Devices to open corked bottles

Wine, like cheese, is one of man’s improvements on nature. And ever since man has cared about wine, he has cared about cork to keep it safely sealed in flasks and bottles. ‘Corticum.. . demovebit amphorae. . .’ - ‘Uncork the amphora.. .’ sang Horace* (27 BC) to celebrate the anniversary of his miraculous escape from death by a falling tree. But how did he do it?

A corked bottle creates a market need: it is the need to gain access to the wine inside. We might state it thus: ‘a device is required to pull corks from wine bottles’. But hold on. The need must be expressed in solution-neutral form, and this is not. The aim is to gain access to the wine; our statement implies that this will be done by removing the cork, and that it will be removed by pulling. There could be other ways. So we will try again: ‘a device is required to allow access to

wine in a corked bottle’ (Figure 2.6) and one might add, ‘with convenience, at modest cost, and without contaminating the wine’.

Five concepts for doing this are shown in Figure 2.7. In sequence, they are to remove the cork by axial traction (= pulling); to remove it by shear tractions; to push it out from below; to pulverize it; and to by-pass it altogether - by knocking the neck off the bottle, perhaps.

Numerous devices exist to achieve the first three of these. The others are used too, though generally only in moments of desperation. We shall eliminate these on the grounds that they might contaminate the wine, and examine the others more closely, exploring working principles. Figure 2.8 shows one for each of the first three concepts: in the first, a screw is threaded into the cork to which an axial pull is applied; in the second, slender elastic blades inserted down the sides of the cork apply shear tractions when pulled; and in the third the cork is pierced by a hollow needle through which a gas is pumped to push it out.

MATERIALS SELECTION IN MECHANICAL DESIGN
SECOND EDITION
MICHAEL F. ASHBY
Department of Engineering, Cambridge University, England
OXFORD AUCKLAND BOSTON JOHANNESBURG MELBOURNE NEW DELHI

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