Page:The American Cyclopædia (1879) Volume III.djvu/151

 BOTTLE BOTTOMRY 145 fig. 5, the neck of the bottle being cut off by the application of a cold iron or a wet stick, accompanied by slight traction. The finisher takes it, and, seating himself on a bench, a, fig. 6, which has some resemblance to an arm chair without a back, finishes the neck and mouth. FIG. 6. Finishing Bench. Generally a band of molten glass is wound around the neck, at the mouth, which is then held hi a flame till it attains the proper degree of pliability, and the shaping is done with one or more of the tools a, 6, c, fig. 7. The chief Fio. 7. Finishing Tools. use of the arms to the bench is to allow a rotary motion to be given to the bottle, by which it is held in position and its form retain- ed. After the mouth is finished the punty is removed, and the bottle is received on a wood- en rod or in a holder and taken to the anneal- ing furnace, where it is placed upon a pan, which, with several others attached together in the form of a chain, is drawn slowly through a long, horizontal oven. When the pan arrives at the opposite end of the oven, its load of bot- tles is removed and it is returned to the mouth of the oven to receive a new load. A patent was obtained by Henry Rickets of Bristol, Eng- land, in 1822, for a machine for making bottles which was not unlike the moulds now in use, although more complex. It had a contrivance for forming the bottom by pressure from with- out, which is of no mechanical advantage, and only injures the texture of the glass. Other patents for slight alterations in moulds have been obtained, but their adoption causes but little change in the process of blow-ing, which, for reasons above stated, cannot receive much modification as long as glass is the material from which the bottle is made. The various bottles used for different well known purposes are generally distinguished by peculiar shapes and sizes, as, for example, the English wine, beer, ale, and soda bottles, the French cham- pagne, burgundy, and claret, and the Rhenish wine bottles. Port wine is occasionally put into very large bottles, called magnums, and acids in still larger, termed carboys. Demi- johns are large bottles covered with wicker- work. The largest glass bottle perhaps ever manufactured was one blown at Leith, Scot- land ; its dimensions were 40 by 42 inches. BOTTLE TREE (sterculia [Delalechea] rupes- tris), an Australian tree of the family stercu- liacece. It has the calyx 5-cleft, usually color- ed ; no petals ; column of stamens with 15 or rarely 10 anthers; stigma peltate; carpels 5, distinct, with two or more ovules; narrow, digitate leaves ; paniculate, axillary inflores- cence ; flowers unisexual or polygamous, the female flowers expanding first. The tree has a greatly expanded trunk, which is swollen to a disproportionate size. Where the ground is Bottle Tree of Australia. rocky this expansion is greatest just below the branches ; but in favorable soils the foot of the tree is largest, forming a uniform cylindrical column, from whose summit the branches issue as from the neck of a bottle. BOTTOMRY, in maritime law, a contract by which the owner of a ship, or the master as his agent, hypothecates or binds the ship as secu- rity for the repayment of money advanced for the use of the ship. The name is derived from bottom, that is, keel, a figure by which the vessel itself is designated. In form it is a bond, by which, in consideration of the money lent, the borrower undertakes to repay it if the ship accomplishes its voyage, and pledges the ship for the performance of the undertaking. If the ship should be lost, the debt would be lost, that is, so far as it depends upon the bottomry bond ; and in consideration of this risk, a higher rate of interest may be agreed for than is allowed in other contracts. In case of partial damage to the ship, it is usually provided that the lender shall bear his proportion of it, which will be the proportion the amount lent bears to the whole value of the vessel. The lender is not entitled to possession of the vessel, not even when the debt becomes due (unless it should be so expressly stipulated in the bond), but may enforce payment of the debt by a decree of a court of admiralty for sale of the vessel. The master is not authorized to enter into this species of contract except in a case of necessity,