Size: A Misshapen Bottle

Recorded: December 2015

Found: New Hampshire USA

Circa: Turn of 20th Century

Made: England

Material: Glass

Status: Known

Thanks to Kitty Mervine for this object!

It seems a bad bottle… there’s no way to put it down without it rolling all over the place. The company that this bottle was made for eventually went out of business after an embezzling scandal, which you can blame on the bottle if you’d like, thought it turns out that they made more practical bottles as well.

Once you open it, you can’t put it down. Should you wish to place this bottle on a table, you’d need a specially designed cup-like holder just to keep it in place.

So why use this design?

There’s a reason. It’s a reason to we still pay attention to today, but there’s one thing we don’t do with bottles anymore that they did back then. That, and a little physics will give you an answer. It would also be helpful to know what was in it. And might it be helpful to know that the shape solved TWO problems? Maybe. And some sources suggest a third problem solved as well.

Hint 1:

Spoiler No, don’t get too creative. It was for the same thing we use bottles for today. [collapse]

Hint 2:

Spoiler Not for wine, though it has been used that way. [collapse]

Answer:

Spoiler It’s a Torpedo or Hamilton Bottle for soda water. It’s shaped like that so that it can’t be placed anyway except for on its side, so that the cork will stay under the liquid. In a normal bottle, gasses would build up beneath the cork, and due to the cork’s porosity, they could leak out. In addition, this shape can hold higher pressures than normal glass shapes. And as an added bonus, someone buying a soda couldn’t put it down, so they’d have to finish it and buy another when they were thirsty again! This link has a lot more information. [collapse]

Do you have a mystery object you’d like to share? Whether you know what it is or not, we’d like to hear from you! Drop us a line at jeff@collegeofcuriosity.com.

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