The Cam-Lever Corkscrew: Half a Turn of an Eccentric Lifts the Cork

"The machine is constructed of a cylinder with a head or cap through which passes a piston, to the lower end of which is secured a corkscrew. The upper end of the piston passes above the head or cap of the cylinder and is left free to turn and play up and down. To the upper part of piston is attached a cam or eccentric, which works through the upper part of said piston (being slit) resting on the cylinder head or cap, which is the bearing." "It is operated by placing the lower end of the cylinder on the mouth of the bottle. The screw is then turned into the cork by the handle attached to the cam or eccentric, observing that the catch drops into the slots on the end of piston. The cam or eccentric is then turned with handle down, as in Fig. 2, which lifts or draws the cork out of the bottle."

**Cylinder.** Cut 12 cm of 30 mm aluminium tube and file its lower end to sit square on a bottle's mouth. Cut a hardwood disc to fit its top as the head, drill it for the piston and glue it in. **Piston.** Cut 15 cm of 8 mm mild steel rod. Saw a 5 mm slit 3 cm deep into its top end and drill across the slit for the cam's pin. **Screw.** Wind 2 mm steel wire into an open helix round a 6 mm rod, file its end to a point, and silver-solder its straight end into a hole drilled in the piston's lower end. **Cam.** Cut a 5 mm disc of mild steel flat bar about 40 mm across, drill it 15 mm off centre for the pin, and rivet a flat-bar handle to its edge. Set it in the slit on a bolt, so its rim rests on the cylinder's head. **Test.** Cork several bottles of water with the corking kit. Stand the cylinder on a bottle, turn the screw into the cork by the handle, then swing the handle down through half a turn, reading your push with the spring scale. Draw another cork with a plain corkscrew and the spring scale and compare.

**Abraham T. Russel** of New York, New York, received US 34,216, dated 21 January 1862. His cam A worked in the slit top of the piston B, resting on the head C of the cylinder D, and a catch dropping into slots on the piston's end let the handle turn the screw in before the lift. His claim is the cam or eccentric and piston applied as leverage to corkscrews. **Honest limits.** Aluminium tube, a steel rod and a flat-bar eccentric stand in for his made-up cylinder, piston and cam, and the catch is left out, so the pin turns the screw in. The notebook gives the average lift without friction; its forces and lengths are examples. Your drawn corks are the result.