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United States
The first patent issued for a gas cork ejector was to New Yorker Denis Farandatos in
1956. His patent was licensed to British Oxygen Company and design refinements were
made in England for the product known as the Corkmaster. For details on this
development see the section on England.
British Oxygen stopped production of the metal Corkmaster and introduced the plastic
version in 1962. In the section on England, we noted that the Cork-Ace has been seen
with two different New York City company names at the same address on the
instruction sheet: Denis Industries and Neo Valve Products. The activation levers were
marked "Made in England."
Neo Valve then started to produce the Cork-Ace in
the United States. The activation levers were now
marked "Made in U. S. A." The black rings were
knurled (English version was smooth). The lever was
more robust with ridges for better thumb grip.
Gas cylinders private labeled for Denis Industries by Kidde Industries.