Abstract:
A tool for removing headed stoppers from bottles such as champagne bottles, includes a base having a two fingered yoke and a side support, sized and shaped to engage the upper lip and the side of the neck of the bottle respectively, so that when a handle, pivotally attached to the base, is lowered toward the bottle, a pair of inwardly biased jaws slide down over the head of the stopper to engage its undersurface between the fingers of the yoke. Thereafter, the handle is lifted extracting the stopper while inwardly facing extensions positioned above the stopper on the jaws restrict upward motion of the stopper to prevent uncontrolled motion thereof.

Description:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 
     Sparkling wines and champagnes are traditionally provided in a bottle having a plastic or cork stopper which, in addition to being safety wired, is retained by a friction fit within the mouth of the bottle. Such secure retention means must be provided to prevent pressurized gas within the bottle from pushing the stopper out. Although at festive occasions it is sometimes desired to &#34;pop&#34; the stopper by gripping the bottle and slowly working the stopper out using ones thumbs so that it flies upwardly, such presents the danger of a flying stopper in commercial establishments and is unwise in a crowded gathering. The flying stopper may also damage the ceiling. Therefore, towels commonly are wrapped around the bottle to dampen the stopper&#39;s flight. The towel is disadvantageous because it makes the stopper removal clumsy and silences the festive &#34;pop&#34;. With or without a towel, stoppers sometimes generate much more retention friction than is desirable and ultimately are very difficult to remove. This is especially troublesome in commercial establishments where many bottles must be opened in a short time. There are also times when a bottle has been agitated and the friction forces between stopper and the bottle are insufficient to overcome the now highly pressurized gas so that the stopper flies free as the safety wire is removed. This dangerous and unexpected result can occur when the bottle is facing an eye or other easily damaged article. Therefore, a simple, economical, safe, and easy to operate stopper remover which can prevent flight of the stopper under all conditions has been needed. 
     BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE PRESENT INVENTION 
     The present tool provides easy and safe removal of stoppers from champagne, sparkling wines and the like. It is comprised of a base member, having a two-fingered yoke which extends sidewardly therefrom for engagement with the top lip of the bottle to be opened, as well as a lower extension which is shaped to engage the side of the bottle&#39;s neck so that the yoke remains positioned in the desired lateral location. A lever is pivotally mounted to the base above the yoke to extend over the stopper to the opposite side of the bottle to provide an opener handle. When the body has been fitted to a bottle, the handle is lowered causing a pair of inwardly biased jaws members to spread out over the stopper and then snap towards each other to wedge jaws between the bottle lips and the stopper head and engage an upwardly facing abutment surface on each jaw with the underside of the stopper head. Since the jaws normally extend less than 90°, the safety wires, which normally extend over the top of the stopper every 90°, can be removed. If the stopper is not pushed out of the bottle by the pressurized gas therewithin, the handle is then raised with respect to the bottle levering out the stopper with a mechanical advantage dependent upon the length of the components. A pair of blocker members are included above the abutment surfaces of the jaws. The blocker members include facing abutment surfaces to keep the jaws spaced enough to slip over the stopper head. The blocker members are spaced a distance from the yoke to allow the jaws to engage any normally sized stopper head and yet restrict upward motion of the stopper once the safety wires have been removes or it has been pulled out of the bottle neck to a location where pressurized gas within the bottle energizes the stopper upwardly. 
     Therefore it is an object of the present invention to provide a tool for quickly removing stoppers from sparkling wine and champagne bottles by a person of minimal strength. 
     Another object is to provide a champagne stopper remover which can be constructed relatively economically and yet is sturdy and longlasting. 
     Another object is to provide a tool for removing stoppers from champagne bottles which prevents dangerous unrestricted flight of the stopper without reducing the festive &#34;pop&#34; normally associated therewith. 
     Another object is to provide a tool for removing stoppers from champagne bottles which eliminates surprise stopper flight when the safety wires are removed. 
     These and other objects and advantages of the present invention will become apparent to those skilled in the art after considering the following detailed Specification together with the accompanying drawings wherein: 
    
    
     BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS 
     FIG. 1 is a perspective view of a stopper removal tool constructed according to the present invention; 
     FIG. 2 is a partial cross-sectional plan view of the tool of FIG. 1 taken on line 2--2 thereof; 
     FIG. 3 is a cross-sectional view taken at line 3--3 of FIG. 2; 
     FIG. 4 is a top cross-sectional view taken at line 4--4 of FIG. 2; 
     FIG. 5 is a cross-sectional view taken at line 5--5 of FIG. 2; 
     FIG. 6 is a front cross-sectional view taken at line 6--6 of FIG. 2; and 
     FIG. 7 is a perspective view of a jaw member used in the tool of FIGS. 1 through 6. 
    
    
     DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT 
     Referring to the drawings more particularly by reference numbers, number 10 in FIGS. 1 and 2 refers to a tool for removing a stopper 12 from a champagne, sparkling wine or other pressurized bottle 14 whose neck 16 and safety wires 17 only are shown. The tool 10 includes a frame 18 which has a lower pad 20 with a concave inner abutment surface 22 (FIG. 3) adapted for engagement with the lateral periphery of the neck 16 of the bottle 14 and a laterally extending yoke 24 (FIG. 4) for engagement with the upwardly and inwardly inclined surface 26 of the lip 28 of the bottle 14. 
     The yoke 24 is cast integral with the frame 16 and extends laterally thereform in the form of two generally parallel fingers 30 and 32 (FIG. 4). As shown in FIGS. 5 and 6, the fingers 30 and 32 are each formed on their insides with respective downwardly and inwardly facing oppositely disposed chamfered abutment surfaces 34 and 36 respectively which are oriented to generally complement the angle of the upwardly facing surface 26 of the bottle lip 28. As depicted in broken lines in FIG. 4, the abutment surfaces diverge outwardly away from one another as they extend from the axial frame member 18 to accommodate bottle necks having a range of different diameters and then at their most divergent point bend to project parallel to one another. When the tool 10 is to be used, the bottle 14 is oriented so that the safety wires 17 extend diagonally across the stopper 12 and the fingers 30 and 32 of the yoke 24 are slid sidewardly toward the bottle 14 until the oppositely disposed abutment surfaces 34 and 36 are engaged with the upwardly facing surface 26 of the lip 24. 
     The upper surfaces 38 and 40 of the yoke fingers 30 and 32 respectively are simultaneously aligned with or below the radial flange 42 formed on the underside of the head 44 of the stopper 12 while the concave abutment surface 22 of the pad 18 is brought into contact with the side of the bottle neck 16. This is generally the position shown in FIG. 1. As can be seen in FIG. 1, the fingers 30 and 32 of the yoke 24 extend longitudinally beyond their tangential contact points with the upper lip surface 26 and are slightly canted away from each other. This allows the yoke 10 to be placed or wedged onto bottles 14 having different diameter lips 28 while remaining clear of the safety wires 17 to permit free access thereto for removal. 
     An elongated lever handle 46 is connected at one end 48 to the upper end 50 of the frame by means of a pivot pin 52 to allow rotative movement as shown by the arrow 54 (FIG. 2). The end 48 of the lever 46 is itself a bifurcated clevis forming a pair of laterally spaced apart parallel fingers 56 and 58 which extend from the pivot pin 52, laterally over the stopper 12 (FIG. 1) to a downturned intermediate portion 60 which is connected with a hand grasp handle portion 62. 
     A pair of outwardly and downwardly extending jaw members 64 and 66 are disposed in the same plane as the lever 46 and are suspended centrally from the bifurcated handle fingers 56 and 58 by means of a common pivot pin 74 (FIGS. 1 and 2). The jaw members 64 and 66 are identical, each having a slightly laterally offset upper portion 68 and 70 (FIG. 1) which overlap and are connected generally at the central portion 72 of the fingers 56 and 58 by means of the pivot pin 74. The jaw pivot pin 74 is generally parallel to the handle pivot pin 52, the abutment surfaces 34 and 36 and the upper surfaces 68 and 70, and is positioned generally at right angles to the lever 46 and the base 18. The jaw members 64 and 66 are free to pivot but are biased together by a tension spring 76 which extends therebetween and is formed on its opposite ends with hooks which connect through transverse bores 78 and 80 (FIG. 7) formed in the central shank portion 82 and 84 of each jaw member 64 and 66. The jaw members 64 and 66 are formed on their lower extremities with inturned confronting jaws 86 and 88 respectively. 
     The jaws 86 and 88 are formed with respective downwardly and inwardly facing similar concave conical surfaces 90 and 92 which taper downwardly to meet with horizontal undersides 94 and 96 (FIG. 2). The conical surfaces 90 and 92 join at their upper ends with horizontal upper surfaces 68 and 70 to form semi-circular edges or teeth 97 and 98, respectively, each having a radius slightly larger than the radius of the stopper head 12 to assist in wedging between the head 12 and the lip 28. The arc subtended by a single jaw edge 97 and 98 preferably is less than 90° so that it can fit between adjacent safety wires 17. 
     Projecting laterally inwardly from the central portions 82 and 84 of the jaw members 64 and 66 are blocker fingers 102 and 104. Such fingers are formed with downwardly facing blocking surfaces 106 and 108, respectively, and terminate in respecting confronting ends 110 and 112 which are spaced apart a distance sufficient to engage one another and maintain the jaws 86 and 88 spaced a predetermined distance apart. Such spacing maintains the downwardly facing conical surfaces spaced apart a distance sufficient to cause such surfaces to engage the laterally opposite sides of the top of the stopper head 44 when the remover is being applied to the bottle such that lowering of such jaws on the stopper head will cause such jaws to be spread apart. Such spacing is also sufficient to accommodate closure of the jaws 86 and 88 toward one another to a sufficient degree during use to enable firm engagement thereof, beneath the flange 42 of the head 100. It will be noted that when the handle 62 is in the closed position shown in FIG. 2, the jaws 86 and 88 project into the plane of and are received between the fingers 30 and 32. 
     In operation, when it is desirable to remove a stopper 12 from a bottle neck 16, the user may grasp the frame 18, rotate the handle 62 counterclockwise as depicted by the directional arrow in FIG. 2 to raise the jaws 86 and 88. He or she may then manipulate the tines 38 and 40 of the yoke 24 into position on the opposite sides of the bottle lip 28 to engage the downwardly and inwardly facing abutments surfaces 34 and 36 with the upwardly and outwardly facing lip surface 26 (FIG. 5) to nest such yoke securely on the bottle lip while engaging the pad 22 (FIG. 2) with the lateral surface of the bottle neck 16. With the frame securely supported on the three point contact defined by engagement of such abutment surfaces 34 and 36 with the lip surface 26 and the pad surface 22 with the lateral surface of the neck 16, the frame 18 is supported securely in position and the handle 62 may then be lowered to pivot such handle clockwise about the handle pivot pin 52 (FIG. 2) to lower the jaw members 64 and 66. 
     Such lowering of the jaw members 64 and 66 will engage the downwardly and inwardly facing conical surfaces 90 and 92 with the diametrically opposite sides of the stopper head 44 (FIG. 2) thus causing continued downward travel thereof to urge the jaws 86 and 88 outwardly away from one another enabling such jaws to travel downwardly and outwardly about the opposite peripheral sides of such head 44. Such downward travel will be continued until the edges 96 and 98 register beneath the flange 42 formed at the bottom periphery of the head 44. At this point, the operator will feel a slight inward movement of the jaw member 64 and 66 toward one another as the jaws 86 and 88 shift slightly inwardly under the influence of the tension spring 76 (FIG. 2). The handle 62 may then be rotated upwardly and outwardly in a counterclockwise direction about the handle pivot pin 52. Downward shifting of the frame 18 will be resisted by support of the abutment surfaces 34 and 36 on the lip 28 (FIG. 5), as complemented by the supporting action of the pad against the bottle neck 16. The retaining wires 17 may then be severed or untwisted to release the stopper 12, while the user holds the remover firmly in position. In the event pressure has built up under the stopper 12 to a point which will cause abrupt release of the stopper, such stopper will be engaged against the under surfaces 106 and 108 of the block fingers 102 and 104 (FIG. 2) thus blocking such stopper erratic and uncontrolled release to be propelled about the room causing possible injury or discomfort to standersby. 
     Thereafter, continued upward movement of the handle 62 in the direction of the arrow 54 shown in FIG. 2 will exert an upward force under the flange 42 of the stopper head 44, which force will be resisted by engagement of the abutment surfaces 34 and 36 on the upwardly facing lip surface 26 (FIGS. 5 and 6). As upward movement of the handle 62 is continued the central disposition of the jaw pin 74 will tend to draw the jaw members 64 and 66 upwardly and inwardly thereby tending to draw the jaws 86 and 88 themselves inwardly and wedging the jaw edges 97 and 98 into the space between the stopper flange 42 and the lip 28. Such radial inwardly forces on the jaws 86 and 88 will positively engage such jaws under the stopper flange 42 such that continued upward shifting of the handle 62 will lift the stopper 12 to draw the stopper shank 100 upwardly relative to the bottle neck 16. As withdrawal of the stopper 12 is continued, a point will be reached wherein the frictional resistance to movement of the shank 100 within the neck 16 will be reduced to the point where the gaseous pressure built up within the bottle will overcome such frictional resistance thus tending to drive the stopper 12 from the bottle neck. Such forced ejection of the stopper 12 will be limited by engagement of the stop thereof with the downwardly facing blocker surfaces 106 and 108 to thus permit controlled escape of the pressurized gases to the point where the stopper 12 may be gently and controllably removed. 
     From the foregoing, it will be apparent that the stopper remover of the present invention provides a device which is relatively economical to manufacture and is sturdy in construction thus providing for long and trouble free life. The remover provides for positive control of the stopper during the removal procedure while being convenient to operate.