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On April 5, 1999 Ota Atsushi applied for

a Japanese Patent for an "Air Pump for

Wine Bottle." His idea is to use an

electric pump to inject air into the bottle

while "a quality change in the wine is

prevented by decompressing the bottle."

He draws a very serious conclusion with

"…by use of a hook

-and-loop

fastener…injury by a needle is prevented,

even if the cap flies when the cork is

drawn." Japanese Patent No. 2000-291543 was granted October 17, 2000.

Knowing that the quality of the wine will not be changed, one must think the stores will

be crowded with fine wine enthusiasts snapping up this handy bar accessory!

Here's an invention that tells the patent examiner

"uncorking is constantly light, so that a weak person

can easily uncork."

Mori Arihiro application was filed with the Japanese

Patent Office July 21, 1999. There does not appear

to be anything earthshakingly new about this design.

Patent No. 01031192A was granted February 6,

2001.

A second patent was issued to Arihiro on April 24,

2001 (No. 2001-114392) for essentially the same

cork ejector. His goal was “

To provide a piston

lever device of a pneumatic corkscrew for use with

a wine bottle or the like wherein a structure is

simple and excellent airtightness when pressing and airtight openability when drawing

can be obtained.

”

His solution was: “

A shaft having a support surface at a base end is formed at a tip of a

piston rod, and an air path connected axially with a side of an inner diameter of an

elastic piston ring is formed of a washer and a support contact on the shaft. In addition,

the air path is opened/closed by the elastic piston ring which reciprocates following the

piston rod to pressurize and feed air.

”