Machine element or mechanism – Gearing – Directly cooperating gears
Reexamination Certificate
2002-01-14
2004-04-20
Bucci, David A. (Department: 3682)
Machine element or mechanism
Gearing
Directly cooperating gears
C074S029000, C074S120000, C074S435000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06722222
ABSTRACT:
FIELD OF THE INVENTION
The invention relates to single lever, two cycle, rack and pinion corkscrew machines and translating driver machines having an inclined gear rack with a spiral radius pinion gear. BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
The lore of corkscrews is well chronicled in literature published by patent offices and collectors both in print and over the internet the world around. (See for example, Peters, Ferd.
Mechanical Corkscrews, Their Evolution, Actions, and Patents.
Holland: Peters, 1999; Bull, Donald,
The Ultimate Corkscrew Book
(Schiffer Book for Collectors.) 1999 Schiffer Publishing, Ltd.; ISBN: 0764307010; D'Errico, Nicholas
American Corkscrew Patents,
Conn.1993; Wallis, Fletcher,
British Corkscrew Patents
from 1795, Vernier Press England, 1998; Watney & Babbidge,
Corkscrews for Collectors,
Sotheby Parke Bennet, 1981 ISBN 0 85667 113 4 and O'Leary, Fred 1000
Patented Ways to Open a Bottle
Schiffer Publishing, Ltd. 1997; ISBN: 0764300180 and on the internet at: <bullworks.net/virtual.htm>, <corkscrewnet.com>, & <angelfire.com/electronic/fpeters/>)
The problem of screwing a helical worm into a cork stoppering a bottle neck, then pulling the skewered cork from the bottle neck and finally stripping the pulled, skewered cork from the helical worm has and still titillates inventive genius, entrepreneurial interest, and collector mania. The perfect corkscrew has not yet been invented.
Thomas Lund's famous bottle grip cork screw patented in 1838 (Great Britain Pat No 7,761) includes a longitudinal cylindrical (French) cage or frame with flanges extending from the bottom end of the cage adapted to locate the mouth of a bottle neck coaxially with the cage. A coaxial shaft, turned by a T-handle, has a cylindrical gear rack shank with a helical worm tip that translates within the cage. A pinion/worm gear secured at the top end of the cage or frame, turned by another T-handle, engages the gear rack shank for pulling the cork from the bottle neck into the cage/frame after it is screwed into the cork
One hundred sixty one years later in 1999, Jeremy H. Gibson obtained U.S. Pat. No. 5,934,160 for a Cork Extractor that differs little from that of patented and manufactured by Thomas Lund. Gibson uses a pivoting lever with a semicircular gear instead of a pinion/worm gear (See Peters, F.
Mechanical Corkscrews, Their Evolution, Actions, and Patents
(supra at p. 189) to translate the rack shank of the helical worm screwed into the cork. Gibson also elected to use a non-rotating collar cam for imparting torque to the helical worm upon translation of the shaft up and down in the frame using the lever instead of a manually turned T-handle to screw the worm into the cork. A non-rotating collar cam for imparting torque to rotate the helical worm of a corkscrew is a characterizing feature of most bench mounted, barroom cork extractor machines manufactured at the beginning of the 20th century. In fact a collar cam was utilized by Heinrich Fuckel, 1913, in a registered German Design DRGM No. 569,802, for a very similar single lever portable corkscrew machine manufactured in those years by Recknagel of Steinbach-Hallenberg in Schmalkalden. (Also note French Patent No. 448,795, issued Sep. 27, 1912, and comparable corkscrew machines shown in Peters, F.
Mechanical Corkscrews, Their Evolution, Actions, and Patents,
supra)
The highly coveted Royal Club Corkscrew patented and manufactured in Great Britain in 1864 by Charles Hull features an open steel frame with an annular hub guiding a shaft tipped with a helical worm rotated by a T-handle having a single, S-curved lever coupled to a collar encircling the shaft between the frame and an annular shoulder beneath the T-handle. The S-curved lever rests, slides and pivots against a fulcrum shoulder at the top of the frame to raise the shaft relative to the frame for pulling a cork skewered by the helical worm from a bottle. In some embodiments, a roller bearing is located at the fulcrum shoulder to provide rolling contact between the moving S-curved lever arm and the stationary frame. A graspable, arcuate, rim tang extends coaxially downward from the annular hub at the base of the frame on the diametrically opposite side of the frame, relative to the fulcrum shoulder at the top of the frame. The location of the rim tang first facilitates manual alignment of the annular hub with the bottle mouth and second provides leverage with the bottle for counter balancing the forces of the pivoting sliding S-curved lever as a cork is pulled from a bottle.
To use a Royal Club Corkscrew, one grasps the downward extending rim tang and bottleneck in one hand aligning the mouth of the bottle with the annular hub of the frame, and then with the other hand, first screws the helical worm into the cork using the T-handle, and then pulls the skewered cork by rotating the S-curved lever downward sliding it relative to the fulcrum shoulder. The mechanical advantage provided by the S-curved lever is at a maximum when the helical worm is fully screwed into the cork and decreases as it slides upward pivoting on the fulcrum shoulder lifting the shaft relative to the frame pulling the cork from the bottle.
One hundred seventeen years later, in 1989, Herbert Allen obtained his U.S. Pat. No. 4,253,351 for a highly regarded Cork Extractor functionally quite similar to early 20th century, bench mounted, barroom corkscrew machines. In his patent, Allen describes a system of linked parallel pivoting levers for converting rotational movement of an actuating lever arm to linearly translate a carrier up and down guided by a rod stem extending into through a base frame. The base frame is adapted to be clamped onto a bottle neck. Manufactured and distributed by the Hallen Company of Texas under the mark Screwpull®, the system of linked, parallel pivoting levers converting rotational movement of the actuating lever arm of described by Allen morphed into a traditional linear gear rack parallel to the rotation axis of the corkscrew translating with the carrier driven by an exterior semicircular pinion gear integrated into an end of a lever crank coupled to, and pivoting on the base frame. (See also U.S. Pat. No. Des.415,667, Stephanne de Bergen entitled Lever-type Cork Extractor) The gear rack and rod stem of the Allen machine function as parallel guide rails respectively received in a rack channel and a rod guide passageways traversing through the body of the base frame to align the axis of a freely rotating helical corkscrew with that of a bottle mouth clamped and captured within the base frame between a pair of perpendicularly extending, clamshell-like engagement arms pivotally fastened to the base frame. Similar to Heinrich Fuckel, Herbert Allen utilizes a non-rotating collar cam receiving, and following the helix of the corkscrew to impart torque for rotating the corkscrew as it translates with the carrier.
The unique feature of the Screwpull® corkscrew machine is a normally biased latching mechanism for capturing and holding the non-rotating collar cam translatable on the guide stem just above where the clamshell engagement arms clamp onto the top of a bottle. The clamped neck and top of a bottle function as a fulcrum for spreading apart the pivoting couplings securing the clamshell engagement arms to the base frame of the machine. Spreading the pair of pivoting couplings retracts dogs latching the collar cam to the base frame, freeing the collar allowing it to translate with the carrier. In a first cycle, the lever crank is pivoted forward ~270° translating the carrier downward screwing the worm into the cork and then pivoted backward ~270° pulling the skewered cork from the bottle. As the dogs latching the collar cam to the base only retract when a bottle is clamped between the clamshell engagement arms, once the cork has been pulled from the bottle, and the bottle separated from the machine, in a second cycle, the skewered cork and collar cam is translated back down to the base frame in a second forward ~270° pivot of the crank, allowing
Andina Diego G.
Dolan Michael J.
Kim Sung
Symons Dominic P.
Tonetti Gianpiero
Bucci David A.
Hansen Colby
Jones Allston L.
Williams-Sonoma, Inc.
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