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Gas Cork Ejectors

In the Spring, 1967 issue of

News From The Vineyards

(Almadén Vineyards, Los

Gatos, California) corkscrews are reviewed and, near the end of "The

Reluctant Cork" article, we find: "About a dozen years ago cork-extractors of a

completely new type appeared on the market. Instead of a worm, they had a

hollow needle. Instead of pulling a cork, they pushed it out from inside the

bottle…CO2 or compressed air or some neutral gas such as Freon is

injected

into the space between the wine and the cork: when the pressure is great

enough, the cork comes out."

In his 1961 patent application, George Federighi writes, "It has been a limited

practise [sic] heretofore to inject carbon dioxide (CO2) into corked bottles of

liquid so as to blow out the cork." And in his 1962 patent application, Robert

Cameron says, "Devices of this sort have come into rather widespread use,

particularly for removing the corks from wine bottles."

The gas cork ejectors had begun to appear on the market in small quantities in

the mid-1950s but got some bad press with reports of bursting bottles.

Cameron said relatively high gas pressure in those early mechanisms presented

"a dangerous situation, especially when a waiter is preparing to serve liquid to a

customer." Inventors in the 1960s tinkered with the idea and developed gas

cork ejectors that worked well. By the mid-1960s these cork removers had

achieved worldwide popularity.

But rumors of bottle breakage and personal injury persisted and damaged the