Corkscrew.Com - Henshall Button Corkscews

Direct Pull: The Henshall Button

In 1795, the first corkscrew patent ever was granted to Reverend Samuel Henshall, in England. The good clergyman affixed a simple disk, now known as the Henshall Button, between the worm and the shank. The disk prevents the worm from going too deep into the cork, forces the cork to turn with the turning of the crosspiece, and thus breaks the adhesion between the cork and the neck of the bottle. The disk is designed and manufactured slightly concave on the underside, which compresses the top of the cork and helps keep it from breaking apart.
The Henshall button was a revolutionary idea in corkscrew design, and, for much of the Nineteenth Century, Henshall type corkscrews were extremely popular in England.

The worm is stretched out of shape in the middle - undoubtedly from being on the losing end of a tangle with a cork!
19th Century Henshall, from England.

A simple but sturdy button type from US
Marked R. Murphy, Boston.

A cellarman with a button.
Origin unknown.

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