Democratic Sentinel, Volume 18, Number 7, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 2 March 1894 — SCREWS FOR ALL CORKS. [ARTICLE]

SCREWS FOR ALL CORKS.

One Factory Makes Enough to Gtw® One to Every Man. Newark is the birthplace of moat of the corkscrews of the world. Whet* it is stated that one firm in that city alone made 160,000,000 corkscrews last year, the size and importance of the industry will be understood. The/ average length of the corkscrew is three inches. If the corkscrews turned on the market by one firm in 1898 could be laid length to length they would have extended from New York to San Francisco, would have spanned the Pacific ocean and reached half way across Japan. Thia, be it remembered, was the work of only one establishment. If all the new corkscrews of 1898 could be numbered, they would doubtless be sufficient to supply every inhabitant of this sphere withone of the articles. It required nearly 100 men simply to twist the screws for the 100,000,000 implements. These men worked full time, too, and every day of the year, except Sundays and holidays. It took a number more hands to make the wooden and other styles of handles. There are nearly fifty varieties in the market. Among them are the ring handle, steel wire screws for demijohns and large bottles; th® folding screw and the broad wire handle screw. Several years ago an ice-pick and cigar-box opener was made with a screw concealed in the steel tube handle. The tube can bo slipped off, and the ice-pick forma the handle of the screw. Another novelty has a brush in the handle so, that the waiter in a restaurant is nob obliged to run his fingers around the inside of the neck of a bottle in order to remove the particles of cork and dust. For champagne bottles a screw is made with a blade in one end of the handle to cut the twine around the cork. Another handle contains both the blade and the brush. The power corkscrew is an ingenious and popular arrangement, which saves the knees and arms from a tussle with an obstinate cork. A cone of steel fits over the neck of the bottle, and the screw draws the cork while the cone presses on the bottle. Cheap novelties out of twisted wire have also been invented and patented by those in the corkscrew trade. Th® spiral thumbscrew is one of these. It can be pushed into a board and easily removed, after serving as a temporary hatrack. It can be purchased for $1 a gross, and retails at 5 cents. Spiral paper hooks, wall hooks, hat and coat racks and stair buttons, card suspenders and holders, bill files, soap holders, pickle forks, toasting and vegetable forks, and spiral shoe button hooks are alsomanufactured here in Newark. There is also a left-handed corkscrew. The original was made for a left-handed bartender, and it has been popular. A Newark firm turns out over 800,000 pocket corkscrews every year.— [New York Tribune.