Bottling

Historic finds indicate that the art of making glass bottles was well known throughout the ancient world when the Egyptians were producing them in 1400 BCE. Their glass was made in much the same way as it is in the twenty-first century, by heating a mixture of sand, lime, and other minerals to a temperature of 2500°F. Naturally occurring glass, such as obsidian and rock crystal, had been used for art in the Stone Age. By 300 BCE, the Syrians had perfected the blowpipe, and blown-glass bottles were common. Rapid progress in bottling followed the early Renaissance introduction of standard-size corks to fit glass bottles. In the mid-sixteenth century, bottles fitted with wax seals were status symbols for the nobility of Europe, with every family marking their private bottles with its own seal. The first American glass house began producing blown-glass bottles in Jamestown, Virginia, in 1608. By 1650, adaptations introduced from England, including flanged bottlenecks and screw-on metal caps sealed with resin or pitch, improved the seal, enabling bottlers to maintain carbonation in beer.