roundenders/maughams of south australia

Taken from an old issue of the AHBC newsleter
P. Treloar

The subject of the month for June was Round enders, often referred to as "Maughams", which is a misnomer. Thanks to our speakers for the night: Leith Howie, assisted by Peter Treloar. Many thanks to those who bought their bottles in; John and Steve Foumakis, Kym Hunter, Kevin Mountstephen and Peter Treloar. of particular interest was the number of very early (1840's 1860) roundenders shown.

The next section will probably be of most interest to our interstate readers, as they will most likely know very little about round enders, as they are an extremely localized bottle in Australia. Beside being in widespread use in South Australia and Broken Hill (under South Australia's direct economic influence), the only other places I know they were used by aerated water manufacturers was Perth, W.A. (Crowder and Letchford),Ballarat Victoria, (Rowlands), maybe one or two small specimens, 170 ml, (6 oz). in Sydney, and Kalgoorlie W.A. (one or two manufacturers).

The round ender seems to have first appeared in England in the first half of the 1840's, appearing here in South Australia virtually at the same time. All the round enders made for local users would have been made in England prior to 1875 when Cornelius Bishop became manager of the first South Australian glass works at Brompton, Adelaide. Roundenders were still being made at the local glass works at least as late as 1906. However, the round ender appears to have been out of general use by 1910, although it is known ginger beer was being bottled in round enders at Minlaton on Yorke Peninsula as late as 1926. Some have survived to fulfil other purposes. Recently I obtained 2 round enders: one which was being used as a rolling pin for pastry, and the other was used for feeding milk and medicine to horses and lambs, as the contents just spiralled out the bottle and straight down their throats.

The usual round ender is about 266mm (10½) long and 50 mm (2”) in diameter, and held 285 ml (10 oz) of drink, the same as the standard pointy ender (Hamilton). The name "Maugham" which has been used to describe round enders for many years, is a misnomer as Maugham's patent pertains to the Carrara Water and not the bottle. From testimonials he had patented the carrara water prior to August, 1843. It appears the round ender may have been manufactured specifically to contain the Carrara water, as it was at a much greater pressure than other aerated water, due to the pressure required to liquify the carbonic gas, and enable it to combine with the lime in the water, creating the Carrara Water. The bottle was designed on the principle of high pressure steam boilers; cylindrical with semi spherical ends.