Water bottles are easily frozen, only be careful to follow closely the ensuing instructions. If a handsome looking bottle is required, it must be of a spherical shape, slightly longer than its width and of ordinary thick glass; it must invariably be clean, and then filled slightly less than half full or a little lower than the circumference line of the sphere, with filtered water. Mix three-quarters of very finely chopped ice with one-quarter of rock salt; range the bottles in a box sufficiently large to hold twenty, leaving an inch space between each; cover the neck of the bottle with a tinned copper cup, having a round bottom, or else with a specially made rubber cork ( Fig. 620); cover entirely with salted ice, raising them all up so that the ice passes slightly underneath each bottle; neglect of this precaution will break all the bottles in the box. Pack the ice around, cover the box with a hermetically closed cover, and an hour later raise up the bottles, one by one, and give each a rotary movement to hasten the freezing; withdraw all the superfluous water above two-thirds of the height of the ball of the bottle, and leave in again for an hour and a half to finish freezing; remove the faucet that keeps the water in the box. let this run out, and besides remove the corks from the necks of the bottles; when ready to serve lift them out, wash in cold water and fill with filtered ice water.

Fig. G19.

Fig. 680.