A corkscrew is a tool for drawing corks from

wine bottle A wine bottle is a bottle, generally a glass bottle, that is used for holding wine. Some wines are fermented in the bottle while others are bottled only after fermentation. Recently the bottle has become a standard unit of volume to describe sal ...

s and other household bottles that may be sealed with corks. In its traditional form, a corkscrew simply consists of a pointed metallic

helix A helix () is a shape like a corkscrew or spiral staircase. It is a type of smooth space curve with tangent lines at a constant angle to a fixed axis. Helices are important in biology, as the DNA molecule is formed as two intertwined helic ...

(often called the "worm") attached to a handle, which the user screws into the cork and pulls to extract it. Corkscrews are necessary because corks themselves, being small and smooth, are difficult to grip and remove, particularly when inserted fully into an inflexible glass bottle. More recent styles of corkscrew incorporate various systems of

lever A lever is a simple machine consisting of a beam or rigid rod pivoted at a fixed hinge, or ''fulcrum''. A lever is a rigid body capable of rotating on a point on itself. On the basis of the locations of fulcrum, load and effort, the lever is div ...

s that further increase the amount of

force In physics, a force is an influence that can change the motion of an object. A force can cause an object with mass to change its velocity (e.g. moving from a state of rest), i.e., to accelerate. Force can also be described intuitively as a p ...

that can be applied outwards upon the cork, making easier the extraction of difficult corks.

History

Its design may have derived from the gun worm which was a device used by men to remove unspent charges from a

musket A musket is a muzzle-loaded long gun that appeared as a smoothbore weapon in the early 16th century, at first as a heavier variant of the arquebus, capable of penetrating plate armour. By the mid-16th century, this type of musket gradually d ...

's barrel in a similar fashion, from at least the early 1630s.winepros.com.au. The corkscrew is possibly an English invention, due to the tradition of beer and cider, and ''Treatise on Cider'' by

John Worlidge John Worlidge or John Woolridge (1640–1700) was a noted English agriculturalist, who lived in Petersfield, Hampshire, England. He was considered a great expert on rural affairs, and one of the first British agriculturalists to discuss the import ...

in 1676 describes "binning of tightly corked cider bottles on their sides", although the earliest reference to a corkscrew is, "steel worm used for the drawing of Corks out of Bottles" from 1681. In 1795, the first corkscrew patent was granted to the Reverend

Samuel Henshall Samuel Henshall (1764 or 1765 – 17 November 1807) was an English clergyman and writer, and inventor of a type of corkscrew. Life Henshall was born in 1764 or 1765, son of George Henshall, a grocer of Sandbach, Cheshire, and was educated at Manc ...

, in England. The clergyman affixed a simple disk, now known as the Henshall Button, between the worm and the shank. The disk prevents the worm from going too deep into the cork, forces the cork to turn with the turning of the crosspiece, and thus breaks the adhesion between the cork and the neck of the bottle. The disk is designed and manufactured slightly concave on the underside, which compresses the top of the cork and helps keep it from breaking apart. A person who collects corkscrews is a ''helixophile.''

Types

Basic

In its traditional form, a corkscrew is simply a steel screw attached to a perpendicular handle, made of wood or some other material. The user grips the handle and screws the metal point into the

cork Cork or CORK may refer to: Materials * Cork (material), an impermeable buoyant plant product ** Cork (plug), a cylindrical or conical object used to seal a container ***Wine cork Places Ireland * Cork (city) ** Metropolitan Cork, also known as G ...

, until the helix is firmly embedded, then a vertical pull on the corkscrew extracts the cork from the bottle. The handle of the corkscrew allows for a commanding grip to ease removal of the cork.

Winged corkscrew

The wing corkscrew, sometimes called cork-extractor, a butterfly corkscrew, owl corkscrew, Indian corkscrew or angel corkscrew, has two levers, one on either side of the worm. As the worm is twisted into the cork, the levers are raised. Pushing down the levers draws the cork from the bottle in one smooth motion. The most common design has a rack and pinion connecting the levers to the body. The head of the central shaft is frequently modified to form a

bottle opener A bottle opener is a device that enables the removal of metal bottle caps from glass bottles. More generally, it might be thought to include corkscrews used to remove cork or plastic stoppers from wine bottles. A metal bottle cap is affixed t ...

, or foil cutter, increasing the utility of the device. Corkscrews of this design are particularly popular in household use. In 1880, William Burton Baker was issued British Patent No. 2950 for his double lever corkscrew, with both levers sliding onto the upper end of the shank. The first American patent was in 1930 granted to the Italian Domenico Rosati who emigrated to Chicago, Illinois, to work as bartender before the prohibition. Rosati's design had an exposed rack and pinion mechanism. Such design was adapted by other brands as the wine-market grew in popularity."Corkscrew Put Leverage on Stubborn Stoppers."
''Popular Science'', May 1939, p. 71. The winged owl version, with two side-plates covering the rack and pinion mechanism, was first designed and manufactured in 1932 by the Spanish industrial designer David Olañeta for his brand BOJ and was later adopted by others, such as the 1936 US Patent No. 98,968 by Richard Smythe marked HOOTCH-OWL.

Sommelier knife

sommelier A sommelier ( or or ; ), or wine steward, is a trained and knowledgeable wine professional, normally working in fine restaurants, who specializes in all aspects of wine service as well as wine and food pairing. The role of the wine steward in hau ...

knife, waiter's friend or wine key is a corkscrew in a folding body similar to a

pocket knife A pocketknife is a knife with one or more blades that fold into the handle. They are also known as jackknives (jack-knife), folding knives, or may be referred to as a penknife, though a penknife may also be a specific kind of pocketknife. A typ ...

. It was conceived by the German Karl Wienke in 1882 and patented in Germany, England, and America. An arm extends to brace against the lip of the bottle for leverage when removing the cork. Some sommelier knives have two steps on the lever, and often also a

. A small hinged knife blade is housed in the handle end to be used in cutting the foil wrapping the neck of many wine bottles. A corkscrew of this type can be used more quickly (and with more "show" or panache) than a wing-type corkscrew. The term "wine key" came into existence due to the German inventor's last name, Wienke, which is difficult for English speakers to pronounce. When ordering the product from catalogs, the meaning and origins of the new Wienke Corkscrew gradually became lost and it was simply referred to as a "Winekey" or wine key. Patent number 283,731, August 21, 1883, simply refers to it as "C.F.A. WIENKE LEVER CORKSCREW."

Twin-prong cork puller

Also known as butler's friend or "Ah-So" (from the German ''ach so!'', meaning ''now I understand!''), the twin-prong cork puller can extract a stopper without damaging it, to allow for sampling the wine before re-inserting the stopper. The stopper is removed by pushing the prongs between the cork and the neck of the bottle, and twisting the stopper out of the bottle. Replacing the stopper involves taking it between the two prongs, then twisting it into the bottle and pulling out the prongs. It can also extract a stopper in bad condition.

Lever corkscrew

The lever or "rabbit" corkscrew is operated using a pair of handles which are used to grip the neck of the bottle, and a lever which is simply pressed down to twist the screw into the cork, then lifted to extract the cork. Expelling the cork from the device is done with a similar press/lift action. This style of corkscrew is much bulkier, and typically much more expensive, than other styles, but is much faster. Tischkorkenzieher

Mounted corkscrew

These were invented in the late 1800s for use in homes, hotel bars and restaurants in an era where all bottles were stopped with corks. They are screwed or clamped to counters or walls. When beer began to be sold in bottles, bars required a speedy way to open them. Most early mounted corkscrew were designed to open beer bottles with short corks. Modern ones are made for longer wine corks.

Screwpull

In 1979, Herbert Allen introduced the "Screwpull" corkscrew. The device was meant to make opening wine bottles fool-proof. The Screwpull wraps around the top of the bottle, with a plastic screw that simply needs to be turned to remove the cork, without effort. The spiral is coated with Teflon, which reduces friction as it twists into the cork, ensuring it is removed intact without pulling. The Screwpull is part of The Museum of Modern Art’s permanent collection. Spiral-Korkenzieher

The company was sold to Le Creuset in 1992.

Others

There are many other styles of corkscrew which are not widely used in consumer settings, such as high-priced elaborate devices for specialists, and for industrial uses.

References

External links

The Virtual Corkscrew MuseumCorkscrew Museum
{{Authority control Food preparation utensils Wine accessories Bartending equipment English inventions Domestic implements 17th-century inventions