I have about 5-6 interesting old corkscrews to list

On April 2, 1855 William Lund and William Edward Hipkins were granted British Patent Number 736 for "Improvements in the manufacture of corkscrews".

The patent drawings include a rack and pinion, a roundlet, and a lever.

(The lever drawing is shown in the last image)

The operation is simple.

First screw the worm into the cork.

Next slip the bottle under the collar on the lower arm and hook the hole in the worm handle with the end of the upper arm. Squeeze the arms together and the cork is extracted.

Many variations exist and the hinges of each lever are well worthy of close examination

SEEN HERE at this MOST EDUCATIONAL wine corkscrew website URL (You will NEED to "cut & paste" the URL into your browser)

http://www.bullworks.net/daily/20080831.htm