40

Olive & Pickle Forks

Edward Menkin's March 2, 1909 U. S. Patent No.

914,060 incorporates a corkscrew like device for

stabbing and grabbing

―

round or spherical

objects

‖

. Although the title of his patent is

―

Olive

and Pickle Fork

,‖

he notes that it can be used to

remove,

―

pickled onions, cherries and similar

fruits or vegetables from jars and receptacles.

‖

Menkin says his twisted wires form on the end a

―

hook-grab, each of which is of a spiral or a

cork-

screw

shape.

‖

In Frederick Bignold's

invention, we find another

pickle fork. This one is part of

a rather unusual elaborately

designed

―

Combination

Implement

‖

. And - in his

design - is a genuine

corkscrew for removing

corks from bottles. Other

tools include

―

a clamp,

wrench, nut-cracker, lamp-

chimney cleaner, pickle fork,

greaser, torch, nail-file,

cartridge-extractor

‖

.

Figure 1 shows the tool in cork removal mode. Figure 2 is the tool folded and figure

three shows it arranged for use as a

―

pickle-fork

‖

etc.

The Nebraska resident was granted U. S. Patent No. 631,247 on August 15, 1899.