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In his discussion of prior art, Artmer considered the 1950 French invention of Gabriel

François-Antoine Cognet. Cognet penetrated the cork with a worm and then used

liquid in a piston arrangement to extract

it. Artmer

says "…the cork is extracted by

a single stroke of the pump and so, in order

to exert the necessary force, the stroke of

the pump must be long, thereby rendering

the bottle opener extremely clumsy." An

alternative suggested by Cognet would

require several strokes of the pump.

Artmer continues with "…it is highly

dubious whether such a bottle opener

would be capable of functioning under

practical conditions."

Artmer then addresses the gas cartridge

ejectors with needles. Referring to the

1963 Swiss Kisag Patent, he says, "Because

the cannula must be sharpened to a point,

a danger of injury or damage exists…the

gas…influences the liquid present [

in the

bottle] because the gas customarily used

dissolves in the wine." His most scathing

remark comes just before the

presentation of his idea: "…the most

serious disadvantage to this type of bottle

opener is that many bottles cannot

withstand the pressure of gas which builds

up and explode. This can lead to

extremely serious injuries; bottle openers of this type cannot be sold in a number of

countries for this reason."

Artmer used a gas cartridge in his invention, the Mister Maximum, but says, "Unlike all

similar devices M. M. produces no pressure in the bottle! A tube acts on the lip of the

bottle and lifts up the cork!" He uses a worm attached to one sliding part combined

with another sliding part containing the CO2 cartridge and release mechanism. To best

describe how it works after the worm is screwed into the cork, here's the copy from

Mister Maximum:

For those interested in the technical side, the operation can be explained as follows: By

pressing the button, CO2 is forced under pressure into the M. M. and the tube is

pushed out. But the tip of the bottle resists the motion of the tube, so that the

corkscrew pulls out the cork.

Artmer also obtained patents in Australia (AU4758872), Belgium (789999), France

(2156713), Germany (2246062), Italy (969755), Netherlands (7214281), South Africa