Abstract: An apparatus for unscrambling sealed cylindrical containers, the apparatus having an upright open top vessel substantially filled with water, an elongated inclined unscrambler bed having an intake end submersed in the water and a discharge end which extends above the water surface, a plurality of sets of belts arranged in paralleled spaced apart vertical planes and supported by the unscrambler bed, each of the belts passing upwardly over the bed upper surface and downwardly below the bed lower surface, the containers to be unscrambled being dumped within the water to settle downwardly through the water and onto the unscrambler bed intake end, the belts serving to move the containers as they engage the belts upwardly and above the water surface onto a traveling take away belt for further processing. In the preferred arrangement some of the belts in each set of belts travel at different speeds so that containers moving on each set of belts tend to assume the lengthwise position.