Speed & Ease
A corkscrew is a small kitchen gadget designed to remove the cork from a bottle of wine. The most basic corkscrew model consists of a metal spike in the shape of an open spiral connected to a wooden handle. Waiters who routinely open and pour corked wine bottles carry a simple lever corkscrew. A wing corkscrew is designed with a double lever action. Two “wings” are mechanically drawn upwards by a gear as the “worm”, the helix-shaped screw, drills into the cork.
The user steadies the bottle on a table and presses down on both wings. The cork is pulled straight out by the central gear assembly. Wine experts estimate that pulling a cork out of a bottle with a corkscrew requires roughly the same force as lifting 100 pounds. This is the main reason why a lot of mechanical improvements have been made to the traditional corkscrew design. Some designs provide more leverage for pulling out the cork, while some emphasize more torque during twisting.