A load of codswallop

The older amongst you might recognise this as a codswallop bottle. The bottle was first designed by a Mr Hiram Codd from Suffolk. He spent his life working in the soft drinks business. In the 1870s, he designed and patented a way of sealing a glass bottle by means of a ball in its neck, which the pressure of the gas in the fizzy drink forced against a rubber washer. The Codd bottle was an immediate success. You opened them by pushing the ball into the neck, and openers were supplied for the purpose. Not many bottles survive today as children used to smash the bottles to use the glass balls as marbles.

Drinkers who preferred alcoholic drinks were often dismissive of Mr Codd’s soft drinks and as beer was often called wallop, they referred to the fizzy drink as Codd’s wallop. This description later spread to refer to anything considered to be rubbish.