Clough Wired

Newark, New Jersey, April 6, 1875 - Newark resident William Rockwell Clough has patented a small twisted wire medicine bottle corkscrew made from one piece of wire. The corkscrews will be produced by the "Clough and Williamson" partnership in Newark.

Clough says previous corkscrews have "been formed of a spirally twisted rod of metal, pointed at its lower end, and provided with a shank upon its upper end, which is connected to the handle." He adds that current methods of corkscrew production involve a lot of labor making the products expensive.

Clough's "Improvement in Wire Corkscrews" United States Patent Number 161,755 outlines a simple construction method designed to cut production cost. The corkscrew can be formed from a wire or rod of iron, steel, brass or other metal. The wire is twisted for part of its length (the worm) and the rest can be bent to a variety of shapes.

Wirtz, Virginia - For more information on Clough, see the book William Rockwell Clough Inventor and Manufacturer of over a Billion Corkscrews by Ron MacLean and Bob Nugent. The book has been published online in The Virtual Corkscrew Museum at http://www.bullworks.net/clough/book.htm.

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