When a bottle of any liquor charged with carbonic acid under strong
pressure, such as champagne, sparkling cider, seltzer water, etc., is
uncorked, the contents often escape with considerable force, flow out, and
are nearly all lost. Besides this, the noise made by the popping of the
cork is not agreeable to most persons. To remedy these inconveniences
there has been devised the simple apparatus which we represent in the
accompanying cut, taken from _La Nature_. The device consists of a hollow,
sharp-pointed tube, having one or two apertures in its upper extremity
which are kept closed by a hollow piston fitting in the interior of the
tube. This tube, or "tap," as it may be called, is supported on a firm base
to which is attached a draught tube, and a small lever for actuating the
piston. After the tap has been thrust through the cork of the bottle of
liquor the contents may be drawn in any quantity and as often as wanted by
simply pressing down the lever with the finger; this operation raises the
piston so that its apertures correspond with those in the sides of the top,
and the liquid thus finds access to the draught tube through the interior
of the piston. By removing the pressure the piston descends and thus closes
the vents. By means of this apparatus, then, the contents of any bottle of
effervescing liquids may be as easily drawn off as are those contained in
the ordinary siphon bottles in use.
[Illustration: TAP FOR EFFERVESCING LIQUIDS.]
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