Page:The American Cyclopædia (1879) Volume III.djvu/150

144 BOTTLE wine in skins prepared with pitch, which pre- vents the imparting of an unpleasant flavor to the wine. In Spain various skins, and espe- cially that of the goat, are still used for con- taining wine. The hide is stripped from the animal as entire as possible, and the various natural openings having been sewed up, with the exception of that of one of the legs, which is retained as a nozzle, the vessel is ready, after a certain preliminary curing of the skin, for the reception of the wine. The peculiar taste of Amontillado sherry is supposed to be due to its being kept in leather. The only word ren- dered bottle in the New Testament is aatis, a skin or leathern bottle (Matt. ix. 17). In the Old Testament, however, earthen bottles are mentioned, as well as those made of skins. In the hook of Jeremiah occurs the passage, "Thus saith the Lord, Go and get a potter's earthen bottle," &c. (xix. 1). Metal, earthen, and glass bottles were used in ancient times by the Egyptians, Assyrians, Greeks, and Etrus- cans. The Jews probably obtained their knowledge of them from the Egyptians. Ke- Fio. 2. Egyptian Bottles. 1 to 7, glass; 8 to 11, earthen- ware. mams of Egyptian earthen and glass vessels, of various forms and sizes, have been found, and shown to have been made at a very early period. There is a collection of these articles in the British museum, and of elegant vases, which are assigned to a time as far back as that of Thothmes III., about 1450 B. 0. Glass bot- tles made several centuries B. 0. were found at Babylon by Mr. Layard. The manufacture of glass bottles, on account of the nature of the material, is necessarily very simple, although for the production of fine work great skill is required. Glass while in a plastic state will not admit of much contact with machinery or tools without having its molecular constitution BO affected as to increase its liability to fracture. Therefore the finest bottles are blown, as they ' were in the earliest times, without the use of a mould, and with the aid of as few tools as possible ; the operation being performed by simply gathering a proper quantity of molten glass upon the end of a metallic blowpipe, and forming it into shape by holding it in various positions' while expanding it by blowing through the tube, and occasionally applying pressure with some tool of very simple form. General- ly, however, bottles are made with the use of a mould in which the glass is blown, because in this way time and labor are saved. Fig. 3 FIG. 8. Mould. shows the construction of a mould which is frequently used, especially in making small bot- tles and vials. It requires an extra hand, usually a boy, to open and shut it. For ordi- nary quart and pint bottles a mould is used with hinges at the bottom, and is closed by means of a lever which is moved by the foot of the operator. When this form of mould is used three hands are usually employed to make a bottle : one, a boy or apprentice, to gather the molten glass on the end of the blowpipe, one to blow the bottle and shape it in the mould, and a third to finish the neck and mouth and cor- rect any defects in form. One person can per- form the work, but not with equal economy of labor. The operation may be briefly described as follows : Gathering the proper quantity of molten glass upon the end of the blowpipe, which is a straight iron tube about five feet long, the gatherer hands it to the blower, who rolls it rapidly into a convenient form on the surface of a smooth iron or stone table, called a marver, at the same tune expanding it slightly FIG. 4. Marver. with the breath, then blows it to a suitable size for the mould, the axis of which is vertical. He then closes the mould, applies his mouth to the blowpipe, and blows with sufficient force to make the glass fit the cavity, and to take the impressions of whatever designs may have been engraved upon it. The mould is then opened and the bottle removed by means of the blow- pipe, to which it still adheres. A punty, as it is called, is then attached to the bottom, to hold Punty. FIG. 5. it during the finishing process. This punty is an iron rod, upon one end of which a small ball of red-hot glass has been gathered so that it will adhere to the bottle, and it is applied as in