Waters from natural springs were recognized as being safe (even healthy) to drink from earliest times and were transported by wherever means that were available.
Naturally carbonated waters were collected into earthenware containers which were tightly sealed with cork and wax, usually not very successfully.
The used of earthenware bottles proved to be unsatisfactory for the more highly carbonated aerated mineral waters and they were soon replaced by glass bottles.
Many of the early glass bottles had round bottoms ensuring that they were stored on their side, thereby keeping the corks moist and so preventing leakage from corks drying out.
The manufacture of glass bottles was a skilled job as they were hand blown.
Although some semi-automation had been introduced earlier, the first patent for an automatic glass bottle blowing machine was granted to Michael J. Owens in the USA in 1904.
High pressure generated inside bottles by the carbonation caused frequent leakage and although improved by wiring-in-place, corks were generally unsatisfactorily. Many alternative forms of seals were patented over the years and these fell broadly into three main categories:
- Wire and rubber sealing devices were especially popular in the USA until the early 1900s. The wire could be either an internal spring form, which held a seal in place on the inside of the neck, or of the external ‘swing’ type, in which an external wire frame was used to hold a ceramic plug in place against a rubber seal. First patented by Charles de Quillfeldt in 1874, this latter type is still currently in use for some specialty.
- Variations on the theme of using an internal ball made from rubber, ebonite or glass were developed and used with varying degrees of success. The ball was held in place by the internal pressure. The most successful of these was patented by Hiram Codd of London. His bottle was widely used in the UK from 1870s until the 1930s. A similar bottle, but with a floating rubber ball acting as seal, was patented in the USA by S. Twitchell in 1883.
- The third popular alternative was the internal screw top bottle. Unlike today’s bottle, the thread was on the inside of the bottle neck and an ebonite or wooden stopper screwed on to the neck, with a rubber washer being used to improve the seal. These types of stoppers were in common usage well into the 1950s in the UK. Ebonite, an early type of plastic resin material soon replaced wood, which has a tendency to absorb moisture, causing it to swell and crack the bottle neck.
A major step forward in sealing development was made by William Painter, who in 1895 patented the ‘Crown Cork’, founding the Crown Cork and Seal Company in 1 April 1892. Although initially slow to gain acceptance for two reasons:
- The existing large capital investment in returnable bottles and bottling plant, and
- The need for a tool to remove the crown, the crown cork eventually became popular, especially for small single serve and beer bottles. Screw stopper retained their popularity for the larger bottles where re-sealability was important.
Except for specialty earthenware ginger beer containers, glass bottles were the only form of packaging for carbonates for over hundred years until the introduction of cans in the 1960s. Then, just as the second half of the nineteenth century had been ‘boom-time’ for product development, the second half of the twentieth century became ‘boom time’ for packaging and distribution of development.
History of Softdrinks Packaging
