Stoppers of Cork seem to have been first introduced after the invention of glass bottles, which occurred some- where about the fifteenth century. The first bottles were wide-mouthed vessels, hence the Corks or bungs were cut to fit loosely, and were made tight fitting by the insertion of some kind of coarse canvas or cotton-wool under the cork. As the mouths of the bottles assumed narrower dimensions, the system of fitting Corks tightly followed as a mere matter of adaptation, and thus towards the end of the seventeenth century Cork stoppers were used in the shops of German apothecaries. The term Corks is peculiarly British, all other countries where Corks are used having special names or definitions : thus, in France they are Bouchons (or mouth-pieces); in Germany, Korkstopfeln (Cork-stoppers); in Italy, Turacciole (or stoppers) ; and Spain, Tapons (or covers). The word Cork, or its native equivalent, being sometimes added to designate the material of which the stopper is made, as in the German Korkstopfeln. The material from which Corks are made is the bark of the Quercus Suber, or Cork oak, which grows abundantly in southern France, Italy, and Spain. The tree is stripped as it stands, and the bark generally grows again. That of the first stripping and younger trees yields the finest Cork, and is commercially known as “Velvet Cork”; older bark is usually full of holes, eaten through by insects, which have the good taste to leave the bark con- taining their self-made channels as soon as it is stripped off and laid out to dry. Although it is not always necessary to use the velvet Cork, it is as well to know Fig. 519. Cork-drivers. that it is the most elastic and air-tight. Coarser Cork may be used, and generally is, even for bottling wine ; but then it is advisable to soak the Cork in hot water Corks and Corking — continued. until it becomes soft and pliant even as the best velvet Cork, when it may be compressed in a squeezer (see Fig. 518), the better to fit the mouth of the bottle, and then driven home with a driver (see Fig. 519). After corking wines or other liquors that are to be kept, it is usual to seal the tops with wax, specially prepared, and described under Bottling, to which article reference is advised. CORKSCREWS. — These useful little weapons require no special notice beyond mentioning that they are made in so many various shapes and modes of working that they could not be exhaustively described in anything less than a volume exclusively devoted to the subject. It may be taken for granted that each and all have sufficient merit of a kind to warrant their existence. There are Corkscrews worked by a lever and compound lever ; others by the reverse action of a system of screws, which not only forces the screw into the cork, but draws it and casts off the cork in one continued action ; some are fitted with winches, and some fixed to slanting stands or frames for drawing wines which must not be shaken. Their name is legion, and the choice must be left to the fancy of the purchaser. CORN. — See Indian Coen or Maize. CORNCAKES. — See Cobnflour Cakes.

AI-modernized reading of the original text

Stoppers of Cork seem to have been first introduced after the invention of glass bottles, which occurred somewhere about the fifteenth century. The first bottles were wide-mouthed vessels, hence the Corks or bungs were cut to fit loosely, and were made tight fitting by the insertion of some kind of coarse canvas or cotton-wool under the cork. As the mouths of the bottles assumed narrower dimensions, the system of fitting Corks tightly followed as a mere matter of adaptation, and thus towards the end of the seventeenth century Cork stoppers were used in the shops of German apothecaries. The term Corks is peculiarly British, all other countries where Corks are used having special names or definitions : thus, in France they are Bouchons (or mouth-pieces); in Germany, Korkstopfeln (Cork-stoppers); in Italy, Turacciole (or stoppers) ; and Spain, Tapons (or covers). The word Cork, or its native equivalent, being sometimes added to designate the material of which the stopper is made, as in the German Korkstopfeln. The material from which Corks are made is the bark of the Quercus Suber, or Cork oak, which grows abundantly in southern France, Italy, and Spain. The tree is stripped as it stands, and the bark generally grows again. That of the first stripping and younger trees yields the finest Cork, and is commercially known as “Velvet Cork”; older bark is usually full of holes, eaten through by insects, which have the good taste to leave the bark containing their self-made channels as soon as it is stripped off and laid out to dry. Although it is not always necessary to use the velvet Cork, it is as well to know Fig. 519. Cork-drivers. that it is the most elastic and air-tight. Coarser Cork may be used, and generally is, even for bottling wine ; but then it is advisable to soak the Cork in hot water Corks and Corking — continued. until it becomes soft and pliant even as the best velvet Cork, when it may be compressed in a squeezer (see Fig. 518), the better to fit the mouth of the bottle, and then driven home with a driver (see Fig. 519). After corking wines or other liquors that are to be kept, it is usual to seal the tops with wax, specially prepared, and described under Bottling, to which article reference is advised. CORKSCREWS. — These useful little weapons require no special notice beyond mentioning that they are made in so many various shapes and modes of working that they could not be exhaustively described in anything less than a volume exclusively devoted to the subject. It may be taken for granted that each and all have sufficient merit of a kind to warrant their existence. There are Corkscrews worked by a lever and compound lever ; others by the reverse action of a system of screws, which not only forces the screw into the cork, but draws it and casts off the cork in one continued action ; some are fitted with winches, and some fixed to slanting stands or frames for drawing wines which must not be shaken. Their name is legion, and the choice must be left to the fancy of the purchaser. CORN. — See Indian Corn or Maize. CORNCAKES. — See Cornflour Cakes.

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