The Ratchet-Cam Cork-Drawer: A Screw That Stops Inside the Cork, Lifted by Two Cams

"This arrangement is an improvement on my former invention, patented May 27, 1862. Although the corkscrew then patented will draw the corks almost without fail, objections have been made to it, it being necessary with that one that the screw pass entirely through the cork. Consequently with an old wine and old cork dust will fall into the wine." "When used, the action may be seen by the drawings. The shaft of the screw dropping loose through the cams, the screw is forced into the cork, as with an ordinary corkscrew, and will not pass through a cork of the usual length. The ratchet fastened to the handle then catches in the ratchet on the upper end of the loose cam b. The inclined plane on b, pressing on the inclined plane c, draws the screw and the cork, as the friction on the metal cams is less than that of the screw on the cork."

**Cage.** Print a tube 35 mm across and 70 mm tall with a window in its side and a foot that sits on a bottle's mouth. On its top, print a fixed ring whose upper face is a helical ramp rising 25 mm in one turn, with a hole for the shaft. **Loose cam.** Print a ring with the same helical ramp on its underside, so it sits on the fixed ramp, and ratchet teeth on its top face. **Screw and handle.** Cut 18 cm of 6 mm mild steel rod. Wind 2 mm steel wire round its lower 4 cm, file a point, and silver-solder the wire along as a coarse thread. Print a handle with a hole across for the rod and matching ratchet teeth on its underside, fix it at the rod's top with epoxy, and pass the rod down through both cams. **Test.** Cork several bottles of water with the corking kit, some with old corks. Set the cage on a bottle and turn the handle: the screw goes into the cork until the handle's teeth meet the loose cam's teeth, then the cam rides up the ramp and lifts the cork. Check that the screw's point has not come through the cork's end.

**Charles Chinnock** of Brooklyn, Kings County, New York, received US 38,147, dated 14 April 1863. The lower cam or inclined plane c was fastened to the cage, the upper cam b had ratchet teeth on its top, and the ratchet a was fixed to the handle; an extended form gave a longer lift. His claim is the ratchet cap, the loose snail-like cam and the corresponding cam or screw, with the independent worm and pillar, working together. **Honest limits.** Printed PETG cams and ratchets stand in for his metal ones, and a wire thread soldered to a rod for his worm. The notebook ignores friction; its forces and lengths are examples. Your drawn corks are the result.