TORPEDO HAMILTON SODA WATER BOTTLE SCHWEPPES GUIDE

TORPEDO SODA WATER BOTTLE GUIDE: I am hoping to give you a crash course on torpedo soda water bottles (bottles with pointy bottoms that will not stand up on their own).
*torpedo bottles are also called HAMILTON bottles (named after their inventor William Francis Hamilton). He was an Englishman who was granted patents in 1809 and 1814 for an ovate shaped bottle.
*torpedo bottles are also called: Hamilton bottles, pointy enders, ovates, egg bottles, ballast bottles,and; bombs. These bottles WILL NOT stand up on their own.
*torpedo bottles are ovate or egg shaped with a POINTY bottom; cylinder bottles have straight sides and a ROUNDED bottom. Cylinder bottles WILL NOT stand up on their own.
*torpedo bottles held DOUBLE or TRIPLECARBONATED SODA WATER(generally called club soda; definitely high pressured FIZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ)); cylinder bottles normally held GINGER ALE
*the shape of the bottle meant the bottle had to be laid on its side, keeping the contents in contact with the cork. This kept the cork wet and swelled and prevented loss of carbonation.Any airspace was at the side (which was now the top) of the bottle. If the bottle's bottom was flat, there would be an airspace between the top of the soda and the bottom of the cork. The cork could dry out just a wee bit and the carbonation would escape so no more fizzzzzzz in the soda!! Plus, this shape of bottle was physically much stronger than a flat bottomed bottle.
*it is generally accepted that JOSEPH SCHWEPPE was the inventor of soda water. He was a Swiss jeweller who started selling mineral water in Geneva in 1783. He moved to London in 1792 and used egg bottles from 1809 until the turn of the century. His earliest torpedo bottle was a pottery or stoneware bottle. These stone bottles are EXCEEDINGLY scarce, with less than a half dozen knownto be in existencetoday. I'm lucky to own one of them, shown below. Took me 35 years to find it!!!!!

*next was the PONTILED soda bottle which Schweppe used up to 1831; then came blown in the mold (non-pontiled or smooth base) bottles of which MILLIONS were made and distributed to almost every country in the world. A pontiled SCHWEPPES torpedo is shown below.

*torpedo bottles can be found made of both pottery and glass. Glass bottles are almost always in the standard and gemon greenish/aqua colours. But there are torpedos that were made in varying shades of amber, cobalt blue andemerald green. They are rare, beautiful and very EXPENSIVE!!
*special holders or stands were made for these bottles so they could be stood upright on dining room tables. Most of these holders are very ornate since they were from the Victorian period. Shown belowis a single bottle holder;holders also came that would hold 3, 4 and 6 bottles.

*this 1831 receipt shows "dozens" of stone bottles; yet less than 6 stone torpedo bottles exist today. WHERE ARE THE 6 OTHERS SHOWN IN THE 'DOZEN' NOTED ON THE RECEIPT???


*click on the ME link which you will find after my feeback number. There you can go to my two websites for more pictures and information about torpedo bottles.
*as you know, my okay user name is torpedobottleso you know what my passion is. Why not check out my website, learn a bit moreand then begee passionate yourself about torpedo bottles?
*so; the next time you drink a cold carbonated soda, think WAAAAAY back to it originally being held in a pointy ended torpedo bottle!!!
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Thanks so muchfor reading!And; if you have any questions about torpedo bottles, please don't hesitate to contact me. I'll help you out as best I can.