The Apple Parer Patent Archive

The cast-iron ingenuity of the American kitchen

Return spring

Patent drawing of an 1856 apple-paring machine showing a hand-crank driven shaft, a sliding carriage with paring and slicing knives, a coiled return spring, and a semicylindrical apple holder, illustrated in plan, side, and end views with detail figures of the latch and holder.MACHINE FOR PARING APPLESCharles P. Carter · November 18, 1856Patent drawing of a hand-operated corn husker with a long bar attached to a curved breast-shield and shoulder straps, ending in a slider with a serpentine cutting blade and stalk-supporter.IMPROVED CORN-HUSKER.Lemuel R. Mears · June 22, 1858Patent drawing of a hand-held sorghum stripping and cutting tool showing a long wooden handle attached to a hooked fixed blade and a pivoting jaw blade controlled by a lever, with a second close-up view of the blade mechanism.IMPROVEMENT IN IMPLEMENTS FOR STRIPPING AND CUTTING SORGHUMJames Guckian · July 17, 1866Two mechanical line drawings of a 19th-century cast-iron fruit parer: Fig. 1 shows a top view with an arc-shaped toothed sector, gears, a pivoted knife lever, and a wooden crank handle; Fig. 2 shows a rear elevation with the rotary fork, gear train, clamp screw, and table-clamp base.IMPROVEMENT IN FRUIT-PARERSLeander S. Woodbury · December 20, 1870Patent drawing of an apple-parer showing a revolving reel with multiple forks, gears, and a cutter slide mechanism, plus a detail side view and section.IMPROVEMENT IN APPLE-PARERS.Solomon E. T. Dodson · August 4, 1874Patent drawing of a hand-held husking and pruning tool showing a long flat metal holder with a hooked end, a sliding pointed cutter, a curved pivoting lever with handles, and detail views of the hook, cutter, and an extension pole with pulley for tree pruning.IMPROVEMENT IN HUSKING AND PRUNING DEVICES.Daniel E. Dopp · February 25, 1879Patent drawing of a hand-held rotary coring tool with a conical cutting tip, a threaded shaft with a coiled return spring, a sliding sleeve with curved finger arms, and a thumb loop at the base, shown in side view, cross-section, and top view.INSTRUMENT FOR REMOVING EYES FROM FRUIT OR VEGETABLES.Frederick G. Yawman · April 18, 1905Patent drawing of a mechanical pear peeling and coring device showing a rectangular cast frame with a curved fruit receptacle, a pivoting knife shaft with peeling, coring, and stemming blades, a rack-and-pinion mechanism along one wall, a coil return spring, and a T-shaped crank handle for turning the shaft.DEVICE FOR PEELING AND CORING PEARSCecil B. Spencer and L. Moore Canaday · January 15, 1929Line drawing of a slender V-shaped fruit-peeling tool with a rotating auger tip, hinged carrier plates, and pivoted stripper blades, shown inserted into a grapefruit and in cross-section.METHOD OF SEGREGATING INTEGUMENT-FREE FRUIT SEGMENTSRalph B. Polk and Ralph Polk, Jr. · June 21, 1938