Hiram Codd
| Hiram Codd | |
|---|---|
Hiram Codd
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| Born |
10 January 1838 Bury St Edmunds, Suffolk, England |
| Died | 18 February 1887 (aged 49) |
| Occupation | Inventor |
| Known for | Seals for carbonated beverages |
Hiram Codd (10 January 1838 – 18 February 1887) was an English engineer. In 1872, he patented a bottle filled under gas pressure which pushed a marble against a rubber washer in the neck, creating a perfect seal.
Codd was born in Bury St Edmunds, Suffolk, England, 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, Kingston & 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.
In 1862 he brought out a patent for measuring the flow of liquids and in 1870 devised a patented bottling machine.
To understand the mineral water trade better and to prove the worth of his invention he experimented at a small mineral water works in the Caledonian Road, Islington, in London. A letters patent issued to him in November 1870 stated he was a soda water 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 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.
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