6

Foreword

When I heard from Don Bull that he was working on a book on cork ejectors and he

wanted to know something about my Mister Maximum product, I couldn't understand

the interest. At first, I thought there could not possibly be anything so important to

report about this product. But when I considered his inquiry further, I realized that this

product accounted for eight years of my life, my energy, and my living.

Then I read Don's books,

The Ultimate Corkscrew Book

and

Boxes Full of Corkscrews

and I

saw his passion for corkscrew knowledge. It is the story of corkscrews from the

beginning. I knew this story would not be complete without reporting on the period of

cork ejectors.

The thousands of corkscrew enthusiasts would certainly

find the background and connections of cork ejectors of

great interest. It was a time when all of those who were

involved and inventing cork ejectors believed this: "Now I

have got it - the ultimate cork remover!" The period starts

in the 1950s when the first sensational cork removers with

this new technique appeared on the market and all claimed

to be successful around the world.

Cork Ejectors

presents in a beautiful and well-detailed

volume the efforts and the painstaking research of the

inventor to come up with the very best product. They put

their thoughts on paper, built prototypes, and were proud

to present their ideas to the patent offices. Hoping to have

come up with the best solution each, no doubt, thought "I

have built the simplest, best cork remover in the world,

working with the push of a button!" Their goals were a

worldwide market where millions of wine bottles were

opened every day. But, alas, no single product of the many produced, ever achieved

total market domination. Perhaps an inventor will one day eye all of the cork removers

in this book and, finally, come up with the ultimate machine.

I thoroughly enjoyed reading the pre-publication draft of this book and I wish Don good

luck and big success. And to all the readers, I wish them much fun while turning the

leaves and discovering this world of cork ejectors.

Gero Artmer, Inventor

Vienna, Austria