The next time you enjoy ice cream (at home or out-and-about) or use a one-handed scoop to portion-control your homemade cookies … you can thank Alfred L. Cralle.
While working at a Pittsburgh PA hotel, he noticed that it was hard to dish ice cream without using two hands and two separate implements. Plus, the ice cream stuck to spoons and ladles.
On 02 February 1897, the US Patent Office granted him a patent (576,395) for an “Ice-cream Mold and Disher” – a design basically unchanged today. Usable with one hand, the scoop was durable, effective and inexpensive.
Cralle would become a general manager for the Afro-American Financial, Accumulating, Merchandise and Business Association.
Alfred L. Cralle (04 September 1866 – 06 May 1919)
#scitech, #black-history-month (013/365)
