# ACL SODA BOTTLE PARTS W/ DEFINITIONS



## SODAPOPBOB (Jan 10, 2013)

I realize this is basic information for most soda bottle collectors, that's why it is primarily intended for the novice/newbie collectors among us, especially when they ask questions like ...

 A.  What is the difference between the base and the heel?

 B.  What does acl mean?

 C.  What is case wear?

 D.  Etc; etc.

 Hopefully the following definitions will help answer some of those questions, with the focus being on crown cap acl soda bottles.

 1. Crown Cap ... Cork Sealed ~ Patented in 1892 by William Painter.
 2. Lip ... Extreme upper portion where cap is attached.
 3. Reinforcing Ring ... Just below lip ~ Adds strength to lip/cap portion to prevent breakage during opening.
 4. Neck ... Slender upper portion.
 5. Side ... Wide portion.
 6. Case Wear ... Rough looking glass typically caused by bottles rubbing against one another.
 7. ACL ... Applied Color Label / Lettering ~ Painted Label ~ Introduced in the early 1930s.
 8. Heel ... Outer circumference at bottom ~ Sometimes embossed with letters/numbers.
 9. Base ... Flat underside that supports bottle in upright position ~ Often embossed with Makers Mark ~ Date ~ Etc.
 10.  Embossing ... Words/Numbers/Letters/Images that are permanently formed into the glass ~ Raised.
 11.  Debossing ... Similar to Embossing but recessed/indented instead of raised.
 12.  Makers Mark ... Various symbols and letters identifying which glass manufacturer made the bottle.

 I might have forgotten something, but this should cover the basics.

 As always, feel free to ask questions whenever in doubt.

 Any member who wishes to eloborate on any of this, please do so.

 Happy Hunting ~ Collecting ~ And Identifying.

 Sodapopbob


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## Eric (Jan 10, 2013)

Never understood it being called case wear.. bottle aren't gonna chip against the wood cases it's usually caused
 from them being returned and smacking against each other while going through the process of being
 cleaned, refilled and capped as they go rolling down the conveyor belts. Metal carriers would scratch but I
 wouldn't think the wood would hurt them... and the wear is always where 2 bottles hit/touch each other
 never where the case touches the bottles.
 But nice little reference poster you have there for new collectors.


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## OsiaBoyce (Jan 10, 2013)

Is not what you call the 'side' usually referred to as the 'body'?

 See what I refer to.

http://blog.containerandpackaging.com/2011/03/bottle-body-parts.html

http://www.sha.org/bottle/morphology.htm

 Here are some non-soda bottles w/ named parts.

http://www.google.com/images?hl=en&q=parts+of+a+bottle&gbv=2&rlz=1W1ACGW_enUS330&gs_l=heirloom-hp.1.0.0l4j0i30l6.1763.8487.0.11030.17.12.0.5.5.0.187.1699.0j12.12.0...0.0...1c.1.LgbttHKEREY&sa=X&oi=image_result_group

 For the sake of accuracy.[]


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## TJSJHART (Jan 10, 2013)

VERY NICELY DONE  BOB


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## UncleBruce (Jan 10, 2013)

> Never understood it being called case wear.


 
 I refer to that kind of damage as HIGH POINT WEAR.


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## surfaceone (Jan 10, 2013)

Howdy BOB,

 Good start, sir. Got a few more precincts that wanted to be heard from. [8D]




From.


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## CreekWalker (Jan 10, 2013)

Thanks for posting the info, Bob! Let's not forget the future of the hobby, the young diggers and newbie collectors!


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## Asterx (Jan 11, 2013)

Could anyone describe the "blank seam" as shown in surfaceone's illustration? Is this the wavy line that is sometimes seen which is more concave than convex? And its purpose? If the picture is illustrating an effect I'm thinking of, I've wondered how and why its there...


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## SODAPOPBOB (Jan 11, 2013)

I wasn't sure what type of response this thread would get but glad to see it generated some interest. Sometimes its the little things that are often taken for granted that even advanced collectors can benefit from.

 ~*~

 Eric and Uncle Bruce ~

 I agree that case wear is a misleading term and that glass rubbing against glass is typically what causes it. But even with that said, collector *slang* seems to have taken precedent because that is how it is most often described on eBay and elsewhere. It would be interesting to know when the term originated. It might even go back as far as the Hutchinson era, or possibly even earlier, when many of the shipping boxes didn't have divider slats. High Point Wear is another good term, but one you don't see used all that often.

 ~*~ 

 Osia ~

 Thanks for the links. You're right about the main part of the bottle being called the body. I chose the term side because of what we often think of as straight-sided bottles. Also because the side is where bottles like Coca Cola hobbleskirts contain the makers marks and dates. I have never heard of the term straight-bodied bottle.

 ~*~

 TJ ~

 Thanks for the compliment. 

 ~*~

 Surf ~

 Thanks for the illustration. Very helpful. Even old dogs can learn a few new tricks. Meaning, I have never heard of the term "Sealing Surface." I bet you included that because of the word "surf." (Lol).

 ~*~

 CW ~

 Ditto! Without newbie interest to carry on the hobby, all of our coveted bottles might end up back in the dumps where we found them in the first place.

 ~*~

 as80 ~

 I am familiar with "blank seams," which are also referred to as "ghost seams," but I will let surfaceone answer your question because he is the one who drew attention to it with his illustration.

 Thanks again to all.

 Bob


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## SODAPOPBOB (Jan 11, 2013)

PS ~

 Regarding *case wear* ...

 It might be related to and the result of cardboard six-packs.

 http://www.gono.com/museum2003/museum%20collect%20info/earlydaysofsoda/earlydaysofsodapop.htm

 1923 ~ COCA-COLA introduced the first take-home carton.


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## surfaceone (Jan 11, 2013)

> Could anyone describe the "blank seam" as shown in surfaceone's illustration? Is this the wavy line that is sometimes seen which is more concave than convex? And its purpose?


 
 Hey Jordan,

 Good question, sir. The best that I can come up with is Thanks to Bill Lindsey:

 "Parison mold - Also known as the blank mold, a block mold (on a press-and-blow machine), or on an Owens Automatic Bottle Machine it is sometimes called a measuring mold (Tooley 1953; World Book Encyclopedia 1958; Miller & Morin 2004)).  Sometimes spelled "paraison" (Hunter 1950).  This is the preliminary bottle forming mold on all automatic bottle machines which transforms a gob of glass into a preliminary bottle shape with a fully formed finish (lip) and a partially formed body.  The parison mold on a blow-and-blow machine was made of two or more parts (not including the neck-ring mold) This formative bottle is then automatically transferred to a blow mold for final expansion to shape of the finished product.  On the Owens machines the parison mold was apparently sized to measure the glass being sucked out of the glass pot below, thus the term measuring mold.  Parison molds were unnecessary with mouth-blown bottles were only one mold was used.  See the Glassmaking & Glassmakers page for more information.  The blank (parison) mold concept was the revolutionary invention (patented in 1882) of Philip Arbogast of Philadelphia, PA. although the implementation of the blank mold - which forms the "finish" of the bottle - was not realized until the 1890s with the first semi-automatic machines (Howard 1950).

 Parison mold seams - The mold seams that are formed on the surface of the bottle by the mold part interfaces (joints) of a semi or fully automatic machines parison mold.  These can include the ghost seams on the sides and a suction scar like mark on the base of machine-made bottles."

 I hope this addresses your question, Jordan...

 There's a Coca-Cola hobbleskirt specific part chart On This Page.


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## SODAPOPBOB (Jan 11, 2013)

Surf ~

 Thanks for the "seam" follow up. Here's a picture to go with it ...

 Bob


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## SODAPOPBOB (Jan 11, 2013)

uno mas ~


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## SODAPOPBOB (Jan 12, 2013)

The more I thought about it, the more curious I became regarding the origin of the term "case wear." Even though we typically think of it as a slang term, I was primarily interested to see if I could find any references of the words actually being used back in the 1800s or earlier. And although I did not find any specific 1800s or earlier references, I did find the following ...

 But first, I wish to point out that the deeper and deeper I delved into the topic, and the more side-links I was invariably drawn into, the more apparent it became that if I ever hoped to find anything even remotely related to when the term originated, it seemed to boil down to finding the answers to two basic questions, which are ... 

 1. When was bottle embossing first introduced?
 2. When were wood shipping boxes first used?

 The end result of several hours of research, although not entirely conclusive, is what you see below. All things consider, and because there is ample evidence to indicate that non-slated shipping boxes (which allowed bottles to rub against one another) have been around for a long, long, time, I believe it is safe to say that the term "case wear" could very easily have originated as early as ...

 1. The late 1700s early 1800s when embossing was introduced.
 2. The mid 1800s when wood shipping boxes became popular.

 Whichever the case (pun intended) I strongly suspect the term "case wear" was a common term at least by the late 1800s.

 Bob 

 ~*~ 


 http://www.sha.org/bottle/glossary.htm

 Case wear - Wear to the high points of the embossing, sides of a bottle, and/or the base from the bottles contact with neighboring bottles while being transported or otherwise handled in cases. Case wear is most common on soda/mineral water and beer bottles which were usually re-used many times. Click on The Dalles Soda Works to see a Hutchinson soda bottle that exhibits case wear on the high points of the embossing - a common location for such.

 http://www.antiquebottles.com/condition.html

 Case wear: scuffs, small scratches, and wearing away of the embossed lettering caused by the process of recycling the bottles. A case wear ring may be seen around soda bottles that have been rolled frequently across the rollers of a recycling machine. See example of heavy case wear on embossing. See example of case wear ring. 

 http://www.sha.org/bottle/soda.htm

 ... Soda water bottles were typically re-used many times. This is evidenced by extensive base and side wear to many examples. In fact, similar to beer bottles, many (most?) soda water bottles were the property of the soda bottler and were sometimes marked as such, I.e., THIS BOTTLE IS NEVER SOLD or similar embossing to that effect (Riley 1958; Paul & Parmalee 1973; Busch 1987). The Hutchinson soda pictured to the below left has significant wear to the high points of the embossing from rough contact with its neighbors in bottle cases and from the bottling process. Not surprisingly, this is often called "case wear." 

 http://www.antiquetrader.com/features/collecting_local_milk_bottles

 Pay close attention to descriptions of condition. While a bottle may have no chips or cracks, it may have a good deal of case wear (caused by the bottles rattling around in the metal cases). Case wear is almost always present in used bottles. Minor scratches or marks on the glass are considered normal case wear, but if the wear is more pronounced the bottle isnâ€™t considered in good condition even if it isnâ€™t chipped or cracked. Remember, milk bottles have different standards of condition than many other forms of glassware.

 http://www.sha.org/bottle/body.htm

 The use of product or other proprietary mold induced embossing on bottle bodies goes back at least to the earliest portions of the period covered by this website and likely beginning in England about 1750 with the small Turlington Balsam of Life bottles (Richardson 2003). The first recorded use of mold induced proprietary embossing on an American made bottle body was around 1809 on a Dr. Robertson's Family Medicine bottle (McKearin 1970). From that point onwards, the use of embossing on bottles accelerated as the demand for bottled products increased with the increasing population of the country. In glass makers catalogs, embossed bottles were referred to as "lettered ware" (Obear-Nester Co. 1922). Even though some American-made bottles were embossed as early as 1809, if the experience in Illinois is a reasonable guide (and the author believes so), the use of product and/or proprietary lettered embossing on most utilitarian bottles (figured flasks excluded) was extremely uncommon until the late 1830s (Farnsworth & Walthall 2011). Even then - and for most of the remainder of the 19th century - most bottles and bottle types were labeled as to the product and/or purveyor (I.e., user of the bottle) information though embossing on bottles increased dramatically throughout that period, and particularly after the Civil War.


 http://books.google.com/books?id=kc0MSzFvrH8C&pg=PA29&lpg=PA29&dq=1700s+bottle+crate&source=bl&ots=QBAKND2NLw&sig=sn_FESvU-G5wTG4Pw3VoeBun7Vo&hl=en&sa=X&ei=b47xUIDQH-qr2AWi8YHwAg&ved=0CF4Q6AEwBTgK#v=onepage&q=1700s%20bottle%20crate&f=false

 Scroll to page 13 ...

 "... the American wooden box had a relatively short life cycle. Boxes were most widely used as shipping containers from the mid 1800s to the 1920s, when they were displaced by the newly invented corrugated and solid fiberboard shipping containers."


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## SODAPOPBOB (Jan 12, 2013)

PS ~

 Even though we may never know exactly *when* the term "case wear" originated, I strongly suspect that it did originate from bottles being shipped in wooden *cases*.

 Bob


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## Eric (Jan 12, 2013)

Guess they just needed a name for it.. All I am saying is it isn't caused from the cases themselves it's from bottles hitting against bottles themselves as they travel, mainly down a conveyor line... most of the wooded cases have dividers seperating/protecting the bottles. So sad to see a nice ACL with mint paint only to be surrounded by the wear around it caused from years of recycling...


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## SODAPOPBOB (Jan 12, 2013)

> ORIGINAL:  Eric
> 
> Guess they just needed a name for it.. All I am saying is it isn't caused from the cases themselves it's from bottles hitting against bottles themselves as they travel, mainly down a conveyor line... most of the wooded cases have dividers seperating/protecting the bottles. So sad to see a nice ACL with mint paint only to be surrounded by the wear around it caused from years of recycling...


 
 Eric ~

 I hear ya about the major cause of case ware. Mainly I am trying to determine the "*origin*" of the term, which could very well be a carry-over term from earlier days. It's kind of like the term "soda pop," which some claim originated from the popping sound when a hutchinson bottle was opened in the late 1800s. But even though most of us still call it soda pop, the actual popping sound sort of went to the wayside years ago when Crown caps were first introduced.

 Thanks a lot for the input. Much appreciated.

 Bob


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## RED Matthews (Jan 12, 2013)

Well I just have to stick my nose in.   A few years ago we had a Tail Gators Bottle Club with a member that had an wooden case of eight case gin bottles.  They even showed "case wear? on the bottle shoulders.  RED Mattheww


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## SODAPOPBOB (Jan 12, 2013)

Red ~

 You are welcome to stick your nose in anytime and anywhere. You've "been there- done that" and anything you have to say is always appreciated.

 The following is dated 1933 and related to milk bottles, but I still found it to be an interesting read ...

 http://books.google.com/books?id=NXoOurux3PEC&pg=RA1-PA20&dq=bottles+with+case+wear&hl=en&sa=X&ei=7MnxUIS2LIOU2wXUiICACQ&sqi=2&ved=0CE4Q6AEwBA#v=onepage&q=bottles%20with%20case%20wear&f=false

 Bob


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