The Bottle Collector

In 1872, British soft drink maker Hiram Codd of Camberwell, south east London, designed and patented a bottle designed specifically for carbonated drinks. The Codd-neck bottle, as it was called, was designed and manufactured to enclose a marble and a rubber washer/gasket in the neck. The bottles were filled upside down, and pressure of the gas in the bottle forced the marble against the washer, sealing in the carbonation. The bottle was pinched into a special shape, as can be seen in the photo to the right, to provide a chamber into which the marble was pushed to open the bottle. This prevented the marble from blocking the neck as the drink was poured

Soon after its introduction, the bottle became extremely popular with the soft drink and brewing industries in mainly Europe, Asia and Australasia, though some alcohol drinkers disdained the use of the bottle. It has been claimed that the term codswallop originated from beer sold in Codd bottles, beer being popularly known as wallop at the time. There is no definitive evidence for this claim, and there is no mention of the word codswallop in print until the 1960s.

The bottles were regularly produced for many decades, but gradually became unfashionable. Because children smashed the bottles to get at the marbles, they are relatively rare and have become collectors items, particularly in the UK. A cobalt coloured Codd bottle today fetches thousands of British pounds at auction. The Codd-neck design is still used for the Japanese soft drink Ramune and in the Indian drink called Banta.

Bottle caps were originally designed to be pressed over and around the top of a glass bottle to grab a small flange on the bottle neck. The Crown Cork was patented by William Painter on February 2, 1892 (U.S. Patent 468,258). It originally had 24 teeth and a cork seal with a paper backing to prevent contact between the contents and the metal cap. The current version has 21 teeth. To open these bottles, a bottle opener is required.

The height of the crown cap was reduced and specified in the German standard DIN 6099 in the 1960s. This also defined the "twist-off" crown cap, now widely used in the United States and Australia. This bottle cap is pressed around screw threads instead of a flange. Such a bottle cap can be taken off merely by twisting the cap.

Bottle caps are also a way for bottlers to hold promotions, especially for soda companies. A message is printed on the inside of the cap and people with the right message may win a prize. Since the bottle must be purchased to determine the message and win, people usually purchase more of the drink to increase their chances of winning. The most common prize is a free soda from that company.

Some companies, such as Snapple, also print interesting facts on the inside of their caps.Mickey's Malt Liquor as well, prints riddles underneath the 24 and 40 oz. bottle caps. Usually this is done on wide-mouthed bottles that have large caps with enough printing area to put a short sentence.

Some people collect used bottle caps as a hobby.

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