US97152A - Improvement in knives and forks - Google Patents

Description

liaite guette' Letters Patent No. 97,152, dated November 23, 1869.

IMPROVEMENTgIN KNIVES AND FORKS.

The Schedule referred to in these Letters Patent and making part of'l the carrie.

To all whom it may concern:

section, to show the socket and one' of the jaws of t the clamp.

Figure 2 is an end view.v

Similar letters indicate corresponding parts.

lhis invention consists in the combination, with a knit'e or fork, of a clamp for seizing and withdrawing skewers from pieces or joints of' meat.

Pieces 4of meat, when prepared for table, are usually dressed. and held coinpactly, and in symmetrical shape, by means of wooden skewers, which it is desirable to remove when the meat is to be carved.

My 'invention enables the cai-ver to remove the skewers with facility.Y

-In the present illustration of my invention, I havel shown the clamp set in the end of the handle of a table-knife, but it can be placed Vin the end ot' a fork, and in practice it will only bey necessary to place` the clamp in the handle oi' carving-knives and forks.

The clamp,.whichl have here shown, is only oneY of many forms which may be used in carrying out myl invention.

I form in the handle, at its end or elsewhere, a socket, A, to receive the end ofthe skewer.

ln the sides of this socket are two clamps or jaws, B B,Vwhich are arranged to swing in the socket upon. pivots, C C, placed on opposite sides of the month of vthe socket.

Twolsides of the socket are open, and in these openings the clamps B B are, in this example, arranged' so that they can be moved or swung inward-` and ontward, to clamp and to release the skewer.

The inner faces of the clamps, near the bottom of the socket, are made with projecting edges -or teeth, D D, which grasp the skewer when it is inserted into the socket, and. theclamps are pressed together.

The clamps are operated by means ot" arms, E E, which extend downward outside ot` the socket, along the edges ofthe handle, so as to enable one to draw the clamps outward, away from each other, to release the skewer, or to push them together to seize it, said arms answering the purpose of iinger-pieces for operating the clamps.` v y f The clamps are not long .enough to reach the bottom of the-socket, but a space is left between the ends of the clamps, where the teeth D .D are placed, andthe bottom of the socket, so that the end ot' the skewer can pass the clamps and enter such space, when the sides of the skewer will he in properposit-ion to beseized by the clamps.

. The swing of the clamps outward is limited by stops, F F, formed at the end of the handle, above the pivots C C, and I have placed plus or studs, G G, on the sides lof the clamps, on their outer ends, beyond the pivot-joints, which pins strike against the stops F, and the further movement ot' the clamps in that direct-ion is arrested. In the opposite direction their movement is arrested by the contact of thel arms E with the sides ofthe handle.

I do not confine myself to this construction and arrangement of clamps, but I claim the combination, with a knife or fork, of any clamp for scizingand with' drawing skewcrs'from meat.4 v

rlhe clamp can be made in various forms as, `for instance, it can be formed with onlyl one movable jaw, and a fixed jaw can be formed in the socket A, for

the. movable -jaw to operate against, in which case one side ofthe socket can be left solid; or it can be made so that the clamp shall work'antomatically when a skewer isinserted in thesocket, the jaw or jaws `of the clamp being arranged with a spring or springs, to

-push them constantly inward, so as to grasp with their teeth any object that forces them apart, in which case, the arms E, or some equivalent device, are necessary to open the clamp, to release the skewer after 'it has 'been withdrawn from the meat.

The clamp can be placedin any part of the handle, or at the heel of the knife-blade, as may be desired by the maker.

`What I claim as new, and desire to secure by Letters Patent, is

The combination, with a lknife or fork, of a skewerclamp, substantially as set forth and described.

` J AMES BALL. Witnesses:

W. HAUFF, y J. VANVSANTVOORD. 4

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