US1083296A - Kitchen-fork. - Google Patents

Description

0. B. PONTIOUS.

KITCHEN FORK.

APPLICATION FILED AUG. 2, 1912 1,083,296. Patented Jan. 6, 1914.

WITNESSES:

UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

OLIVER E. PONTIOUS, OF TOLEDO, OHIO, ASSIG-NOR TO WILLIAM E. BROWN AND CHARLES PAYNE, OF TOLEDO, OHIO.

KITCHEN-FORK.

Specification of Letters Patent.

Application filed. August 2, 1912.

Patented Jan. 6, 1914. Serial No. 712,833.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, OLIVER E. PONTIOUS, a citizen of the United States, residing at Toledo, in the county of Lucas and State of Ohio, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Kitchen-Forks; and I do declare the following to be a full, clear, and exact description of the invention, such as will enable others skilled in the art to which it appertains to make and use the same, reference being had to the accompanying drawings, and to the letters and figures of reference marked thereon, which form a part of this specification.

My invention is designed to provide a fork with means for dislodging from its tines anything impaled upon or carried by the tines, and, more particularly, to provide a device of the character indicated which shall entirely dispense with the use of screws, bolts, nuts or other parts likely to become loose and lost or diflicult to be cleansed.

My invention is also designed to provide an attachment for a fork which may be instantly attached or detached by means of its own resiliency and without the use of a tool of any sort.

To this end my invention consists of the devices, construction and arrangement of parts hereinafter described, and shown and illustrated in the accompanying drawings, in which- 7 Figure 1 is a top-plan View of my device; Fig. 2, a side or edge elevation of the same, and Fig. 3, a bottom plan view of the sliding part, hereinafter referred to, detached.

Like numerals of reference indicate like parts throughout the drawings.

In the drawings there is illustrated a fork having tines 1. On the handle of the fork slides longitudinally thereof a resilient piece 2 having one or more short fingers 3 turned inwardly to slide between the tines of the fork. The opposite end of the piece 2 is curved outwardly, as at 4:, to form a thumbpiece by which the piece 2 is moved to and fro along the fork. The piece 2 has at its opposite edges two short flaps 5 turned inwardly to form hooks which embrace the edges of the handle of the fork. and hold copies of this patent may be obtained for the piece 2 in place on the fork-handle. The movement to and fro of the piece 2 is limited by slight shoulders or notches 6 in the edge of the fork-handle. The plate being retracted by the thumb of the operator the fork may be used in the ordinary manner. To dislodge anything held upon the tines of the fork it is only necessary that the end of the thumb be pressed against the upturned portion 6 to slide the plate 2 forwardly to the position indicated by dotted lines in Fig. 2.

It will be seen that the plate 2 may be easily slipped to and fro along the fork; that anything supported upon the tines of the fork may thus be readily removed, and that by slightly springing the forward end of the late 2 upwardly to remove the fingers 3 rom between the fork tines, the plate and the fork may be placed at an angle to each other, as indicated in dotted lines in Fig. 3 and separated for cleansing. It will also be seen that the device here illustrated and described consists of two pieces which may be cheaply and conveniently formed of only two metal stampings.

Having described my invention, what I claim and desire to secure by Letters Patent is 1'. A fork, a plate broadened at one end and having an elongated portion to conform to the shank of the fork and having at its forward end one or more inte ral portions turned to project between the tines of the fork, having also at opposite sides hooks adapted to engage the opposite sides of the shank of the fork and spaced apart in the direction of the length of the fork, substantially as described.

2. A piece forming a fork, a piece slidable longitudinally thereon and having fingers which project between the tines of the fork, one of said pieces having at opposite margins hooks spaced apart in the direction of the length of the fork and which engage the opposite margins of the other piece.

In testimony whereof I affix my signature in presence'of two witnesses.

OLIVER E. PONTIOUS.

Witnesses:

WM. O. BINNS, LEONE KIBURTZ.

five cents each, by addressing the Commissioner of Patents, Washington, D. G.

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