The Spring Table Tongs: Notched Jaws to Hold a Bone and Pick Out Fish-Bones

Eating chicken or fish at table means holding a greasy bone in the fingers or picking fish-bones out with them. James Huffman of Mount Crawford and Joseph Funkhouser of Keezletown, Virginia, received US 197,372, dated 20 November 1877, for "an implement to be used as table-tongs", "formed of a single piece of spring-steel or other suitable metal, and somewhat in the shape of a pair of sugar-tongs, for table purposes". Its jaws have V-shaped notches that meet to hold a bone firmly while the meat is picked off, and flat faces from the notches to the tips that fit snugly together to catch and remove fish-bones. This rung works out how hard the spring body pushes back, then bends the tongs from spring steel with notched jaws and thumb pieces, and tries them at the table.