CHARLES C. GIBSON of Davenport, Washington, patented an apple corer in 1925 with a unique twist.
Gibson was granted Patent No. 1,530,822 on March 24, 1925 for a standard looking corer – but a corer that employed a switch blade.
Gibson said in his patent application that his invention is “a simple and efficient tool which may be easily manipulated to remove the core from the fruit and also remove the seed-containing center.”
The corer consists of a six-inch, half-open cylinder, the first half employed to core the apple. The second half of the cylinder or tube contains a revolving switch blade that when pushed into the apple and turned to the left pops up and cuts away the seeds as it is turned.
This is how Gibson described the process: “When the cutting edge of the knife is at the center of the fruit…the tool is rotated about its longitudinal axis toward the left and this action will cause the tube to move relatively to the knife so that eventually the back of the knife will be engaged by the wall…whereupon the continued rotation of the tube will cause the knife to rotate within the fruit and cut therefrom the seeds and seed-containing sacks.”
Like many patents, it’s a mouthful. In other words, a corer with a twist.
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(c) 2020, Donald Thornton. All rights reserved.