The Spoon and Sugar-Tongs: Crossed Jaws That Spring Shut

"The object of this invention is to combine in one and the same implement a spoon and a sugar-tongs, thereby producing an article of table-ware adapted to the purpose of serving either granulated sugar or lump sugar." The spacer between the shanks is there "partly for the purpose of causing the jaws B B' to spring together when the shanks of the strips are relieved from pressure", so that they hold "a lump of sugar or cracker, as may be desired, between them, and retain it until released by a slight pressure on the shanks A A', the jaws closing automatically, due to the fact that they cross each other." "If desired, the spoon may be omitted altogether, and the implement constructed and used as sugar-tongs alone."

Cut a strip of stainless steel sheet 1 cm wide and two-thirds the length of the teaspoon. File its edges smooth. Drill a hole near one end of it, and a matching hole in the spoon's handle one-third of the way from the bowl. Pop-rivet the strip to the handle, lying along it. Bend the free ends of the handle and the strip towards each other into jaws that cross just past their tips, and file a small notch in each so a cube sits between them. Rivet a folded scrap of steel between the two shanks, just beyond the rivet, so the shanks are pushed apart and the crossed jaws press shut. Squeeze the shanks: the jaws should open. Move 20 sugar cubes from one bowl to another and count the drops. Scoop granulated sugar with the bowl end.

**Jonathan Badger** of New York, a citizen of Great Britain, filed US 274,695 on 1 December 1882; it was patented 27 March 1883. He also claimed the tongs alone, without the spoon. **Honest limits.** The notebook treats each shank as a straight strip clamped at the rivet and ignores the spacer's own give. Sizes, friction and the cube's mass are examples. Your count of drops is the measurement.