Through the wonder that is Twitter I have just seen this image and felt it was worth sharing. I for one – love how the coke bottle has remained so consistent over such a long period of time and would appear to not have changed a bit since 1986! The one thing that is worth nothing however is that you seemed to get more liquid per bottle in 1899 than you do now!
I also find it interesting that the shaped changed right in the middle of the first World War in 1916 – i wonder if anyone can shed any light on why that was? I find that very interesting though – what a time to be thinking about packaging!!
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Men were away from women, being at war and stuff. The designers of the bottle thought the curved glass bottle would increase the attraction of these men to the product being sold. The marketers were correct and have maintained the use of the curvy, shapely bottle for about a century now.
Light shone. HTH.
I got one of those 1899 unopened. It might be a replica though.
what ever happened to the zip bottles first of all and second the lovely green bottles??
I used to see them on the line at the coke plant here in town all the time
thanks for the memories
I still miss the green tinted glass bottles of my youth. Every Coke bottler had their own imprint on the bottom. It was fun to finish your Coke and then check to see where the bottle originated. It was amazing to see how far a bottle travelled!!
Your right it is interesting to see that the bottle design was changed during the first world war. But from the picture it chaged twice, 1915 and 1916 both during the war. I don’t know for sure but changing the design twice within a year I imagine there was actually a problem with the first design. This is either going to be a problem at the bottling plant or transport. The 1915 design has a wider waist than base and I imagine that this could cause more breakages when the bottles are packed together. The 1916 design has a narrower waist and wider base which was stronger and less prone to breakage and more stable when atanding alone.
Wow the first one is the coolest!