AN IMPROVED DEVICE FOR PARING AND SLICING APPLES AND OTHER FRUITS OR VEGETABLES
Year: 1884

page_text: COMPLETE SPECIFICATION.
I WILLIAM ROBERT LAKE, of the firm of Haseltine, Lake & Co, Patent Agents,
Southampton Buildings, in the County of Middlesex do hereby declare the nature
of said Invention for "AN IMPROVED DEVICE FOR PARING AND SLICING APPLES
AND OTHER FRUITS OR VEGETABLES" and in what manner the same is to be
performed, to be particularly described and ascertained in and by the following
statement:-
This Invention relates to fruit and vegetable parers and slicers, and its object is
to construct an article of this description in such manner that it shall be simple
and inexpensive as well as strong and durable and very easy and efficient in its
operation, its construction being such that the paring removed thereby is of even
thickness throughout its length and is readily discharged from the parer.
The Invention comprises a parer and slicer having its blade made from a plate
of sheet metal (preferably steel) of suitable dimensions, and bent or creased longi-
tudinally in such manner that it is somewhat in the form of the letter S in cross
section, one edge of the same forming the cutting edge, and the other edge and its
adjacent curved portion forming the guide and the gauge, and having a longitudinal
slot, extending nearly the whole length of the cutting blade, which is cut out at
the crown or upper bend and through which the paring passes and is discharged;
all of which is hereinafter described.
In the accompanying Drawing;
Figure 1 is a top view of the improved parer and slicer.
Figure 2 is a plan view of the underside of the same;
Figure 3 shews a transverse section of the blade; and
Figure 4 is a front view of the parer and slicer; shewing also a modification of
the mode of fixing it in the handle.
Similar letters of reference indicate corresponding parts in the several Figures.
A indicates the blade, which is made from a piece of sheet metal (preferably
of sheet steel) of suitable dimensions, and the cutting portion of which is bent or
creased longitudinally into about the form shown in the Drawing, that is to say,
into such form that in cross-section it somewhat resembles the letter S.
A longitudinal slot a is cut out, at that portion of the blade which forms the
upper bend b, for the purpose of forming a discharge opening for the paring, which

page_text: .
said slot extends nearly the whole length of the blade (excepting that portion
thereof which fits into the handle) two widths c and c¹ being left to form connecting
pieces or bridges between the remaining portions d and e which form the cutting
edge and the guiding edge, respectively. The extreme edge of the portion d is
sharpened and forms the knife proper, while the portion e forms the guide which
.rests upon the outer surface of the apple or other article, operated on.
The space f
(see Figure 3) between the portion e and the cutting edge forms the gauge, and
may be of suitable width.
The rear end g of the blade is made cylindrical or tubular to fit into a handle B
or B. This handle may be of suitable form. In Figures 1 and 2 I have shewn the
parer fitted into an ordinary wooden handle B, and in Figure 4 I have shewn the
same fitted into a tubular handle B' by fixing the rear portion g of the blade into
a cylindrical or tubular socket h, the latter being fitted into the metal tube B¹
which forms the handle. When this latter construction is adopted a cover may be
fitted into the opposite, or open end of the tube B¹, but I do not claim that as a
part of my Invention and therefore have not shewn the said cover in the Drawing.
In Figure 3 is shewn a transverse section of the cutting blade A, taken on the
line x, x.
In the said Figure the object marked D may represent the outline of an
apple (or a potato or other article) that is being pared, and m the paring that is
being removed therefrom. The line of motion of the parer is in the direction of
the arrow.
When the parer is used for slicing the operation is the same except that the line
of motion is straight instead of curved. .
The special advantages obtained by the construction above described, are firstly,
that the parer can be rapidly and cheaply manufactured by bending or creasing a
plain sheet of steel into the form described; secondly the gauge or guide, by reason
of its convex form, is rigid, and is separate from, and independent of, the cutting
edge, and the thickness of the paring is not changed by any increase of pressure,
as such pressure does not change the relative positions of the gauge and the cutting
edge thirdly that the cutting edge may be readily ground or sharpened from the
outside thereof, and without materially changing its. position in relation to the
guide, or altering the gauge; fourthly, that the corrugated form of the blade admits
of very thin metal being used in its construction; and fifthly the opening a is
simply for the discharge of the paring and does not form either the gauge or the
cutting edge.
- 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
A parer and slicer having a blade A of sheet metal bent or creased longitudinally
as described, to form a cutting edge d and a guiding edge e and having a
longitudinal slot a cut out along the crown or bend of the blade, forming a
discharge opening, all substantially as shown and described.