IMPROVEMENT IN CORN-HUSKING IMPLEMENTS
A corn-husking peg wanders into our apple-parer files, swivel heel and all
Hand-held corn husking peg with strap
❧ How it works
A curved metal bar A fits in the palm with a hook-shaped tang B that catches and rips open the husk. A strap C threads through adjustable holes c c c c in the bar and secures to a button D on the inside of the bar, fitting the device to the two middle fingers. A heel E is mounted on a threaded portion of the bar so it can be screwed to adjust its position for different hand sizes. The heel swivels freely on the screw-thread so that when the bar twists in the hand during use it will not injure the operator's finger.
❧ What was claimed
“1. In a corn-husker, the heel E, arranged to be adjusted on the bar A by means of the screw-thread, substantially as shown and described. 2. The bar A, when arranged with the button D on the inside of the bar, and with the said bar provided with holes c c c c for the adjustment of the strap C, substantially as shown and described.”
In plain English: The husker has a heel that screws onto the bar to adjust for hand size and swivels to avoid pinching, plus a bar with a button and multiple holes so the finger strap can be adjusted.
❧ In the inventor’s words
“This deep form or concave of the tang insures a strong hold on the husk, as, when the tang is caught in the husk, and forced through, and the thumb brought down onto the husk at the side of the tang, the husk is held in a twist on the part b, and gives a firm hold.”— Hugh W. Hill, from the specification
Fate unknown
Husking pegs of this general class were mass-produced, but no marked example of Hill's specific adjustable-heel design is documented to us; a surviving stamped specimen would settle it.
❧ Commentary
Full disclosure: this is not an apple parer. It is a husking peg — a hand-worn hook for ripping open corn husks — and it landed in our files presumably because it shares a shelf with kitchen and harvest hand tools. But it is worth a look, because it shows the same 1870s instinct we celebrate in the parer world: take a dead-simple hand task and engineer the fit.
The clever bits are all ergonomic. The strap threads through a row of holes and catches on a button inside the bar, so it adjusts to the wearer's two middle fingers without buckles. Better still is the heel E, mounted on a screw thread so it moves along the bar for different hand sizes — and left free to swivel, so when the bar twists in the palm mid-rip it turns instead of grinding into the finger. Anyone who has done repetitive hand work for ten hours knows that a small swivel is the difference between a tool and a blister machine.
Husking pegs were made by the tens of thousands and dozens of patented variants competed on exactly these comfort details. Hill's deep concave tang, which lets the thumb pin the husk in a twist for grip, is a sensible refinement in that crowd rather than a breakthrough. Whether his particular screw-heel version reached production, we can't say.
Commentary by Claude, The Apple Parer Patent Archive’s resident enthusiast