HutchBook.comBottle Designs and Trade Marks
Charles
Sulz devoted an entire chapter to “Bottles and Bottle-ware” in his 1888
book, A Treatise on
Beverages or The Complete Practical Bottler, but provided no
Hutchinson bottle-specific information, and only these generic comments
about bottles in general:
Good Bottles Necessary.
– As the means of dispensing the various manufactured beverages,
there is the necessity of having effective bottles for the different
purposes for which they are required, and this is next in importance to
having effective machinery for the manufacture of the contents.
It is not only that they must have the necessary points to make
them retain the gaseous properties in the waters – which are known only
to the technicalist – but they must be appreciated by the public, as
consumers of the drinks…
Colored Bottleware; Deleterious Effect of Light upon
Beverages; Desirable Colors for Bottles. – Light has an effect upon
beverages that few appreciate, or have knowledge of, but as learned in a
general way from the more or less uncertain opinions sifting through the
trade upon the subject.
Scientific experiment, however, has demonstrated the deleterious effect
of light upon all saccharine and malt beverages.
Liquids contained in colorless bottles, when exposed for some
time to the light, acquire a disagreeable taste, notwithstanding the
fact that they may have been of superior quality before being so
treated. On the other hand,
beverages contained in dark brown, amber, or the various shades of green
remain unchanged in quality, even if exposed to direct sunlight.
That light has a disturbing influence upon beverages
there is no doubt, though we have heard well-informed men in the glass
trade question it. The
actinic effect of light (that power of the sun’s rays by which chemical
changes are produced) is not as thoroughly understood as it might be by
bottlers, and the character and color of bottle-ware is determined more
by fancy than intelligent knowledge of its requirements…Colored glass
prevents the white rays of light from acting upon the contents of the
bottle…White bottles, therefore, are unfitted for bottlers’ use, except
for bottling plain waters…
Size of bottles. – For bottling ordinary saccharine
beverages half-pint bottles are used, shaped in various forms.
For different beverages often different shapes are employed, as
for instance ginger ale. No
rules, however, are applicable.
It is always optional with the carbonator, who strives to please
the fancy of his customers…
We beg to offer a few suggestions relative to the size
of bottles, and think the trade would be much better off if a uniform
bottle in size were adopted.
There are bottles and bottles, of various sizes, which must
complicate matters very much where competition is sharp.
In a word all half-pint bottles should hold a uniform quantity; a
quart bottle a quart, and thus serve all alike.
Protection for Marked Bottles. – Bottles that bear the
‘blown-in’ impress of a United States registered trade-mark, and have
been used for ginger ale, lemon soda, sarsaparilla, or whatever other
carbonated beverage the registration covers, cannot be used again for
the same purpose by any other person whomsoever, without violating the
law, and liable to an action for damage.
We strongly advise the adoption of a trade-mark by every bottler.
It costs but little, serves to protect his bottles, and in case
any competitor infringes the same a suit at law will resulting favor of
the party owning the trade-mark.
Likewise, in his 1888 book,
The Manufacture and
Bottling of Carbonated Beverages, James W. Tufts did not
provide specific information about
The bottle question, which is such a bone of
contention among bottlers, can be readily disposed of by a simple and
businesslike measure. Adopt
a trademark and have it blown into the bottle.
This will make the bottle useless to other bottlers, who will not
take it in place of their own.
The cost of obtaining a trademark from the U. S. Patent office,
including the patent solicitors’ fees, is about $40.
Soda bottlers were notoriously thrifty, evidence this
suggestion submitted to the editor and published in
The Western Bottler
December 15, 1897:
Trade Mark.
(S. & N. Co. of