Removing Stoppers
Removing Stoppers.—It not unfrequently happens that when a stoppered bottle has remained undisturbed for a considerable time, the stopper becomes firmly fixed in the neck of the bottle, and cannot be moved by the hand in the ordinary way. The removal of a fixed stopper requires judgment and tact, in order to preserve the bottle unbroken. One or other of the following means may be resorted to:—(a) Place the bottle firmly on a table, and hold it with the left hand. Then apply the right hand to the stopper, and pull it forcibly on one side, using the thumb as a fulcrum at the exterior of the neck of the bottle. If the stopper moves, the motion will be indicated by a ticking kind of noise; and the stopper can then be withdrawn without further trouble. This plan should be tried at various parts, observing to pull the stopper towards the operator, and not away from him. (b) By tapping the stopper on alternate sides with the handle of a hammer, or with a piece of wood, it can frequently be loosened. (c) Dip one end of a cloth in boiling water, and then wrap it round the neck of the bottle; the heat causes the neck to expand which allows the stopper more room, whereby it can often be removed with ease. (d) Or the flame of a spirit lamp may be applied to the neck of the bottle with the same effect. But in both cases the operation must be performed quickly, in order that the heat may not get at the stopper and expand it, for if such is the case, it remains as firmly fixed as before. (e) Pass a piece of strong twine round the neck of the bottle and fix one end of the string to a hook; the neck will be heated by the friction occasioned by drawing the bottle rapidly backwards and forwards, the bottle being held in one hand, and one end of the string in the other. The heat expands the neck as before described. (f) Stoppers are sometimes fixed by the coagulating or crystallisation of substances between the inside neck of the bottle and the stopper. The application of oil, or water, or muriatic acid, to the top of the bottle, will often dissolve away so much of the hard matter as to render the removal of the stopper easy. (g) When the fixed stopper of a glass bottle resists all management—such as warming the neck with a cloth wet with warm water, by tapping, and by the wrench, or by all these in combination—there is another means which will frequently succeed. Let the bottle be inverted, so as to stand on the stopper in a vessel of water so filled that the water reaches up to the shoulder of the bottle, but not to the label. Two or three nights of this treatment may be required sometimes before the stopper will yield. (h) Another method is to use a stopper extractor. This can easily be made out of a block of wood 3 in. square and 2 in. thick, by cutting a hole through its centre large enough to receive the head of the stopper. The use of the above is preferable to pulling out two drawers, sticking the head of the stopper between them, and twisting the bottle round. To apply the extractor, it is placed over the stopper, and grasped firmly in one hand, while the neck of the bottle is held by the other. A gentle, but firm and steady twisting motion is then used, care being taken to keep both hands moving in the same plane, but in opposite directions. If the pressure be applied too vigorously or spasmodically, or if the lines of the direction of the opposite forces be not quite parallel, there is a danger of wrenching off the head of the stopper or breaking the neck of the bottle.