Albert Albertson patented coiled spring stopper bottle - made by John Matthews

The design had an over-sized blob to house the spring with a shelf at the bottom of the blob to support the bottom of the spring.  From the top of the spring a wire with a rubber gasket dangled through the neck.  The spring exerted constant upward pressure, so the bottle remained sealed at all times by default.  

The patent showed a separate key or opener to depress the spring and release the contents.  The absurdity of the design is that it would be impossible to drink from the bottle while holding down the spring.  It would even be difficult to pour the contents into a glass while holding the key. The open cavity undoubtedly was a trap for dirt of even mouse droppings.  On top of that, the contents are poured through the spring with was unsanitary. It’s no wonder it failed in the marketplace.

Albertson and Matthews did manage to redesign it two years later and the new design was widely adopted throughout the US that they called the “Gravitating Stopper”.  They kept the internal seal idea by using a long glass rod with a rubber gasket on the end that automatically seated itself after the bottle was filled upside-down, although some bottlers like Zwietusch used wood gravitating stoppers instead of glass so they could be filled in  the upright position. It did not require a separate opener and the user could drink from the bottle when it was open because the closure sank to the bottom. 

Like the gravitating stopper design, an advantage of the coiled spring was that it was captive in the bottle at all times.

David Gracci in his book ”Soda and Beer Bottle Closures 1850 to 1910” states that at least 5 varieties of these bottles are known to exist, some of them are embossed on the bottom with “Albertson’s Stopper / Patented / Aug 26, 1862”.  None of the three Wisconsin varieties have this embossing. Some of the known examples of bottles that used this stopper include Dixon & Carson NY, City Bottling Toledo (blue), Norris Titusfield PA, Salmons & Co Saginaw MI, Dennis Manufacturer Geneva, Lindestrom Madison WI (two molds), and Zwietusch Milwaukee WI (two molds). There are others.

Otto Zwietusch of Milwaukee apparently ordered several batches of them. They are at least two mold variationss and they are found in colors ranging from deep aqua to green. One has an iron pontil mark. The fact that this bottle has a pontil is interesting because the patent was issued in 1862. The switch from pontil to smooth base seemed to happen right around 1860. Otto Zwietusch coiled spring bottles are rare, but enough shards have been dug in the Milwaukee area to suggest they were widely used.

Another Wisconsin bottler who used this type of bottle was J.A. Lindestrom (also spelled Lindestram) from Madison, Wis. These are also rare and have been found only in aqua. There are two varieties, the second of which appears to date from the 1870’s.  A dozen or more damaged examples were found in Lake Mendota in front of the bottling plant location, some of them with the spring in the blob.  Lindestrom also used the Gravitating Stopper style later on.  One interesting example has a coil spring bottle that was retrofitted with a 3” long wooden gravitating stopper.