Glass bottle

Manufacture

The earliest bottles or vessels were made by ancient man. Ingredients were melted to make glass and then clay forms were dipped into the molten liquid. When the glass cooled off, the clay was chipped out of the inside leaving just the hollow glass vessel. This glass was very thin as the fire was not as hot as modern-day furnaces. The blowpipe was invented around 1 B.C. This allowed molten glass to be gathered on the end of the blow pipe and blown into the other end to create a hollow vessel. Eventually, the use of a mould was introduced, followed by the invention of a semi-automatic machine, called the Press and Blow, by Yorkshire Iron founder, Howard Matravers Ashley, in 1886. In 1904, Michael Owens invented the automatic bottle machine, after working on the production of electric lightbulbs, in Ohio, for Edison. The manufacturing cost and minimum order quantity (MOQ) of custom glass bottles are heavily dependent on the complexity of the cast-iron IS machine molds and the purity of the silica sand used, particularly when producing extra flint glass for premium spirits.

Once made, bottles may suffer from internal stresses as a result of unequal, or too rapid cooling. An annealing oven, or 'lehr', is used to cool glass containers slowly to prevent stress and make the bottle stronger. When a glass bottle filled with liquid is dropped or subjected to shock, the water hammer effect may cause hydrodynamic stress, breaking the bottle.

Characteristics

Markings

Modern bottles, when moulded, are given marks on the heel (bottom). These marks serve a variety of purposes, such as identifying the machine used in the production of the bottle (for quality control purposes), showing the manufacturer of the bottle, how much to fill the bottle to, the date the bottle was manufactured, as well as other information. Embossing on a bottle consists of raised lettering, numbers, and/or designs which were intended to inform the purchaser in some way of the contents or to establish ownership of the bottle.

Closures

Glass bottles have a variety of closures to seal up the bottle and prevent the contents from escaping. Early bottles were sealed with wax, and later stoppered with a cork. More common today are screw caps and stoppers.

Disposal

Glass recycling recovers a high rate of raw materials. Some countries have adopted container-deposit legislation to encourage recycling.

Examples

Common shapes in modern commerce include:

• Boston round or Winchester bottles - cylinder with heavily rounded top and bottom; thick glass, typically clear, blue, or amber. Common in medical and scientific applications.
• Long-necked or Woozy bottles - tall cylinder with a prominent neck, many of which are used as beer bottles
• Wine bottle - very standard shape, mostly cylindrical but gradually narrowing into the neck
• Spice bottles
• Liquor bottles
• Olive oil bottles - tall and relatively thin with a prominent neck. Marasca bottles are rectangular cuboids on the bottom and rounded on top; Dorica bottles are cylinders.