Getting Strait

Troy, New York, June 12, 1883 - Thomas Strait set out to accomplish two things in his new corkscrew design - to make a simple, inexpensive cork extractor combined with a wire or cord cutter. He designed a conical bell with internal threads to ride on a threaded shank. He describes his wire cutter as a "peculiar construction."

Strait tapers the inner surface of the cone to form his cutter. In use, the cutter encircles the bottle neck and as he says "the rim forms an inner-cutting edge to break the sealing wax and sever the wire." In use, he inserts the worm into the cork and as he screws it in, the sealing wax is broken and the retaining wire is cut and continuing to turn the handle will extract the cork. Strait contends that using other corkscrews requires the wire to be cut first than the worm inserted into the cork "necessitating considerable loss of time." Obviously, Strait is a very busy man who wants to waste no time uncorking his bottles.

Strait boasts that his invention "is simple, durable, and inexpensive, and works with admirable efficiency, besides possessing other advantages too numerous to mention."

Strait has been assigned United States Patent Number 279,203. The patent date mark can be found on the side of the cone.

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Everts' Bonsa

Solingen, Germany, June 12, 1899 - Julius Everts has a new German Registered Design (Number 118,056) for a corkscrew. Everts horseshoe shape frame has a sliding neck ring which can be folded flat when not in use. The neck ring slides up and down in the frame to facilitate removal of the self-extracted cork. Everts will market the corkscrew under the names Bonsa and Andree.

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