The Apex-First Lemon Squeezer: Press From the Tip Out, and the Seeds Stay Whole

"The socket is curved upward gradually toward the hinge, so as to constitute a fitting lodgment for the half, G, of a lemon, and the under side of the presser is so formed that when elevated, as in Fig. 2, it will bear on the lemon near the apex of the same, as shown." "By this action of the presser there can be no possibility of the juices being forced rearward, for they must necessarily be expelled, from the first to the last movement of the presser, outward from within the skin, and through the severed end of the lemon toward the flange m, and must pass through the grating n into any suitable receptacle which the height of the legs permits to be introduced beneath the socket."

**Socket.** Cut a piece of stainless steel sheet and hammer it over a hardwood form into a trough that curves up at one end, shaped to take half a lemon with its apex toward that end. Solder or rivet a low partition across the other end as the flange m, and drill a row of holes in the bottom just behind it as the grating n. **Presser.** Hammer a second piece into a convex shell that fits into the socket, and rivet a flat-bar arm to it as the handle b. **Hinge and legs.** Hinge the presser to the socket's curved-up end with a bolt through two lugs. Bend 6 mm steel rod into two legs d d fixed at the hinge end and a long arm a running from the flange end down to the table, tall enough for a glass under the grating. **Test.** Put a half lemon in with its apex toward the hinge and press the arm down slowly. Watch where the juice comes out, and look at the seeds afterwards.

**James H. Spencer** of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, filed US 192,301 on 26 April 1877; it is dated 19 June 1877. He noted the rind as well as the pulp was pressed dry, left as a hard mass. The legs could be dispensed with, the arm a being straight and held in one hand, or the socket fixed to a bar with a single stud y. His claims cover the socket and presser hinged together to act on a half lemon, the socket's grating and partition, and the legs a d d. **Honest limits.** Hammered stainless steel and bent rod stand in for his cast parts. The notebook ignores the lemon's own resistance; its forces and lengths are examples. Your juice and seeds are the result.