The Fruit Press With Filter and Funnel: Pressed, Strained and Poured in One

"In the frame A rests the removable perforated bowl B, which may be of any suitable material, but preferably of porcelain or crockery-ware." "The fruit to be pressed is placed in the bowl B, and pressure is applied thereto by the plunger or follower E, so as to express the juice and force it, together with the seeds and pulp, through the perforations b to the filter G, which strains the same, allowing the juice to pass through, but arresting the seeds and pulp and retaining them on the upper side of the filter, so that they may be removed by withdrawing the funnel after the juice has passed through it to a vessel placed for its reception."

**Frame.** Saw a top 30 × 12 cm from plywood and cut a hole in it with the hole saw that a clean tin can drops into and hangs by its rim. Screw a leg of hardwood board under each end, tall enough for a jug and funnel underneath. **Bowl.** Punch holes about 3 mm across over the bottom of the can with a nail and hammer, from the inside out, so the burrs point down. **Lever.** Saw a strip of hardwood board 35 cm long and hinge one end to the top beside the hole with the butt hinge. Cut a disc a little smaller than the can with the hole saw and screw it under the lever over the can: the plunger. **Filter.** Line the kitchen funnel with cheesecloth and set it over the jug under the can. **Test.** Weigh two lemons and halve them. Press two halves, cut face down, reading your push at the lever's end once with the spring scale. Weigh the juice and count the seeds the cheesecloth caught. Squeeze the other two halves by hand into a cup and count the seeds that reached it.

**George A. Newsam** of Brooklyn, New York, filed US 161,816 on 18 February 1875; it is dated 6 April 1875. He preferred porcelain or crockery for the bowl and funnel, a plunger of wood, porcelain or other material held on by a concealed screw so it could be taken off for cleaning, and wrote that the press could be made small enough for a lemon or large enough for "a quantity of fruit of any kind". **Honest limits.** A punched tin can stands in for the perforated porcelain bowl, cheesecloth for his filter, and board for his frame. The notebook ignores friction at the hinge; its push and distances are examples. Your juice weights and seed counts are the result.