WILLIAM S. PERRY was granted a patent in 1923 for what has to be the strangest looking hand-held “fruit tool” in the history of United States Patent and Trademark Office.
At first glance, standing up on its wooden handle, it resembles a skinny roadrunner cartoon figure.
Perry, of New Haven, Connecticut, was granted Patent No. 1,477,662 on December 18, 1923 for a device designed to provide a “convenient means for either coring, slicing or seeding fruit for table or other use, or any combination thereof.”
The 7-inch device is marked WOPECO PAT. APLD. FOR. It was manufactured by the Wopeco Machine Co. in New Haven.
Wopeco was incorporated in 1921 in New Haven by Perry and two others “to manufacture shear grinding machines, can opening machinery parts, etc.” It went out of business in 1924.
In his patent papers Perry said his fruit tool “is especially designed for use in coring, seeding and slicing grape fruit, although it may be used for other purposes and with fruit of a different structure.”
The curved blade was designed to core and slice the grapefruit, while the two-tine fork-like extension (sticking out 1½ inches from the blade) was designed to remove the seeds.
Perry also was granted a patent for a can opener, Patent No. 1,442,734, on Jan. 16, 1923, but there is no evidence it was ever manufactured.
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(c) 2020, Donald Thornton. All rights reserved.