Posted on December 8, 2014
Lemons have seeds. And juice that can squirt in your eyes (and anywhere else it pleases). And pulp. And stickiness....stickiness...everywhere!
Basically, making a pitcher of lemonade with hand-squeezed lemons can be a messy proposition. But on this date in 1896, an African-American inventor named J.T. White (John Thomas White) received a patent for a better way of squeezing lemons and straining their juice while keeping one's hands clean. Actually, like most things, lemon squeezers have been invented and reinvented and tweaked and reimagined—for centuries. The earliest known squeezers were found in Turkey and date back to the early 1700s. The U.S. patent office lists more than 200 patents for different sorts of lemon squeezers, starting in 1860.
Take a look at some of these different sorts of lemon squeezers:
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| This design enables you to squeeze just a bit of lemon (or lime or orange) juice and to keep the remainder of the cut fruit nicely in the fridge. |
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| This 1990 design by Philippe Starck is famous for a design that combines form, function, grace, and humor. |
Remember: to invent something, you don't have to imagine something completely new and unheard of although that would be pretty cool and might earn you $$$ and a place in history! Instead, you can just take any invention and make it better in some way. Faster or cheaper, more efficient or more beautiful, smaller or larger or funnier or friendlier!
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