Improvements in and relating to Table Forks.
Year: 1897

page_text: Date of Application, 22nd Dec., 1897-Accepted, 19th Feb.,
1898
Improvements in and relating to Table Forks.
I, GEORGE POLL, of 167, Pentonville Road, in the County of London, Miner,
do hereby declare the nature of this invention and in what manner the same is to be
performed, to be particularly described and ascertained in and by the following
statement :-
My invention relates to table forks, and more particularly to those intended for
use with fish, and comprises certain improvements therein hereinafter described
intended to admit of the said forks being employed more effectively for the
removal of bones and the like and thereby to render them more efficient for the
above purpose than those hitherto made.
In the accompanying drawing I have shown how my said invention may be
conveniently and advantageously carried into practice.
Figure 1 is a plan, and
Figure 2 is a side view showing a fish fork having my improvements applied
thereto.
Like letters indicate corresponding parts throughout the drawing.
a is the handle of the fork and b, b are the ordinary or usual fixed prongs
thereof.
According to my said invention I provide one or more supplementary prongs c, c
pivoted as indicated at d to the stem of the fixed prongs b, and provided with a lever
or extension e. The supplementary or movable prongs c when in their normal or
closed position fit close upon, and form practically one with, the corresponding fixed
prongs b, and are retained in that position by a spring for in any other convenient
manner. Upon, however, depressing the extension or finger piece of the lever e with
the finger, the supplementary or movable prongs c will be raised into the position
shown in dotted lines in Figure 2, and can be employed, in a manner easily
understood, as a nipper for taking hold of or seizing and removing, bones from fish
and the like upon the plate of the user.
Although I have shown my improvements applied to a fish fork of the usual or
ordinary construction having four ordinary or fixed prongs, I may, if desirable,
employ a special form of fork with three or other suitable number of ordinary or fixed
prongs.
In some instances I find it convenient to provide recesses or grooves in the
ordinary or fixed prongs into which the supplementary or movable prongs will fit
when in their normal or closed position.
It will be readily understood, moreover, that may provide one or any other
number of the ordinary or fixed prongs with a supplementary or movable prong or
supplementary or movable prongs without departing from the nature of my said
invention.
Having now particularly described and ascertained the nature of my said
invention and in what manner the same is to be performed, I declare that what I
claim is :-
1. A fork having one or more supplementary or movable prongs so arranged in
connection with one or more of the ordinary or fixed prongs as to admit of it or their

page_text: being employed as a nipper for taking hold of or seizing and removing bones or the
like, substantially as described.
2. The combination, with the stem and fixed prongs of a fork, of a lever pivotally
connected thereto one end of which lever forms one or more movable prongs and
the other end of which terminates in a finger piece, and a spring serving to normally
retain the said movable prong or prongs upon the fixed prong or prongs, substantially
as set forth.
3. The improved fork constructed substantially as described and as illustrated in
the accompanying drawing.
sy of December 1837.
A. F. SPOONER,
323, High Holborn, London, Agent for the Applicant.