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A stopper or cork is a cylindrical or conical closure used to seal a container, such as a bottle, tube or
barrel A barrel or cask is a hollow cylindrical container with a bulging center, longer than it is wide. They are traditionally made of wooden staves and bound by wooden or metal hoops. The word vat is often used for large containers for liquids, ...
. Unlike a lid or
bottle cap A bottle cap or bottle top is a closure for the top opening of a bottle. A cap is sometimes colourfully decorated with the logo of the brand of contents. Plastic caps are used for plastic bottles, while metal with plastic backing is used for ...
, which encloses a container from the outside without displacing the inner volume, a bung is partially or wholly inserted inside the container to act as a seal. A bung can be defined as "a plug or closure used to close an opening in a drum or barrel. It is called a plug when referring to a steel drum closure." A glass stopper is often called a "ground glass joint" (or "joint taper"), and a
cork Cork or CORK may refer to: Materials * Cork (material), an impermeable buoyant plant product ** Cork (plug), a cylindrical or conical object used to seal a container ***Wine cork Places Ireland * Cork (city) ** Metropolitan Cork, also known as G ...
stopper is called simply a "cork". Stoppers used for wine bottles are referred to as "corks", even when made from another material. A common every-day example of a stopper is the cork of a wine bottle. When used to seal the
bunghole A bunghole is a hole bored in a liquid-tight barrel to remove contents. The hole is capped with a cork or cork-like stopper called a ''bung''. Acceptable usage includes other access points that may be capped with alternate materials providing an ...
s of
barrel A barrel or cask is a hollow cylindrical container with a bulging center, longer than it is wide. They are traditionally made of wooden staves and bound by wooden or metal hoops. The word vat is often used for large containers for liquids, ...
s, the stopper is called a bung. Other bungs, particularly those used in chemical barrels, may be made of metal and be screwed into place via threading.


Ground glass joint

Ground glass joint (or ground glass stoppers) are commonly used with laboratory glassware, mainly because of their nonreactivity. Some stoppers used in labs have holes in them to allow the insertion of glass or rubber tubing. This is often used when a reaction is taking place in the flask or test tube and the byproduct or result of the reaction is desired to be collected. For instance, if one were to boil water in a test tube and wanted to collect the water vapor, one could seal the test tube with a stopper with holes in it. With tubing inserted into the hole(s), when the tube is heated, water vapor will rise through the hole, make its way through the tubing, and into the collection chamber of choice. The water vapor would not be able to escape into the air, because the stopper and the tubing, if set up correctly, would be airtight.


Rubber bungs

In
chemistry Chemistry is the scientific study of the properties and behavior of matter. It is a natural science that covers the elements that make up matter to the compounds made of atoms, molecules and ions: their composition, structure, proper ...
, bungs made of hardened rubber are frequently used in small-scale experimental set-ups involving non-corrosive gases. Some chemistry bungs may also include one or more holes so a glass tube or laboratory funnel may be inserted through the bung and into the container or another piece of apparatus. The rubber bung may be used to seal a flask because the user may require the contents to be mixed via shaking the flask or may require that the contents be kept inside the flask and prevented from leaking out. In all cases, the bung keeps the experimentation environment sealed so that liquids or gases cannot escape (or enter). For applications that place higher demands on the bung in terms of temperature and mechanical stability or solvent resistance, standardized glass stoppers and connectors are preferred. Bottle stoppers made from
gutta-percha Gutta-percha is a tree of the genus '' Palaquium'' in the family Sapotaceae. The name also refers to the rigid, naturally biologically inert, resilient, electrically nonconductive, thermoplastic latex derived from the tree, particularly fr ...
, a
natural rubber Rubber, also called India rubber, latex, Amazonian rubber, ''caucho'', or ''caoutchouc'', as initially produced, consists of polymers of the organic compound isoprene, with minor impurities of other organic compounds. Thailand, Malaysia, and ...
that is both chemically resistant and
thermoplastic A thermoplastic, or thermosoft plastic, is any plastic polymer material that becomes pliable or moldable at a certain elevated temperature and solidifies upon cooling. Most thermoplastics have a high molecular weight. The polymer chains associate ...
, were the first product of the
Gutta Percha Company The Gutta Percha Company was an English company formed in 1845 to make a variety of products from the recently introduced natural rubber gutta-percha. Unlike other natural rubbers, this material was thermoplastic allowing it to be easily mou ...
, better known for making
submarine telegraph cable A submarine communications cable is a cable laid on the sea bed between land-based stations to carry telecommunication signals across stretches of ocean and sea. The first submarine communications cables laid beginning in the 1850s carried tel ...
s.Haigh, Kenneth Richardson, ''Cableships and Submarine Cables'', pp. 26-27, Adlard Coles, 1968 .


See also

*
Bunghole A bunghole is a hole bored in a liquid-tight barrel to remove contents. The hole is capped with a cork or cork-like stopper called a ''bung''. Acceptable usage includes other access points that may be capped with alternate materials providing an ...
*
Cork borer A cork borer, often used in a chemistry or biology laboratory, is a metal tool for cutting a hole in a cork or rubber stopper to insert glass tubing. Cork borers usually come in a set of nested sizes along with a solid pin for pushing the remo ...
*
Closure (container) A closure is a device used to close or seal a container such as a bottle, jug, jar, tube, or can. A closure may be a cap, cover, lid, plug, liner, or the like. The part of the container to which the closure is applied is called the finish. Ot ...
* Hutchinson Patent Stopper


References

* Yam, K.L., "Encyclopedia of Packaging Technology", John Wiley & Sons, 2009, *Soroka, W, Illustrated Glossary of Packaging Terminology Institute of Packaging Professionals

{{Authority control Laboratory equipment Seals (mechanical) Wine packaging and storage Containers es:Tapón he:פקק la:Embolus new:बुङ