This discussion makes me realize that I need to add a serious section on
milk bottle closures to a study I am working on — about milk bottles. 
I now have a short section on ligneous disks and need to enlarge it.

Industry literature seems to indicate (and these are my impressions,
rather than solid facts — at least for now) that thin layers of wood
were used early on and were gradually replace by cardboard.  The
original wooden disks were often removed with a special pointed tool
that generally destroyed the disk for future use.

A number of methods were introduced (including a notched bottle to
allow access to the disk for removal without damage) to facilite easy
opening and resealing.  Eventually, the topmost of three cardboard
layers was made with a thumb tab that allowed the disk to be removed and
replaced.  I grew up with those, although the transition to them was
much earlier than my 1940s and1950s upbringing.

Bill Lockhart



>>> Meli Diamanti <[log in to unmask]> 9/13/2007 7:08 am >>>
I think the manufacturers' point was that the caps sealed well enough 
for transport/delivery the first time and sealed well enough for
in-home 
use thereafter, but that the milk bottler would not want to re-use 
them.  Hence the cheap supply of replacement caps for the manufacturer.
 
By the time we got milk delivered, it was a dieing industry.  And it 
definitely had tabs on the cardboard seals for loose resealing at home,

but you threw away the cardboard when it was empty and sent the bottle

back without it.
Meli Diamanti

Carol Serr wrote:
> They call me Ms. Literal.  Sorry.
>
> So...home consumers of milk had a ready supply, at home, of these
disks...to reseal their bottles?   I'm not quite old enough to have
'experienced' this closure type, but had heard my parents mention them. 
My dad even claims he 'invented' (at least in his small town in SD)
attaching a tab to make opening the lid much easier.  He showed the
milkman his 'invention', and some months later (kid time)...bottles came
with lids with a tab! I imagine many folks "invented" this means of
opening the lids...to make it easier.
>
> Regardless (one part does mention they Can be reused tho)..the point
being...the disks for sealing milk bottles were not made out of hard
rubber.  Hence, I don't think Candace's disks were for such function.
>
> :o)
>