Hiram Codd
   HOME

TheInfoList



OR:

Hiram Codd (10 January 1838 – 18 February 1887) was an English engineer and inventor. In 1872, he patented a bottle filled under gas pressure which pushed a marble against a rubber washer in the neck, creating a seal for
soft drink A soft drink (see § Terminology for other names) is a drink that usually contains water (often carbonated), a sweetener, and a natural and/or artificial flavoring. The sweetener may be a sugar, high-fructose corn syrup, fruit juice, a su ...
s. This became known as the Codd bottle.


Early life

Codd was born in
Bury St Edmunds Bury St Edmunds (), commonly referred to locally as Bury, is a historic market town, market, cathedral town and civil parish in Suffolk, England.OS Explorer map 211: Bury St.Edmunds and Stowmarket Scale: 1:25 000. Publisher:Ordnance Survey – ...
,
Suffolk, England Suffolk () is a ceremonial county of England in East Anglia. It borders Norfolk to the north, Cambridgeshire to the west and Essex to the south; the North Sea lies to the east. The county town is Ipswich; other important towns include Lowes ...
, the son of Edwin Codd, a carpenter, who died in 1846 when Codd was 8 years old. He had two older brothers and an older sister. On 5 February 1856, at the age of 18, he married Jane Colebrooke at Holy Trinity Church, Kensington & Chelsea, London. Early in his working life he became a mechanical engineer and at the age of 23, whilst working for the British and Foreign Cork Company, greatly improving the production of corks, he was offered the position of 'traveller for the business'. He recognised a need for better bottle filling machines and a new type of closure to reduce the need for corks.


Invention of the Codd bottle

In 1862 he brought out a patent for measuring the flow of liquids and in 1870 devised a patented
bottling Bottling lines are production lines that fill a product, generally a beverage, into bottles on a large scale. Many prepared foods are also bottled, such as sauces, syrups, marinades, oils and vinegars. Beer bottling process Packaging of bottle ...
machine. To understand the
mineral water Mineral water is water from a mineral spring that contains various minerals, such as salts and sulfur compounds. Mineral water may usually be still or sparkling (carbonated/effervescent) according to the presence or absence of added gases. Tra ...
trade better and to prove the worth of his invention he experimented at a small mineral water works in the Caledonian Road,
Islington Islington () is a district in the north of Greater London, England, and part of the London Borough of Islington. It is a mainly residential district of Inner London, extending from Islington's High Street to Highbury Fields, encompassing the ar ...
, in London.
Letters patent Letters patent ( la, litterae patentes) ( always in the plural) are a type of legal instrument in the form of a published written order issued by a monarch, president or other head of state, generally granting an office, right, monopoly, titl ...
issued to him in November 1870 stated that he was a
soda water Carbonated water (also known as soda water, sparkling water, fizzy water, club soda, water with gas, in many places as mineral water, or especially in the United States as seltzer or seltzer water) is water containing dissolved carbon dioxide gas, ...
manufacturer living at 6 Park Place, Islington. Frederick Foster and William Brooke became early backers. In 1872 he was introduced to Richard Barrett, of London, whose two sons owned the Malvern Mineral Water Co. at Grove Lane, Camberwell. Barrett became Codd's partner. This enabled Codd to continue his research into the globe-stopper idea and in particular the tool used to form the groove in the lip of the bottle and in 1873 he perfected his globe-stoppered bottle. Mineral water soda manufacturers who wanted to use Codd's Globe Stopper bottles had to pay a yearly fee for a licence to use his patent bottle. By mid-1873 he had granted 20 licences and received a further 50 applications. This was boosted further by a
Trade Show A trade fair, also known as trade show, trade exhibition, or trade exposition, is an exhibition organized so that companies in a specific industry can showcase and demonstrate their latest products and services, meet with industry partners and cu ...
held in London in the same year. By 1874 the licence was free to bottle manufacturers as long as they purchased the marbles, sealing rings and used his groove tool, and the mineral water firms they traded with had already bought a licence to use his bottle. Codd had two factories in London solely producing marbles, one in Kennington and the other in Camberwell, which was run by F. Barrett, the son of his financial backer.


Hope Glass Works

In September 1873 he met Ben Rylands, and by 1877 they formed a partnership and started the Hope Glass Works in Barnsley. They remained partners until Rylands's death in 1881. During this period he still had a separate partnership with Richard Barrett, who let Codd look after the day-to-day running of their interests. Late in 1881, owing to failing health, Barrett retired and passed the management of the Codd's Patents solely to Hiram Codd. His Malvern Mineral Water Works and both marble producing factories continued to thrive and he was still involved with Frederick Foster and William Brooke, his early backers. In 1880 Codd instigated the idea of a bottle exchange in London. This was slow to start but eventually caught on in London and all over the country. Many thousands of empty bottles could be returned to their original owners via bottle exchanges. Agents charged a small fee on each bottle for providing this service (one penny per each 144 bottles). Dan Rylands took over the partnership after his father's death, and in 1882 they patented 'the crystal' (valve codd). On 6 October 1884, Codd allowed his partner to buy him out of the business and started trading at 41
Gracechurch Street Gracechurch Street is a main road in the City of London, the historic and financial centre of London, which is designated the A1213. It is home to a number of shops, restaurants, and offices and has an entrance to Leadenhall Market, a covered ...
, London. In February of the same year, his wife died aged 54; they had four surviving children: Ada Louisa, Maud M, Edith J, and Alfred Charles. Codd married his second wife, Elizabeth Brundell (whose brother worked for the firm) in June 1885. As he did not renew any of his earlier patents, his products could now be manufactured without fear of prosecution. Early examples of these bottles sometimes have "CODD'S EXPIRED PATENT" embossed on them.


Death and legacy

He died at his family home, Suffolk Lodge, 162
Brixton Road Brixton Road is a road in the London Borough of Lambeth (south London, England), leading from the Oval at Kennington to Brixton, where it forms the high street and then forks into Effra Road and Brixton Hill at St Matthew's church at the junction ...
,
Brixton Brixton is a district in south London, part of the London Borough of Lambeth, England. The area is identified in the London Plan as one of 35 major centres in Greater London. Brixton experienced a rapid rise in population during the 19th ce ...
, London, on 18 February 1887 from "congestion of the brain and chronic disease of the liver and kidneys" and is buried in London's
Brompton Cemetery Brompton Cemetery (originally the West of London and Westminster Cemetery) is a London cemetery, managed by The Royal Parks, in West Brompton in the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea. It is one of the Magnificent Seven cemeteries. Estab ...
. The family monument lies between the central and western path, midway between the north entrance and the central buildings. Codd's patented globe stopper bottle is still manufactured in India by the Khandelwal glass works. His earlier bottles are prized by antique bottle collectors worldwide. Codd-neck bottles are also mass-produced for the popular
Japan Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean, and is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan, while extending from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north ...
ese soft drink,
Ramune () is a Japanese carbonated soft drink. It was introduced in 1884 in Kobe by the British pharmacist Alexander Cameron Sim. Like Banta, an Indian lemon drink, is available in a Codd-neck bottle, a heavy glass bottle whose mouth is sealed by a ...
, which is produced in a wide variety of flavours by Shirakiku.


See also

*
List of bottle types, brands and companies This is a list of bottle types, brands and companies. A bottle is a rigid container with a neck that is narrower than the body, and a "mouth". Bottles are often made of glass, clay, plastic, aluminum or other impervious materials, and are typical ...
*
Ramune () is a Japanese carbonated soft drink. It was introduced in 1884 in Kobe by the British pharmacist Alexander Cameron Sim. Like Banta, an Indian lemon drink, is available in a Codd-neck bottle, a heavy glass bottle whose mouth is sealed by a ...


References


External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Codd, Hiram 1838 births 1887 deaths Bottled water brands 19th-century British inventors People from Bury St Edmunds Burials at Brompton Cemetery 19th-century British engineers