Bottle Cap Liner Information

The Cork disc

Shaved or Solid Cork was a inexpensive natural product that was first used as a liner to seal the bottle.

These made a fairly good seal, but there was an occasional leaker with this natural product.

Solid cork liners were used until approximately 1915.

Composition

Cork particles or cork waste material originally thrown out became a new resource when developed into cork rods and cut into disks to replace solid cork liners. These were used until the late 1960's

Spot crowns

Spot crowns are regular crown corks to which a "spot" or disc of liner material is attached to the cork liner. This was added to prohibit the beverage from making contact with the cork liner. Dozens of various materials were used for spots, such as paper, aluminum, tin, foil, rubber and vinylite depending on the type of beverage that came into contact with the spot. Aluminum spots were generally used for beer and others for soda, ginger ale or sparkling water. The use of cork liners was phased out in the late 1960's.

Plastic liners

Various types of plastic or vinyl liners have been used to replace the cork liners and many are still in use today.

Corrugations or Flutes

Corrugations or Flutes are the points formed around the skirt of the crown. Different numbers of corrugations were used by various companies and were later standardized at 21. Recently some manufacturers have once again changed this number for reasons unknown.

21 Flutes 29 Flutes

Home Use Boxes

I also collect home use boxes like some of those shown below and with over 100 different ones, I believe my collection may be the largest of it's kind! Home use boxes simply means bottle caps sold to the general public and were usually found in grocery stores or hardware stores along with bottle cappers. These were used for various bottle items such as homemade beer or soda, ketchup, fruit juice, water etc...........

Cases & Cartons



Cases or Cartons were u sed for shipment of crowns which came in various sizes.

50 Gross Wooden Cases......19" x 12" x 11" deep

100 Gross Wooden Cases....25" x 16" x 13" deep

200 Gross Wooden Cases....25" x 20 1/2" x 20 1/2" deep

50 Gross Cartons...................16 1/8" x 11 1/2" x 9 1/2" deep

100 Gross Leverpak Drum

200 Gross Leverpak Drum

Today's standard case size is 70 Gross...21" x 12" x 12" deep