Electric corkscrew

A corkscrew comprising:

• a casing;
• a downwardly opening socket within the casing, the socket having a vertical axis being dimensioned to receive the neck of a bottle;
• a corkscrew spiral arranged axially within the socket;
• a motor adapted to rotate the spiral in clockwise and anticlockwise directions;
• a power supply;
• a sleeve having an axial bore mounted for axial movement within the socket;
• spring means adapted to bias the sleeve downwardly within the socket;
• a control circuit including a microprocessor;
• lower and upper position sensors;
• the lower position sensor being adapted to detect the neck of a bottle inserted into the socket with the point of the spiral adjacent a cork located in the neck and to generate a signal to activate the motor;
• the motor upon actuation by a signal from the lower position sensor causing the spiral to rotate in a first direction to penetrate the cork and withdraw the cork from the bottle neck;
• the axial bore being configured to receive and engage the cork preventing rotation of the cork;
• the upper position sensor being adapted to detect when the cork is completely removed from the bottle and to generate a signal to stop rotation of the spiral;
• and wherein removal of the bottle from the socket actuates the lower position sensor to send a signal to the motor to rotate in a reverse direction to disengage the cork from the spiral;