Improvements in Combination Implement for Butlers' Use.
Year: 1899

page_text: COMPLETE SPECIFICATION.
Improvements in Combination Implement for Butlers' Use.
I, BERTIN TOULOTTE, a Citizen of the United States, residing at 845, 5th Avenue,
New York, in the County and State of New York, U.S.A., Butler, do hereby
declare the nature of my invention for improvement combination implements for
butlers' use, and in what manner the same is to be performed, to be particularly
described and ascertained in and by the following statement:-
This invention relates to that class of pocket knives which are provided with a
variety of blades suited for different uses, and its object is to adapt a pocket knife
for the use of butlers and caterers who go out to serve stylish and expensive
dinners; such a knife as could be used in cutting bread or lemons, in breaking
ice, and in opening bottles some of which require the breaking of a wire fastener
and extracting a cork, and others requiring the removal of a seal cap cork.
To this end my invention consists in a combined implement constructed and
shaped as hereinafter more fully described and particularly pointed out in the
claim reference being had to the accompanying drawings, in which
Figure I is a side view of an implement according to my invention.
Figure II is a face view, and
Figure III a rear end view of the seal cap cork remover.
Figure IV shows the knife ready for removing a seal cap cork.
No. 5 represents the knife handle, on which is pivoted a common cutting
blade 6, an ice pick 7, and a cork screw 8, all provided with springs to keep them,
s usual when open or shut. 9 represents a. blade which is the main peculiarity of
his invention. It is made preferably of sheet steel bent in the form of a trough
ongitudinally, and provided with two ears 10, which straddle the end of the
andle and are held thereto by a pivoted rivet 11, around which this blade may
e swung for a half circle from the closed position shown in Figure I to the open
osition, ready for service, shown in Figure IV. This blade is unlike other knife
lades in the fact that it covers over the handle when closed, like a trough. The
bint is wedge-shaped, back to the shoulders 12 in order that it may be driven
rcibly under a wire to force the wire from over the cork of a bottle.
13 represents a notch in the two sides, at one edge, of this blade, to admit a
p, such as cap 14, of a bottle. These caps are usually made of sheet metal

page_text: such as thick tin, and are forced under great pressure to engage a groove at 15,
in the neck of the bottle, to hold a wafer of cork 16, compressed air-tight upon
the mouth of the bottle. The removal of this cap, to open the bottle requires a
considerable force and it must be carefully applied to avoid spilling the contents
of the bottle when the cap comes off.
At one end of the notch 13 a hook 17 is formed in each side of the blade.
These hooks are designed to catch under the lower edge of the tin cap and then
the knife handle serves as a lever by which that edge may be prised upon to force
the cap out of engagement with the bottle neck and lift it from the bottle.
There is no spring within the handle for this blade, because the direction of the
strain in service keeps it open at that time, and when closed, the sides of the
blade straddle the handle and pinch enough to hold the blade normally closed.
The books of this blade being far apart serve especially to retain a firm hold upon
the edge of the cap and the sides along the notch 13 being also far apart serve as
a broad bearing to rest upon the cap as a fulcrum so that great force may be
applied steadily to lift the cap. If there were only a single thin edge and thin
hook to a blade for this purpose it would be liable to be twisted sidewise and
to slip off, requiring repeated trials before the cap could be removed, while
these two hooks, as described, are efficient in the hand of an unskilled operator.
The various uses of the common knife blade, the ice pick and the corkscrew are
too well known to require further explanation.
Having now particularly described and ascertained the nature of my said
invention and in what manner the same is to be performed, I declare that what
I claim is:
In a combined implement a pocket-knife handle; a blade in the shane of a
trough whose sides terminate in ears adapted to straddle the handle and to he
pivoted thereto; the said sides being adapted to pinch upon the handle when the
blade is closed, and each side being shaped with a notch and a hook, substantially
as described.
Dated this 1th dow of Dreambon 1800
WHEATLEY & MACKENZIE,
40, Chancery Lane, London, W.C., Agents.