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The natural cork resists just slightly, the hand repeats a familiar gesture, and a quiet pop follows. The wine is open. The corkscrew — a small, modest object — feels inseparable from this ritual, so instinctive that we rarely pause to consider where it actually originated.
Yet… wine was never its first purpose. It emerged from a world of noise, gunpowder, and urgency. Long before it found its way into bottles, it was used to address very different challenges — ones where far more than a pleasant evening depended on success. The story of the corkscrew does not begin at the table, but… on the battlefield.
Table of Contents
1. Introduction
2. A wartime problem and a spiral solution
3. From weapon to bottle
4. An invention without an inventor
5. Summary
6. FAQ
A wartime problem and a spiral solution
On the battlefields of the seventeenth century, firearms were notoriously unreliable. Muskets often failed: powder refused to ignite, bullets jammed inside the barrel, or remnants of wadding blocked reloading. In such moments, a soldier could not simply replace his weapon — he had to clear the barrel quickly, frequently under immediate threat. To do this, a simple yet brilliant tool was used: a metal spiral known as a gun-worm, also referred to as a “steel worm.” Screwed into the lodged bullet or fabric, it allowed everything to be pulled out in a single, decisive motion.
The spiral proved perfectly suited to the task: it bit into soft lead or cloth, ensured a secure hold, and restored control over the weapon. At the time, no one gave thought to wine or natural cork — efficiency and reliability were all that mattered. Still, the same form that saved muskets from becoming useless was about to gain a second life. All that was needed was a similar challenge in a very different setting.
From weapon to bottle
When glass bottles sealed with natural cork became widespread in Europe in the latter half of the seventeenth century — especially in England — a new and surprisingly familiar problem emerged. A cork driven tightly into the neck of a bottle preserved the wine perfectly, yet at the same time proved difficult to remove. Attempts to extract it with knives, wires, or hooks often ended with crumbled cork or spilled wine.
The answer already existed — just in a different domain. The spiral gun-worm, well known to soldiers, was almost ideally suited to the task. By simply reducing its size and separating it from the weapon, it became an independent tool. Twisted into the natural cork, it worked exactly as it had inside a musket barrel: gripping the material from within and allowing it to be removed in one controlled movement.
The earliest known reference, dating back to 1681, already mentions a “steel worm used to draw corks from bottles.” And that is precisely what it was. The same shape that once rescued weapons on the battlefield found a new, far calmer role. Over time, the military connotation faded, but the spiral remained — and it continues to perform exactly the same function today.
An invention without an inventor
Unlike many tools that can be traced to a specific date, patent, or named creator, the corkscrew resists such definition. No document records who first decided to use a spiral familiar from muskets to extract natural cork. There was no single flash of inspiration and no particular workshop where it was born. The corkscrew simply came into being, as a practical response to a new need.
This is rooted in its origins. The spiral “steel worm” had been widely known and used for decades, even centuries. When natural cork became the standard airtight seal for bottles, adapting this form was almost inevitable. The earliest corkscrews were simple iron tools, often T-shaped — closely resembling their military predecessors and likely produced by the same craftsmen.
For this reason, historians usually describe the corkscrew as an evolution of a tool rather than a classic invention. It has no single author because it emerged from collective, practical reasoning — a solution to a problem, not a showcase of individual brilliance.
Summary
The next time you reach for a corkscrew, it may no longer seem quite so ordinary. It is not merely an elegant kitchen accessory or a neutral tool for opening bottles. In your hand lies an object with a long, starkly practical past — a spiral created not for enjoyment, but for survival. A form now associated with wine, conversation, and calm evenings once served, for centuries, to resolve far more dramatic situations.
What is perhaps most striking is how little its function has changed. The principle remains the same: screw into something that is stuck and remove it intact, without mess or loss. Only the setting has shifted. The battlefield has given way to the dining table, and the tension of combat to a moment of leisure. The corkscrew thus reminds us how everyday objects can carry echoes of a world entirely different from the one they now inhabit.
FAQ
1. Did soldiers really use it to remove unexploded ordnance?
It was more about misfires, jammed bullets, or wadding that blocked the barrel. The modern phrasing is a simplification, but the underlying issue was very real.
2. Why has the spiral shape survived to this day?
Because it is remarkably effective. The spiral ensures a strong grip without tearing the natural cork — just as it once allowed jammed elements to be securely removed from a weapon’s barrel. It is a form so well adapted to its task that it never needed fundamental redesign.
3. Do modern corkscrews still work on the same principle?
Yes. Whether it is a simple waiter’s corkscrew or a more advanced mechanism, the essential element — the spiral “worm” — remains exactly as it was several centuries ago.
