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Switzerland

Geneva inventors Serge Mourreau and Marcel Gonnet teamed up on

May 21, 1962 to apply for a Swiss patent for their

Tire-bouchon

pneumatique

. The design was very simple. A gas cartridge was

inserted into a cylinder by lifting a pivoting cover. When the cover

was fully engaged it would push the cartridge downward and it would

be opened by the top of the needle to release gas into the bottle.

Swiss Patent No. 369,674 was issued May 31, 1963. The application

was written in French and a word for word copy was presented to

the French patent office on March 14, 1963 (Patent No. 1,350,518).

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In an unusual design Mourreau and Gonnet

found another use for the cover that protects

one from the needle. It also might keep it from

getting lost! When their gas powered ejector

was ready for use, the cover was removed and

inserted into the top to be use as a lever to push

the "Sparklets" type cartridge down and engage

it with the top of the needle. Mourreau and

Gonnet filed a patent application in Switzerland

in 1963. They were granted a U. S. Design Patent

197,983 on April 14, 1964, about a year after

filing. The product was sold as the "Tiros" and

the "Cork Boy."