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breakage and wine spoilage. Corkscrews were as popular as ever and inventions and re-

inventions kept on coming as they had for a couple of hundred years. They would

always survive. Looking back at the patent chronologies at the conclusions of the air and

gas cork ejector chapters, one can see a number of patents issued in the 1960s. Only

one patent was issued in the 1970s and that wasn't even manufactured.

Artmer contends that the ejector business was dying in the early 1970s. He had begun

production of an air model in 1966 and by 1971 business slowed and he gave it up. The

70s needed a new idea he thought. So he got busy on a new concept and by 1972 his

"Mister Maximum" was in full swing.

Like Rochat, Artmer tinkered with the idea of using the gas advantage externally. His

device would allow him to turn the worm into the cork, push a button, and the cork

would be automatically extracted. Artmer submitted his patent application to the

Austrian Patent Office on October 22, 1971. Patent Number 305,071 was issued May

15, 1972 and officially announced February 12, 1973.