114

Japan

Drawings from 1967 Japanese Patent No. 42-017718 issued in 1967 has striking

resemblance to the English Corkmaster.

It is likely that the 1967

patent was behind the "Flip-

A-Cork" knock-off of the

early metal Corkmaster. This

gas cork ejector employs a

standard CO2 cartridge. It

was marketed in the United

States as Flip A Cork by

dOmARC, Inc., 1010 Doyls

[Doyle] St., Menlo Park,

Calif. [sic]. Although cork

ejectors are not

recommended for use on bottles of "bubbly", the graphics on the box

depict a glass of "bubbly" - an advertising blooper!

In the 1980s inventors in Japan began to work on a revival of the English Corkmaster

design in the 1980s. The market had already eroded and cartridges found their old

homes in soda syphon ejectors and cream whippers. The first of the 1980s Japanese

patents was issued to Kenji Hashimoto in 1981 (No. 56-151693):