not tapered) and the finial portion was taller and very often ornate.  The shank of the peg stopper was frequently molded with ridges or threads in order for the shell cork to firmly attach to the shank.  This likely helped keep the shell cork from sticking in the bore of a bottle when the closure was removed.  However, some authors believe that the cork was intended to remain in the bore of the bottle with access to the contents achieved by unscrewing the stopper from the cork (Jones & Sullivan 1989).  It seems likely that the screw threaded peg stoppers were intended to be pulled out with the cork attached and the smooth shank version intended to pull out leaving the cork behind.

The illustration to the right is from a ca. 1905-1910 Bellaire Bottle Company catalog showing ornate peg stoppers with both threaded and unthreaded shanks.  Click Bellaire catalog page for a full page illustration from the Bellaire catalog which includes peg stoppers, with and without threads, as well as regular ground glass stoppers.  Peg stoppers appear to have been most commonly used in toiletry, perfume, and cologne bottles during the late 19th through at least the first third of the 20th century.  Click I.G.Co. 1920 catalog page for an illustration from a ca. 1920 Illinois Glass Company catalog that shows some of their relatively ornate peg stoppers and notes their intended use with shell corks.

Metal & Cork
Sprinkler, squirt, and tube tops (called a "sprinkler" closure or stopper here) were a common stopper type on various types of bottles from the mid-19th century up until at least the mid-20th century.  The picture to the right shows several open type sprinkler tops from a 1920 Illinois Glass Company catalog. 

The sprinkler stoppers are different in design and quite different in utility from the glass and cork combination stoppers noted above.  The sprinkler tops were made from metal and did not typically need to be removed from the bottle in order to use the contents; the contents were dispensed through the opening that ran through the entire closure.  What the two types of stoppers had in common was that they inserted the same way into the bottle bore and were held in place by a shell cork wrapped stopper shank.  Some sprinkler tops were open like the ones to the right; others had various types of caps or closures on the metal top.  Click I.G.Co. 1920 catalog page to view an illustrated page of different types and styles of sprinkler tops from the 1920 catalog.

These types of closures were used on an assortment of different type bottles including cruets, sauce bottles, colognes, tooth powders, barbers' bottles, and some flavoring type bitters bottles (Jones & Sullivan 1989).  The image to the left is of a sprinkler top in a late 19th to early 20th century mouth-blown barber bottle.  Sprinkler tops were not used for carbonated beverages, nor most liquor or wine bottles.  Unfortunately, due to the wide span of use, there are no diagnostic dating opportunities related to this type of closure; the manufacturing related physical features of the bottle itself must be used.  Because of the composition of these type stoppers, they are not frequently found intact on historic sites as they usually deteriorated.

Rubber & other materials
Rubber, wood, paper, wax, corn cobs, and other materials were occasionally used as general closures on bottles, particularly during the earlier portion of the period covered by this website (early 19th century).  There is not much to say about them since there is little inherently datable about these materials as closures and most were organic substances that did not survive the ravages of time that a glass bottle will weather with ease.

Rubber stoppers are one exception in that they appear to have been primarily used during the first half of the 20th century and possibly even to the present in some specialty situations (chemical reagent bottles).  Most notably, rubber stoppers were common in Clorox® and Lysol®  bottles during the 1920s and 1930s; bottles that are commonly found in sites that date from the Depression era.  Undoubtedly they were used for other products but the information on such is sparse at this time.  Click Toulouse's early closures quote to jump back to the brief discussion of early and unusual closures found at the beginning of this "General Closures" section.

OTHER GENERAL CLOSURE TYPES
There were a plethora of other closure types that received some variable application on different types of bottles.  Below are several types of non-threaded metal caps that found varying acceptance and use with some bottle dating related utility.  Just be aware that the closures discussed briefly here are but a small sampling of the variety of non-threaded metal closures invented and used during the last couple decades of the 19th century to the middle of the 20th century.

Non-threaded metal caps
There were a wide variety of metal caps used for closures on many types of bottles and jars.  Metal caps found particular utility on bottles/jars having a wide mouth or bore in order to access (or insert) the contents, though metal caps of various types were also commonly used for bottles with smaller openings (aka smaller mouth or bore).  Fruit or canning jars are the most well known type of glass container that utilized metal lids (covered later on this page).  Many types of food bottles, ointment jars, some snuff bottles, some medicinals, and occasional other types of bottles utilized metal caps for closure (Lief 1965).

The wide variety and very wide time span of use of metal caps (still used today) limits its utility for any dating refinement of historic bottles unless the finish itself was specific to a particular closure that had particular time span of use.  Typically however, the manufacturing based diagnostic features of the bottle or jar itself must be interpreted in arriving at an approximate date range.  In addition, the metal caps for many 19th and early 20th century bottles/jars are rarely found intact and identifiable on historic sites since the metal usually rusted away unless never buried or discarded in very dry areas like many parts of the American West.

One commonly used generic cap was as illustrated to the above left in the Whitall Tatum & Co. (Millville, NJ with offices in New York, NY and Philadelphia, PA.) catalog from 1880.  These type of caps were held in place by friction and/or gravity and did not provide an air tight seal.  The amber jar pictured to the right above is a possible Whitall Tatum & Co. product from that era that is virtually identical in shape to the ointment pots shown in the illustration which were noted as available in amber glass.  (The illustration also notes that glass lids were also available instead of metal, though significantly more expensive.)  This pictured small amber jar is mouth-blown in a cup-mold and has a ground rim.   Cup molds were used on smaller bottles like this as early as the 1870s; ground lips or rims go back at least that early, so the diagnostic features of the bottle do fit the catalog date.  However, non-threaded lids on bottles and jars were used for an lengthy period of time so that even on a mouth-blown bottle like pictured, it is possible that it could date as late as the 1910s.  (Note: From the context the pictured ointment jar was found it most likely dates from the 1880s.)

Two of the more popular band caps were the Goldy Seal and the Phoenix Cap; both of which are covered later on this page.

Kork-N-Seal cap
The Kork-N-Seal cap was a closure designed to provide for the easy resealing of bottled liquid products.  It is essentially a re-usable crown cap, though it was also used in sizes that fit bottles with a bore larger than the approximate 5/8" of a crown finish bottle (specifically 1" and 1 1/4") (IGCo. 1911).  The finish that typically accepts the Kork-N-Seal cap looks like the upper "bead" part of crown finish.  The collar or lower part below the bead varied in shape and was largely decorative as it was not related to the sealing of the cap (Jones & Sullivan 1989).  This closure worked by placing the cap on the finish of the bottle and pulling down on the side toggle or lever.  This pulled on both ends of a metal wire loop that runs around the entire skirt of the cap, tightening the skirt into the groove underneath the bead (picture below).  This closure is also referred to as a "lever" type (Berge 1980).

This closure/finish type has been observed on medicine and pharmaceutical bottles, narrow to moderately wide mouth food bottles (like sauces), household bottles (polish, cleaners), liquor and wine bottles, and to a limited degree carbonated beverages - soda and beer.  Most products had this cap as the original closure on the bottle with the toggle held down in the sealing position by a wire, string, or possibly a capsule enclosing the cap, finish, and upper neck.  Other products did not have it held in place as it was a fairly secure closure and product content tampering was not as much of an issue as (unfortunately) today.

The above pictured Kork-N-Seal caps are typical in shape and function but intended to be used on crown finish beer bottles.  These particular caps were not the original cap for the bottled product, but were instead given out as a promotional item for later resealing.  It is unlikely that these caps would hold carbonation indefinitely like a crown cap but were adequate for short term use.  The bottle pictured to the right with a Kork-N-Seal cap in place is an Owens-Illinois Glass Company produced 11 oz beer bottle that was made in 1941 based on the mold codes on the base.  The cap is locked into place on the upper portion of the finish.  Click Blitz Weinhard Beer (a Portland, OR. brewery) to see the entire bottle which has its original labels.

This closure shows up in relatively early 20th century glass makers catalogs and was apparently originated around 1911 (Illinois Glass Company 1911 & 1920; Rock 1990).  Click 1911 Kork-N-Seal to see the page from the IGCo. 1911 catalog promoting the "new" closure.  Click 1920 Illinois Glass Company catalog to see this finish/closure listed as one of the many "finishes produced by the automatic machine" that company offered (third row from the top, second from left).   Click Kork-N-Seal advertisement to view an ad from a 1920 magazine (Literary Digest) that describes and illustrates this closure type made by the Williams Company (Decatur, IL).  Click Kork-N-Seal box to see an original box for these closures with several of the caps made by the Williams Company. 

The Kork-N-Seal cap was in use from at least 1911 to at least the 1960s, though could still be in use today (IGCo. 1911; Jones & Sullivan 1989).  Based on empirical observations, the popular period for this closure - and the most likely date range for a bottle with it - was from the mid 1910s to the 1940s.  Bottles utilizing this closure are, in the experience of the website author, always machine-made, though with an origin no later than 1911, mouth-blown examples are possible.

Goldy Cap or Seal
The Goldy cap was invented in 1897 but did not gain much popularity until the standardization of machine-made bottles (Lief 1965).  It appears to have been frequently used during the period from the 1910s through at least the 1940s, as likely Goldy cap accepting finishes (discussed below) were commonly made on food type bottles during the noted period.  This closure worked similarly to the Phoenix Cap (discussed above) except that the band which held the top disk lid in place was designed to be torn off though the disk lid was re-usable.  This closure was advertised as "...a tamper-proof vacuum seal with a lug reclosure disc that can't slip or shake off."  The Goldy Seal (as it was also known) was made of aluminum and was also often used in conjunction with other closures (i.e., covered and held in place) like corks or a reusable cover caps when resealing was desired (Bender 1986). 

The Goldy cap was used on various types and sizes of finishes which usually resembled the upper part (bead) of the crown finish.  For example, the Turner Glass Company (Terre Haute, IN.) advertised in the various trade magazines - including The Glass Container (a food packing industry magazine) - showing likely Goldy accepting finishes on their wares.  Click The Glass Container - August 1927 to view an advertisement from that year which shows three different illustrations of bottles that almost certainly accepted Goldy caps (no closures shown in ad) including one bottle with a relatively wide mouth (far left in the linked illustration).  This indicates that Goldy caps came in different sizes for different size finish diameters.  

Part of the uncertainty about the bottle specific use of this closure is the fact that many of the bottles that accepted it also accepted a crown cap - like the two paneled bottles in the linked illustration from 1927 The Glass Container magazine above.  In fact, that trade magazine in 1929 also touted the development of several finishes for catsup bottles which were designed to accept multiple closures including the crown cap, screw cap, and Goldy depending on user desires (Anonymous 1929).  These were called a "combination finish" by some glassmakers (Obear-Nester Glass Co. 1922).  The finish pictured to the right below is (or is similar to) one of the multi-closure finishes described and illustrated in the 1929 article as it does accept a screw cap, crown cap, and almost certainly a Goldy cap also.  The pictured finish is on a colorless, machine-made Heinz® catsup bottle made by the Illinois-Pacific Glass Company (San Francisco, CA.) in the 1920s.

Click 1920 Illinois Glass Company catalog to see an illustration of the "Goldy finish" (no closure shown) which was listed as one of the many "finishes produced by the automatic machine" that the company offered (second row from the top, middle finish).   In this illustration the Goldy finish is very much like the crown finish with a slightly different conformation to the bead upper part.  The cap apparently worked similarly to Kork-N-Seal since it was for bottles that required resealing but were not carbonated products, i.e., primarily food bottles like catsup. 

Lief's widely referenced book on the subject - "A Close-up of Closures: History and Progress" (1965) had the following discussion on the Goldy:  "Among the caps competing for the food trade, the Goldy (dating back to 1897) won more catsup bottles than the rest.  It combined an aluminum capsule and a cork-lined tinplate disc.  It opened without instruments, simply by tearing off the skirt that had been punched on the locking bead by a roller arm of the capping machine.  The Goldy underwent refinements in the passing years, and spread out into larger sizes.  For catsup there also came a double cap; that is a superimposed shell which covered the bottle after unsealing."  The illustration above is from Lief's book and shows the band tab being pulled off to access the contents of the bottled product (Courtesy of the Glass Container Manufacturers Institute).

It is likely that the finish on this linked catsup bottle also originally had a Goldy cap, since Lief noted they were most popular on catsup bottles.  However, when found this bottle had a crown cap in place, though that may not have been the original closure.  The slightly different finish on another similarly shaped catsup bottle (click to view finish close-up) is also considered a Goldy cap accepting finish.  Unfortunately, we have no example of an original Goldy cap to photograph.  (Note to users: If a user has an example of the Goldy closure itself, we would love to get a good picture of it.)

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B. BOTTLE TYPE SPECIFIC CLOSURES

This section covers closures that were primarily used only on specific classes or types of bottles.  Four categories of bottles have a significant number of specific closure types associated with them - carbonated beverage bottles (soda/mineral water & beer), canning/fruit jars, milk bottles, and to some degree, liquor flasks.  No other classes or types of historic bottles have specific closures so closely connected with the category.
 

CARBONATED BEVERAGE BOTTLE CLOSURES (Soda, Mineral Water & Beer)

Bottles produced to contain soda, mineral water, and beer all shared one similarity - they were intended to contain a beverage that was typically carbonated exerting high pressure against whatever closure was used.  A secure sealing was critical to the salability and usability of the product, as well as typically thick glass to the bottle itself in order to contain the contents pressure and to withstand the rigors of bottling and re-use. 

As with the canning jar closures covered next, the handful of closures covered in some detail here were the dominant types and were used on the majority of typical historic beverage bottles.  There were scores of different types of closures patented and used to some degree on beverage bottles though most - like James T. Walker's patent (1885) closure pictured to the right - had minimal impact (Graci 2003).  The seven primary closures/stoppers covered below (cork, gravitating, Codd's, Hutchinson, lighting-type, bottle seal, crown) likely accounted for 95%+ of the closures used on beverage bottles during the time span covered by this website - 1800 to through the 1950s (empirical observations).

For more information and history on the subject of beverage bottle closures the following works are recommended:  A History of the American Soft Drink Industry, Bottle Carbonated Beverages 1807-1957 by John J. Riley (1958), A Close-Up of Closures - History and Progress by Alfred Lief (1965), the timeless and venerable The Illustrated Guide to Collecting Bottles by Cecil Munsey (1970), and the very recent Soda and Beer Bottle Closures 1850-1910 by David Graci (2003) which contains dozens of weird and wondrous soda bottle closures as well as the dominant ones.  The following closures are covered in order of origin - earliest to most recent.

Cork
Cork as a general closure method was previously discussed in the "General Closure Types" section earlier on this page and will not be covered again in any depth.  Cork in combination with wire (picture to the left), twine or string, metal retainer (picture below right), capsule, and/or wax was the most common closure method on beverage bottles used during the 1870s and before.  With carbonated beverages, some type of cork retaining device was probably mandatory to counteract the internal pressure of the product. 

The picture to the left is of an Empire Water - Congress & Empire Springs / Saratoga, NY mineral water bottle with a mineral finish and the cork still wired down in place.  The bottle, which dates from around 1880, also has about two-thirds of the contents in place showing that corks were an effective - but not perfect - closure method.  The mineral finish provided a secure footing for wiring down a cork, with the anchor being just below the upper (lip) part of the finish, like in the pictured bottle, or below the flared collar at the base of the finish.  (Photo from eBay®.)

One of the most popular cork securing wire devices used for soda/mineral water bottles during from the 1860s through 1880s period was the Putnam cork retainer (patented 1859) as shown to the right in the open (right) and closed (left) positions (Graci 2003).  This was one of the first patents from the prolific Henry Putnam of Lightning fruit jar closure fame and was likely extensive copied by others.  Click Hoffman & Joseph to view an image of the entire bottle that this stopper is found on which dates between 1882 and 1887 (Fowler 1981).  An example of a proprietary cork retaining swing style mechanism is shown in the composite picture to the left below.  This is John Allender's Cork Retainer patented July 24th, 1855 on an early soda water bottle that likely dates between 1855 and 1860 based primarily on the closure patent date and obvious iron pontil mark on the base (Graci 2003).  The cork was pressed into the bore of the bottle and held down against the internal carbonation pressure by the swing arm which was securely anchored below the finish with a neck band. (Photo from eBay®.)

Another popular late 19th-century cork securing method was the use of the Bernardin Combined Metallic Cap and Fastener which worked similarly to Allender's except that it was not apparently re-usable (Paul & Parmalee 1973).  Specifically, as noted in Lief (1958), this finish "...obtained tighter corkage by means of a tin disc held over the cork by the securing wire.  The disc served also to prevent the taut wire from cutting the cork.  Bernardin offered the trade discs with a scalloped edge and nodules to prevent slippage.  A cavity in the disc's center projected into a dent in the cork and at the same time admitted an ice pick to bear under the wire and snap it.  Discs were widely used for ginger ale as well as beer."  Click Bernardin metal cap with neckband to view an illustration of this closure type (illustration courtesy of the Glass Container Manufacturers Institute).   Click A. L. Bernardin - Combined Metallic Cap and Fastener for Bottles - Patent #314,358 to view the original 1884 patent (U. S. Patent Office).

Most cork containing devices did not survive on the bottle so one can only speculate as to what held the cork in place on most historic soda/beer bottles with a cork accepting finish.  Though cork was effective, most of the early closure efforts by inventers and bottlers were directed at finding a cork substitute (Graci 2003).  The following three closures (gravitating, Codd, Hutchinson) utilized the internal pressure of the product to assist in the sealing of the bottle.

Gravitating Stopper ("Matthew's Patent")
The gravitating stopper was patented on October 11, 1864 by Albert Albertson and assigned to John Matthews, an associate of Albertson's, in 1866.  This closure was apparently first put into use in 1867 or 1868 (Riley 1958).  It consists of an elongated glass plug with a flared knob on one end.  A rubber gasket was placed on the upper end of the knob which when placed in the bottle sealed the contents by pressing against the inside surface of the bottle at the juncture of the neck and shoulder.  The bottle was "...filled in an upright position, then inverted so the stopper would gravitate into closed position, and be held there by the inside pressure when the bottle was removed (from the filling machine)."  The Matthew's Patent noted that the stopper could be made of "...glass, hardwood, or other suitable material..."  though it is likely that glass was by far the most commonly used material (Bender 1986).

The illustration to the left shows the stopper separately outside and inside a typical bottle.  The photo to the right shows the base of a Matthew's patent bottle with the 2.1" long stopper (without the rubber sealing ring) in front.  The pictured stopper is embossed in tiny lettering with what appears to be the following: PATENTED / A. G. 26 1862 / OCT. 11, 1864 / APRIL. 15, 1873 (some of the embossing is very hard to read).   Click Matthew's stoppers for a picture of several of the glass stoppers minus the rubber sealing ring which would have been on the narrow flared "knob" end (top end as shown in the picture).  These bottles were opened by pushing down on the head of the stopper to release the pressure which allowed the stopper to sink to the bottom of the bottle and the contents to be accessed.  The stoppers were removable from the bottle for cleaning and reuse and to replace the gaskets as necessary.

The base of most (but not likely all) bottles that used this closure are embossed as follows: GRAVITATING STOPPER / MADE BY (around the outside edge of the base) JOHN MATTHEWS / NEW YORK (inside the first ring of embossing) PATD / OCT 11 / 1864 (in the middle).   Click gravitating stopper bottle base to see a close up picture of the embossing found on the base of these bottles (picture is of bottle to the right).  The embossing is also shown behind the stopper in the image below.  Because of this base embossing many people assume that Matthews was the patentee.  However, Albert Albertson was the patentee and Matthews "...genius lay in forceful marketing ideas" in gaining acceptance and widespread use of this closure and the equipment to enable its use (Graci 2003).

Soda bottles that took this closure type are early enough that the ones noted by the author have a true applied blob finish.  All of the marked gravitating stopper bottles that have been noted by the author of this site were shaped like the bottle to the left (F. Engle / Lancaster, PA.) with relatively gently sloping shoulders.  Early advertisements for "Matthews' Improved Gravitating Stoppers"  were illustrated with bottles of this precise conformation and it appears that the sloping shoulder best facilitated the proper sealing of the closure (Graci 2003).  However, bottles with this shape have been found with a Hutchinson stopper in place (covered later).  So unless embossed with the "Gravitating Stopper..." wording on the base or with the stopper inside or in context with the bottle, one can not be absolutely sure which closure this style of bottle originally had.  It is also likely that some of these type bottles originally started out with gravitating stoppers, but since soda water bottles were typically reused for many years, they may have later been used with the new Hutchinson spring stopper.

One additional note: This style of bottle was actually still being listed in the Illinois Glass Company catalog as late as 1908 with the notation that their mold number "88" was specially designed to accept the "Mathews (sic) Patent Stopper" (IGCo. 1908).   Click IGCo. 1906 catalog - page 238 to view the similar page for the same bottle type from the 1906 IGCo. catalog.  Mold number "88" is listed on the page in the left side of the image.

Dating Notes:  These bottles, with and without the "Gravitating Stopper..." embossing on the base, were made by various glass companies between the late 1860s through the 1880s (Feldhaus 1986; Peters 1996; Markota 2000).  By the mid-1880s, the Hutchinson stopper in bottles with a somewhat more abrupt shoulder began to dominate the soda bottle market and the gravitating stopper appears to have faded gradually from common use.  However, as noted above, gravitating stopper bottles were still being offered as late as 1908, though bottles that conclusively date that late date have not been noted.  Although Matthew's gravitating stopper bottles were never as common as other types of bottles/closures during the time frames noted, they nevertheless were used by soda bottlers across the continental U.S. and Hawaii.