33

Augers, Bits, and Corkscrews

On July 22, 1884 Charles Griswold, Chester, Connecticut, was granted United

States Patent Number 302,331 for his corkscrew invention. Griswold described

the operation with

―

the screw having been driven into a cork in a bottle in the

usual manner, as soon as the lower edge of the shield bears against the mouth of

the bottle, the cork is started and raised a short distance into the flaring mouth of

the shield, and the further extraction of the cork is effected by a straight pull

upon the handle in the ordinary manner.

‖

The first factory on the south side of the Pattaconk River in Chester was the bit

factory of Griswold built in 1850. When Griswold

‘

s patent was issued, the factory

was in the hands of the Chester Manufacturing Company owned by Edwin G.

Smith, John H. Bailey, and Charles Wright. They manufactured auger bits,

corkscrews, reamers and more. Griswold built a second factory in 1854 for the

manufacture of augers and bits.