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heylinder · Rated XXX

I'd say closer to fact than myth according to this info I found ...

In the early days of mineral waters, the closure of choice was the cork stopper. In order to maintain a proper seal, it was necessary to keep the cork stopper moist. One of the methods used most commonly in Europe was to invert the bottle to keep the liquid in continuous contact with the cork. The bottoms of the bottles were rounded to prevent them from standing upright.

As noted, the early bottles were hand blown and rather crude compared with later machine made bottles The first bottles used for mineral and soda waters were called blob tops, named for the mass of glass used to form the lip on the bottle. Tops were applied in a separate operation during manufacture.

In 1857, Henry Putman of Cleveland, Oh, invented a wire clamp retainer for cork stoppered bottles. Putman's "better way" was closely followed by John Matthews, Jr's "gravitating stopper. In 1873, the ball stoppered bottle closure referred to as the "Coda stopper", was patented in the U.S. by Hiram Cold of England. In 1874, Charles de Quillfeldt of New York, patented the "Lightning Stopper".

Finally in 1879, Charles G. Hutchinson, the son of a prominent Chicago bottler invented a spring-type internal bottle closure known as the "Hutchinson Stopper" whose popularity during the period made it almost a standard. In fact, so many were used chat the bottles produced during the years to follow are referred to as "Hutchinson Bottles".

Stoppered bottles were still being used by some small American companies as late as the 1920's, but laws restricting their use because they were unsanitary, brought an end to an exciting era in bottling.

I also remember reading somewhere that "pop" was coined as a phrase for soda during the Civil war period.