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The U. S. distributor for the BOC Sparklets Works was Leland Industries, Inc., Stirling,

New Jersey. Leland Industries was founded in 1964 and, in 1980, the company changed

its name to Leland Limited.

Leland Stanford, President of Leland Limited wrote, "Leland sold about 500,000 of the

Corkmasters in the U. S. market. Interestingly enough, the largest consumer of the

Corkmasters was the Department of Defense. These were used by elite military groups,

which allowed them to silently kill the enemy by injecting CO2 into their bloodstream

thus causing an embolism; death followed shortly."

Leland Industries was purchased by British Oxygen in 1971 and held it for about ten

years before selling it back. Stanford's summary comment on the Corkmaster was:

"What happened was the Corkmaster was a victim of corporate downsizing in 1977-

1978."

A major upgrade to packaging for the Sparklets

Corkmaster was an eye-catching design graphically

showing the operation. The lower assembly now

bore this admonition next to an illustration of a

bottle: "Warning. Before using, read instructions.

Use only on unopened, standard shaped bottle of

still wine (as illustrated)." A further notice on the

box end flap advised: "Store cool. Do not expose to

sun or heat."

The final chapter for British Oxygen Sparklets

Division was written in 1981 when BOC sold the

syphon business. Today, Sparklets Syphons,

whipping cream bottles, and the gas cylinders are

produced by Karel Hart in the Czech Republic.

Meanwhile BOC from its roots in the 1850s with the discovery of a method to extract

and store oxygen from the atmosphere has grown to a huge multinational company

employing 43,000 people. Their products are used in processes from the purification of

water to the manufacturing of cars. The Sparklets Division was just a small, short-term

part of BOC's growth.