there is disclosed apparatus for incorporation in conventional bottle capping or bottle filling and capping machines to improve the handling of plastic bottles with pre - threaded screw caps and with a three dimensional bottom surface commonly employed and referred to as a petaloid shape . the normal flat table surface on which bottles rest while the cap is being screwed on is replaced with a surface having upstanding , radially - arranged fingers positioned to extend into all or most of the spaces between the lobes in the bottom of the petaloid bottle at each bottle capping station and form a nest for such bottles . generally conventional bottle receiver and guide elements cause the bottles to assume a position substantially upright and coaxial with the center of the array of fingers for the particular bottle capping station . one embodiment of the apparatus includes a depression in the table surface to receive the bottom of a petaloid bottle and the fingers are located in that depression . other embodiments of the apparatus have a generally flat surface except for the upstanding fingers . most embodiments of the apparatus have no moving parts as such , but one embodiment has depressible , spring - loaded fingers to facilitate entrance and exit of the bottom of the bottle from the nest of fingers . the apparatus serves to prevent rotation of bottles as the screw caps are tightened without knives or pins engaging the top of the bottle as heretofore commonly employed .