14

Evidently, Farandatos never owned a good corkscrew! His idea was to attach a hollow

needle to a horizontal handle that would have a "palm pump or pneumatic pressure

cylinder" to build up pressure beneath the cork. He suggests using a CO2 cylinder like

the type used in air pistols. He points out that the insertion of the needle will put little

pressure on the bottle neck, whereas the "ordinary corkscrew" increases this pressure.

Of his invention, Farandatos says:

The device is highly useful, prevents the fragmentation of corks, removes them whole,

keeps the bottle contents free of corks and cork crumbs, improves sanitation in such

cases, and relieves the host of the common embarrassing struggle with the recalcitrant

cork.

Perhaps the examiner was skeptical - over five years passed before U. S. Patent No.

2,719,124 was granted on January 3, 1956.

Finally, in the 1960s cork ejectors became popular. The last half of the 20th Century

saw a great number of air and gas cork ejectors with names like Cork Boy, Cork Jet,

Corky, Cork Jack, Cork Ace, Corkaire, Corkette, Corkex, Cork Jiffy, Cork Pops, Cork-

O-Matic, Cork Up, Corkmaster, Cork Flash, Cork Popper, Pop-A-Cork, Cork Lift,

Eject-a-Cork, Flip a Cork, Party Jack, and the Jolly Cork Extractor.