The Cap-and-Cone Lemon Squeezer: Squeeze Sideways, Not Inside Out

"The ordinary lemon squeezers require considerable power in order to express the juice fully from the lemon or rather from the half lemon which is fitted in them, in consequence of the pressure being exerted upon it axially or in the direction of its length and involving the necessity of nearly turning it inside out at the completion of the pressure." "The operator then depresses the lever or handle D, and the cap E, descends on the lemon forcing the latter down on the projection C, and subjecting the lemon to a downward and lateral pressure and effectually expressing the juice therefrom which is retained by the cup A."

**Cup.** Take a clean tin can a little wider than half a lemon and file a pouring notch in its rim. Punch small holes round the bottom's edge so juice can pass to a glass beneath if you prefer. **Cone.** Rasp a cone 5 cm tall and as wide at the base as the can from hardwood block, with a 30° half-angle checked with the protractor, and screw it to the can's centre from below. **Lever and cap.** Screw a hardwood upright to a board as the fulcrum post and bolt a 25 cm hardwood lever to it. Hollow a hardwood block into a cap that fits over the cone with a few millimetres to spare and bolt it to the lever 3 cm from the fulcrum, loose enough to tilt and seat itself, as Chichester's pin let it. Stand the can under it. **Test.** Weigh two lemons and halve them. Squeeze two halves with the lever, reading your push at the lever's end with the spring scale. Press the other two halves flat on a plate with a jar base at the same force. Weigh the juice from each.

**Lewis S. Chichester** of New York received US 28,967, dated 3 July 1860. His cup, handle and cone could be cast in one piece of metal, the cap was pinned to the lever so it could adjust itself over the cone, and the cone could be conical or pyramidal. His claim is the cap, cone and cup combined. **Honest limits.** A tin can, a hardwood cone and cap and a board lever stand in for his cast metal. The notebook ignores friction; its forces, lengths and angles are examples. Your juice weights are the result.