WILD JUNKER! Please Help with Identification.

By Dwayne Anthony; posted December 9, 2008

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I just acquired a top shelf "junker" Hemingray 40 and request the assistance of ICON to aid in the identification of the object within. It may be a cap of some sort, but nothing like the typical soda or beer bottle caps that have appeared in a handful of other insulators. I'll do my best to describe it and hopefully someone will recognize what it might be.

The diameter of the object is about that of a penny—roughly ¾ of an inch across. Similar to a bottle cap, it has a full ¼ inch lip at a 90 degree angle all the way around it; however, it is not tapered out as much as a typical bottle cap (the photo gives the impression it is flared out, but it is not). There are 3/16 of an inch squared cutouts found evenly spaced and centered on this continuous side lip, as seen in this photo. The bottom edge of the lip also appears to have evenly spaced sections where excess metal has been crimped back outward then upward 180 degrees to form a series of small finished, rounded lips.

On one side of this object there appears to be a small 1/16' diameter rounded "bar" attached to it, as seen in the next photo [id=233446633]. This bar is about ½" in length and has two fairly large eyelets attached to it. The eyelets are bent outward away from one another at about a 60 degree angle, with the eye holes being lined up parallel with one another, possibly to allow something to pass through both to create a hinge?

I have to admit that I vaguely recall seeing something like this in the past somewhere, but can't recall the application. It seems to be a cap for something??? All portions of it will attract a magnet, especially the end where the eyelets are attached. The amber flow emanating from it also indicates that it is an iron based metal. It requires a strong light to enhance the object, which in turn causes a reflective glare from the glass, so sorry about the quality of the pics. If you have any ideas please post them to ICON (or contact me personally if you are not a public poster). Thanks in advance!

Mystery solved by Bob Stahr! It's a Kork-N-Seal reusable bottle cap as seen at: http://www.sha.org/bottle/closures.htm

Looking at the pics in the article and the additional links within, that's it for sure! The link to the 1911 Kork-N-Seal Illinois Glass Co catalog-- http://www.sha.org/bottle/Finishes/korknsealIGCo1911.jpg --lists three sizes available and the one within the Hemingray 40 is clearly the smaller "No. 1" size listed for a 5/8 inch bottle opening. The listing also states that they were available in plain tin, lacquered tin and decorated tin. If this one was of the two latter, the finish was of course burned away by the heat of the glass.

A big thanks to Bob for solving this mystery and to the many other ICONers that posted and emailed me with their guesses and suggestions.

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