Rylands mineral water bottle

Rylands mineral water bottle, c. 1900. In 1772, Joseph Priestly discovered how to manufacture carbonised mineral waters.Jacob Schweppe was the most sussessful of the early producers, starting his Bristol business in 1794 using earthenware bottles.However gasses built up inside these bottles and the only way to stop the escape of gas was to lay the bottles on their side to keep the cork wet. Hiram Codd, who was British, designed and patented a system for keeping fizzy drinks in bottles using a glass marble stopper. When the bottle is filled, the marble is kept next to a rubber washer by pressure inside the bottle, resulting in a seal. To open the bottle the marble is pressed down into the neck chamber. Many Codd bottles were broken by children in order to obtain the marble and Codd at one time patented an oval-shaped marble to make them less attractive to children.