The Ice-Hammer Lemon Squeezer: Hammer, Pick, Squeezer and Nutcracker in One

"In the drawings, A A′ are the handles, one being slotted laterally to accommodate the other, and the two being pivoted together at p, and, if preferred, recessed and corrugated at n, to form a nut-cracker. The front end of one of the handles is expanded into a cup, C, perforated to allow the lemon-juice to escape." "The hammer-head H is attached to one edge, and the ice-pick I to the other edge, of the cup, as represented."

**Handles.** Cut two 30 cm lengths of 20 × 5 mm mild steel flat bar. Drill both for an M6 pivot bolt 6 cm from one end and file matching grooves across both, just behind the pivot, as the nutcracker. **Cup and squeezer.** Cut the bottom 3 cm off a small clean tin can, punch holes in its base with a nail, and rivet it to the end of one handle. Cut a disc of steel a little smaller than the cup from the can's lid, rivet it to the other handle so it presses into the cup. **Hammer and pick.** Rivet a hardwood block to one side of the cup as the hammer head. Heat a 10 cm length of steel rod, forge one end to a point, file the tip round, and rivet it to the opposite side. **Test.** Squeeze half a lemon and weigh the juice. Crack a walnut in the grooves. Tap a block of ice with the hammer and with the pick at the same force and compare what each does.

**Thomas Hagerty** of Richmond, Henrico County, Virginia, filed US 155,579 on 16 July 1874; it is dated 6 October 1874. He wanted the tool of malleable or wrought iron, the inside of the cup and the squeezer tinned or enamelled, and offered a blade in place of the pick. His claims cover the cup and squeezer on crossed pivoted handles, and the same squeezer with a hammer and pick. **Honest limits.** Flat bar, a tin-can cup, a riveted hardwood hammer and a forged rod stand in for his iron tool. The notebook compares contact areas only, not the ice's strength; its force and sizes are examples. Your trials are the result.