JAMES CATSULES described his invention as a scalloping knife with side wings.
Catsules, who identified himself in his patent application as “a subject to the King of Greece” living in West Hoboken, New Jersey, was granted Patent No. 1,482,736 on February 8, 1924 for a “fruit and vegetable knife.”
Catsules said his hand-held device was basically designed to cut a grapefruit in half, leaving the tops of the two haves with scalloped edges. “This form of the fruit or vegetable is much used today,” he said in his patent application..
The 6-1/2-inch device is marked only PATENT 1,482,736.
“The knife itself consists of the side wings…outfitted with flanges having projected prongs with sloping sharpened surfaces” that leave the peel with a scalloped edge, he said.
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(c) 2020, Donald Thornton. All rights reserved.