Over-elaborated rubegoldbergian steampunk corkscrew

Gramturismo sez, "A maker in Scotland has created an elaborate, steampunk style hand cranked corkscrew." It's quite an amazing gadget -- talk about thoroughly solving a problem!

Rob Higgs (Thanks, gramturismo!)

I write books. My latest is a YA science fiction novel called Homeland (it's the sequel to Little Brother). More books: Rapture of the Nerds (a novel, with Charlie Stross); With a Little Help (short stories); and The Great Big Beautiful Tomorrow (novella and nonfic). I speak all over the place and I tweet and tumble, too.

MORE: booze • happy mutants • maker • rube goldberg • Steampunk • submitterator • video • youtube

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kP

The uncorking was taking so long that I half expected it to crush the bottle like an egg, but I really like how it handled the pour.
bcsizemo

I think he should power it with a sterling engine of some sort….
crummett

Yeah, he solved the hell out of that problem!
http://www.facebook.com/clesoine Charlie Lesoine

http://i2.kym-cdn.com/entries/icons/original/000/005/574/1726009-shut_up_and_take_my_money_super.jpg
- jerwin
  
  Twenty-five were made. The first three were snapped up for £100,000, and the remaining 22 are being sold for £75,000 apiece.
tylerkaraszewski

This is the best steam punk thing ever. The gears actually turn and it actually performs a task!
- Ashen Victor
  
  And THAT is how steam punk should be: functional and practical.
  
  Putting a chimney in your bowler hat and using a cog for a monocle do not makes steam punk.
  - GawainLavers
    
    functional and practical.
    
    Perhaps we should settle for one of those.
  - http://twitter.com/erg79 Evan G.
    
    “Practical.”
    
    /spittake
Glenn Fleishman

Cory hasn’t been in the UK long enough: that’s a Heath Robinson machine!
http://disqus.com/Kimmoth/ Kimmo

Well proper.

10/10.

It perhaps even just surpasses this epic bit of steampunkage, due to all. that. machining. and the sheer tonnage of brass.

Not to mention the absolutely top-notch example of Heath Robinsonry designed into it.
Hanglyman

When can we see a miniature one of these on a Swiss Army knife?
godfathersoul

O my god! A bit of steampunkery that actually DOES SOMETHING! and it’s awesome! Congrats, dude! Brilliant!
timquinn

well, what makes steam punk punk, really, is that it is all bluff and nonsense. Like a good handle-bar mustache. Do something? That would be quite beside the point.

This thing is fine for what it is though
jerwin

A slicker video that shows some of the building process can be found here
Jan Thelen

I love how all this steampunk gadgetry works without steam…

Still waiting for the first steampunk raygun actually powered by steam, now that would be a real jawdropper.

Still, the effort and love that was put in that machine is breathtaking and I absolutely loved watching this
- morkl
  
  Sorry, but “Victorian-inspired brass and clockwork aesthetics” just doesn’t have the same ring to it as “steampunk”
- http://evilbobdayjob.blogspot.com/ Deidzoeb
  
  I’d like to see the first steampunk raygun wielded by a punk. Mind the bollocks as well as the gap!
http://lemoutan.blogspot.com/ Lemoutan

Heath-Robinson != Steampunk. But both have a place. To be fair, I see no hint that the maker is claiming S (or H-R, come to that).
mobobo

while it’s great looking and gets me all vernedhup shirley he should have made the system to work with screw caps rather than endangered cork
- donniebnyc
  
  It was a plastic cork.
http://noctilucent-studios.blogspot.com/ Noctilucent Studios

What, I don’t get to smell the cork!?!?

No, thank you!
- Chris Stephens
  
  If the wine waiter hands you the cork in a restaurant and you sniff it, they will thereafter dismiss you as a rank amateur and look down their nose at you. The /proper/ thing to do when handed the cork is to give it a little squeeze, then say, in your best non-commital french: “Ça va…”
- noah django
  
  you are presented the cork to make sure it’s not moldy or dry-rotted. as my bartender taught the servers vis-a-vis presentation: “if they smell it, they’re a redneck.” and that’s coming from an alabama native.
hungryjoe

Think I’m going to call in sick and spend the day in the workshop, today.
howaboutthisdangit

These infernal contraptions will put sommeliers out of their jobs! We must fight them with every tooth and nail!

+1, though, for the creative use of crescent wrenches.
Richard_Kirk

As seen on “Pimp My Difference Engine”….
silkox

Judging from the sounds in the background, the thing is a veritable chick magnet, too.
awjt

Wonder how customer service is when the damn thing breaks down.
ludd

This, I would have it, and none would dare gainsay me, is the very embodiment of the technology that put us on the moon. Now…….how to get back?
http://evilbobdayjob.blogspot.com/ Deidzoeb

This doesn’t seem as ridiculous (or maybe a different direction of ridiculous) as the rabbit electric cork screw with a digital display showing how many corks it will be able to pull before needing to be charged.
http://evilbobdayjob.blogspot.com/ Deidzoeb

If this video had some electronica playing in the background and was identified as steampunk with dubstep, then we could sit back and sip wine as the comments fill up with “That’s not steampunk” and “That’s not actually dubstep”, debating what actually counts as steampunk and dubstep. No True Scotsman would enjoy trolling like that.

I’m going to make a clanking device that debates whether it should be identified as steampunk, or whether it clanked in dubstep rhythm.
irksome

Like a pre-unit BSA only without the oil leaks and Lucas delectrics.
Baldhead

Surprised nobody said this yet but… this is clockwork. steam isn’t involved anywhere. Also, a s for practical… well pocket- sized, less complicated devices would have had the wine poured in a quarter of the time.
David Kopelman

It should be coal-fired. Then I’d be even more impressed.
http://twitter.com/erg79 Evan G.

“talk about thoroughly solving a problem”

I thought this had pretty much taken care of the problem, guess I was wrong:
jimh

A beautiful mountain of brass. Wonderful. The demonstrator had great confidence in the opening, but added “fingers crossed” before the pouring. That’s where I would expect different bottle and glass shapes to throw a spanner in the works.
muddycity

Rob Higgs has been building his kinetic sculptures for decades- long before the advent of steam punk.

also- Penryn, our home town, is just 8 or 11 miles(depending on which of the road signs you choose to believe) from the lovely little town of Gweek.