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AN EXTRACTOR FOR "FROZEN" BOTTLE STOPPERS DEAR EDITOR: Professor Embree R. Rose of the University of Vermont has called attention, in the January issue of the JOURNAL OF CHEMICAL EDUCATION, to a very clever and novel device for removing frozen glass stoppers from reagent bottles. Professor Rose calls attention in his article to the need for such a device, for which no equipment has been regularly available. Every teacher of chemistry has felt the need for a device of this kind and it is not surprising to find that the problem has been attacked by men in different parts of the country working along similar lines. Professor H. A. Geauque, formerly head of the Chemistry Department a t Lombard College, Galesburg, Illinois, wrestled successfully with this problem some five or six years ago and developed a very interesting mechanical device for removing stoppers from bottles, some features of which are sufficiently novel to merit further explanation. As will be noted from the illustration, the stopper extractor consists of a metal frame, the two sides of which are pivoted so that they can be adjusted to rest on the lip of bottles of any size. A T-screw passing through the frame a t the top carriesattached to the cross-bar a t its lower end, a pair of pivoted jaws, the lower ends of which are curved and are wedgeshaped. The upper ends of these movable jaws come in contact with the sides of a cone-shaped metal nut through which the end of the T-screw is threaded. To operate, the side frames are adjusted to rest on the sides of the bottle lip. The lower ends of the movable jaws are pressed beneath the bead of the stopper and the cone-shaped nut is turned counterclockwise until it presses tightly against the upper ends of the movable jaws. This fixes the lower jaws firmly beneath the head of the stopper, after which, by turning the T-screw very slowly, the upward pressure against the stopper is gradually increased until i t eventually breaks loose. The wedgeshaped lower ends of the jaws produce a prying effect on the stopper, which probably helps to account for the effectiveness of the Geauque Stopper Extractor.* S. L. REDMAN CENTRAL SCIENTIFIC CO. CHICAGO, ILLINOIS * T h e Geauque Stopper Extractor is manufactured by the Central Scientific Company, from whom it may be secured. 940
