Thought This Was Interesting

[MrsMopar]

I have a friend in England and she had mentioned reading something about bottle stoppers, keeping the drink in and the flies out. Sure enough, marbles and the like were used for such a purpose. Check it out: http://akronmarbles.com/marble_production.htm

[Steph]

I've read about that before, about the stoppers, that is.

(I hadn't read that exact page, where it mentioned "hand-pressed" marbles. That's another subject I'll have to remember to get back to on a later date.)

I've heard about/seen two different kinds of marble stopper. One built into the lid, and just rolling around in a sort of a cage. So, it would rely on gravity to hold the seal when the bottle was upright and not in use.

And the second built into the neck of the bottle, I think. And I think that may have relied on the pressure of the carbonation pushing it up to keep the seal. (That's the Codd bottles ... I think.)

I don't know. I haven't even seen a picture of a Codd bottle, not since I learned about the marble inside and started keeping my eye out for one.

I would love to know how the bottle was made. And how they got both the marble and the drink inside it. lol

[MrsMopar]

Hmmm...It boggles the mind sometimes to ponder some of the things that were created in the past and how they were used. How DID they get that in there, much less out? Could they have used a special tool to remove the stopper and then place it back in?

[Steph]

I _think_ the stopper was in the neck of the bottle. And I _think_ the marble was wider than both the mouth of the bottle and the opening at the bottom of the neck. Definitely wider than the mouth of the bottle.

Both the marble and the bottle being made of glass, I don't imagine there was a tool which could reach in and pull the marble out through the mouth.

I read somewhere the kids used to break the bottle open to get the marble out.

[MrsMopar]

Yeah, I think that was on that page about kids breaking bottles to get to the marble. Wonder if we tried that with a cola bottle...would the marble shoot out? Just kidding <smiles> Ping ping pinnnnnng..lol

[gdp1]

this should clear up the codd bottle stopper thing.

about codd bottles

[MrsMopar]

Thank you gdp1..that was a very interesting read :-)

[Steph]

That was very interesting ... and very complicated. I'm sure I didn't understand it all. Just enough to think that I might get it if I try again when my brain has had time to recover.

Those inventors were getting really fancy.

[Steph]

While I'm thinking about it here's one of the other kind of stoppers, one with the marble built into the lid. It was posted here in 2005 by lifeisgood81.

[lifeisgood81]

Here is some added research on my bottle.

http://www.antique-bottles.net/forum/m-145...le/tm.htm#14580

Lisa

[MrsMopar]

I'm so glad you found out more about it Lisa! It's very kewl.

:-) Felicia

[Steph]

hmmm ... I saw a different explanation for a marble like that. I don't know much at all about wine or vessels to hold wine, so I'm not arguing exactly. I just really don't know. Would that have been a container used for fermentation?

The explanation I saw was at Cees' site, Knikkerwereld. Functie 2

I keep saying "saw" because I didn't exactly read it. I had to let Altavista's Babel Fish translate. Here's their translation:

Approximately 1880. These bottles with original stopper press are rare. I have found them in the Netherlands, but probably end up them initially United Kingdom or the US. In the stopper press hand-made glazen ball sits. The bottles had been generally filled with rum, whiskey or another alcoholic beverage. During giving the ball rolls in by forward. The function of the ball was in this case, the bottle concluded keep for substance, but also for mosquitos and flies.