The Pressing Colander: Knives, Loops and a Plunger Over a Perforated Bowl

"My invention relates to improvements in colanders; and my object is to provide a utensil of this character for the purpose of cutting up raw or cooked fruits and pressing out their juices preparatory to making jellies, syrups, apple-float, &c." "The face portions 16 of said loops are arranged to present an inclined surface to the hemispherical bottom in order that when rotating in the direction indicated by the arrow in Fig. 1 they will catch and press the fruit against the bottom 2 and force the juice through the perforations thereof, while the serrated rear edges 17 of the loops will thoroughly macerate the smaller particles of fruit not cut by the knives by pressing them against said bottom 2. In order that the dasher may the more effectually perform its work, I press the fruit in contact therewith by a vertically-operating plunger, which also prevents the fruit or a portion thereof from being cast out of the cylinder by the rotating dasher."

Quarter and simmer six apples in a little water until soft; let them cool until safe to handle. Divide into two equal weights. Put the first half in a colander over a bowl and let it drain for ten minutes without pressing; weigh the juice. Put the second half in and press it with a spoon or a masher for ten minutes, stirring as Jenkins's loops do; weigh that juice. Compare juice per 100 g of fruit. Keep hands off hot fruit; it holds heat.

**Mary C. Jenkins** of Kansas City, Kansas, filed US 679,564 on 9 August 1900; it is dated 30 July 1901. The cylinder may be "glass, porcelain, or other suitable material". **Honest limits.** The patent gives no sizes. Viscosity, permeabilities, pressures, area and pulp thickness in the notebook are examples; Darcy's law is only a rough guide for a squeezed pulp.