Item no. 27
Nursing Bottle
Acquisition history: Gift of Miss Alice Wright, 1966
Fabric: Clear pressed glass
Marks: 8-pointed star enclosing circle with ornamental monogram in centre (? P T P & Co.?) Acme Nursing Bottle
Measurements:
• Overall length: 6 1/10"
• Height at top of aperture: 2 4/10"
• Diam. of aperture (incl. rim): 1 2/10"
Notes:
Pressed glass nursing bottle with long tubular nipple and internal glass tube, of a type known as Siphonia. These feeders made their appearance in mid 19th century. (Attachments not original)
Teats made of cloth-covered sponge, glove fingers and specially prepared Calves' teats were replaced by rubber at about the same time as glass nursing bottles made their appearance. The most hygienic of these were of India rubber attached directly to to the neck of the nurser, but these were too hard in texture to make sucking easy. The long rubber tube with nipple attached was an effort to overcome this difficulty, but it posed serious problems because of the virtual impossibility of keeping it clean.
