The Convertible Biscuit Cutter: Doughnuts With the Centre, Biscuits Without

"This invention relates to devices for cutting cakes, biscuits, doughnuts, cookies, and the like from a sheet of dough". "For the purpose of cutting doughnuts and the like the auxiliary cutter will be placed in position, as seen in the drawings, and will serve to cut from each piece of dough that is cut by the flange 3 a circular piece. For cutting biscuits and the like the auxiliary cutter is detached from the body of the main cutter, which is then used in the customary manner."

Cut a strip of tin 2.5 cm wide from a can, roll it into a 7 cm ring and fold the ends over each other. Leave four tabs on its top edge. Cut a disk of hardwood the ring's size, set the ring on it and screw the tabs down. Glue a length of dowel to the middle of the disk's top as the handle. Drill a hole through the centre of the disk. Roll a second strip into a 2.5 cm ring, set it on a short piece of dowel that fits the hole snugly, and push the dowel into the hole from below: this is the centre cutter. File every cut edge smooth. Roll out a dough and cut half the sheet with the centre cutter in and half with it out. Count the pieces from each half and weigh the holes.

**Vernon T. Littlefield** of Bangor, Maine, filed US 848,561 on 18 July 1906; it was patented 26 March 1907. He turned the whole cutter from hard wood, which he preferred "on account of its cheapness, lightness, strength, and the ease with which it may be kept in a clean and sanitary condition". This rung makes the cutting edges from tin, which is easier to keep sharp. **Honest limits.** The notebook assumes perfect honeycomb packing; by hand you will fit fewer. Sizes are examples. Your counts are the measurement.