A pusher mechanism of a bottle forming machine transfers a plurality of glass bottles onto a belt by rotating the bottles through an arc to align the bottles with the belt (72) while moving the bottles at a converging acute angle toward the belt. The movements increase the radius of the path and the speed of the bottles. The centrifugal effect applied to the bottles by the pusher mechanism is limited or reduced without introducing instabilities in the bottles. A nozzle (290) is positioned to counteract instabilities. A takeout mechanism rotates the bottles at an acute angle to the conveyor belt. This initial acute angle reduces the amount of rotation which the pusher mechanism must impart when placing the bottles on the conveyor, thus reducing the possibility of introducing instabilities.