DUPRS_0033 Round Bottom Glass Bottle

DUPRS_0033 Round Bottom Glass Bottle

Round bottom green-tinted glass bottle

Fragments and partially complete, green-tinted, rounded bottom glass bottles. One basal fragment is approximately 5.5 centimeters wide from one side of the bottle to the other. The glass is approximately 1 cm thick. No markings are visible.

No markings visible indicating manufacturer. Similar bottles were typically used for mineral water or carbonated soda drinks manufactured and used between approximately 1870-1910 and often manufactured in Great Britain.

Selective Surface collection, east Stanley Park, Historic Chatham Township (modern Summit, New Jersey)

Drew University, Department of Anthropology, Drew University Passaic River Survey

Similar bottles from advertisements and catalogs range from the late 19th and early 20th c.

Maria Masucci

Glass

These bottles were likely either for mineral water or carbonated soda drinks. This type of bottle was intentionally manufactured with a rounded bottom so that the bottles would lie on their side; the design would prevent the wired down cork from drying out and shrink which would have allowed the contents to loose carbonation and/or evaporate. The bottle type is often referred to as “round bottom sodas” or “ballast bottles” or can be found now referred to as torpedo bottles. The latter name stems from the belief that such bottles were shipped from England to the United States as “ballast,” or weight, in the cargo bays of ships. Usually, this kind of bottle was made in a two-piece mold, though variations were hand-blown. According to historical dating of such bottles, one such as this could have been produced in the United States or Great Britain. According to online resources for antique bottles, the vast majority of this bottle type found in the United States is from Great Britain, specifically the countries of England and Ireland. It is known that the bottles may even have been produced overseas for distributors in the United States such as seen in the Illinois Glass Company’s 1906 catalog, offering a round bottom “ginger ale” bottle design that was very common in the United Kingdom.