The Wire-Cutter Corkscrew: Shear the Wire, Drive the Screw, and the Same Turn Draws the Cork

"A notch, E, is provided in the edge of the bar C, which being engaged under the wire of a champagne or mineral-water bottle, holds the same, and enables said wire to be sheared off or severed between the blade B and the bar C, (see fig. 2.)" "Projecting rectangularly from the handle A, at its mid-length, is a left-hand screw-threaded shank, F, which terminates in a right-hand cork-screw, G. Tapped to fit the screw-threaded shank F, is a nut, H, from which proceeds a circular rest or foot, I, adapted to bear upon the neck of the bottle, so that after the cork-screw has fully penetrated the cork, the continued rotation of the handle A operates to draw the cork, (see fig. 1.)"

**Handle and blade.** Cut 16 cm of 20 × 5 mm mild steel flat bar. Grind one end to a pointed blade with one sharp edge, and fit hardwood grips to the other end with rivets. **Shear.** Cut a 7 cm bar from the same flat bar, file a notch in one edge that takes the bottle's wire, and pivot it on a bolt beside the blade so its notched edge passes the blade's sharp edge as shears. **Screw.** Left-hand rod is not easily bought, so build McGill's pair mirrored: cut 10 cm of ordinary M8 threaded rod (right-hand) and drill the handle's middle to take one end, fixing it with a nut each side. Wind 2 mm steel wire into a LEFT-hand helix round a 6 mm rod, file a point, and silver-solder it into the rod's lower end. **Rest.** Bend a 15 cm strip of 20 × 3 mm flat bar into a bow about 7 cm tall and 3 cm wide, as McGill's drawing shows. Drill its top for the rod and silver-solder an M8 nut over the hole as the nut H. Silver-solder a large washer, its hole wider than the cork, across the bow's two feet as the rest I, leaving room inside the bow for the cork to rise. Run the nut onto the rod. **Test.** Fasten a corked beer bottle of water with wire over the cork. Hook the wire in the notch and squeeze to shear it. Wind the nut up, turn the handle anticlockwise to drive the left-hand helix into the cork, and keep turning the same way when the foot meets the neck: the cork rises.

**William C. McGill** of Cincinnati, Hamilton County, Ohio, received US 61,080, dated 8 January 1867. The lance blade B pierced sardine cans, the shearing bar C was double and embraced the blade, and its foot D rested on the can while the blade ripped it open. His claims cover the whole instrument, the combined corkscrew and can-opener, the can-opener, the can-opener and wire-cutter, and the right- and left-hand screws on one stem with the foot and handle. **Honest limits.** Flat bar, threaded rod and a wound helix stand in for his made-up instrument, with the two hands mirrored (right-hand shank, left-hand helix, turned anticlockwise), and the can-opening use is not tried here. The notebook ignores friction; its forces and lengths are examples. Your cut wire and drawn cork are the result.