Who invented the spork

When you designed your spork, did you know the spork had been invented before? I was not familiar with it at all. How did you come up with the design?

I got this mission from Light My Fire to design a meal kit for going out in the woods. As the robot attempts to create order by categorizing plastic cutlery left behind in an apocalyptic wasteland, he encounters a spork.

It just doesn't compute. Does it go with the spoons? The forks? The decision nearly blows his circuits [source: Wilson ]. Whether you're a fan of the spork or not, you've probably encountered one -- even if it was as part of an Internet meme.

Sporks are beloved for their cultural irony. Case in point? Bend the two middle tines down and voila! I was surprised to discover sporks aren't a purely American icon. In Australia, the "splade" is a popular spork equivalent. Eat up! She also writes and manages The Ghost In My Machine, where she haunts readers several times weekly with spooky stories of the strange and unusual. Read Full Bio ». Recently Popular. The opulence of the social events must have made Samuel W.

Francis reflect on the hardships suffered in the Civil War. During this time the personal equipment of a Civil War Soldier included a knife, fork and spoon. The idea of lightening the load of any people who travelled perhaps led to the invention of the spork by Samuel W. Westward Expansion and the new, faster forms of transport invented during the US Industrial Revolution resulted in the movement of hundreds of thousands of poorer people - who would no doubt appreciate the convenience of the spork.

The spork was cheaper than buying three separate utensils, saved space and was lighter to carry. Francis evidently believed that there was merit in his simple invention and applied for a patent for his new, novel piece of cutlery. His patent application was headed an 'Improvement in combined knives, forks, and spoons' and was granted on February 3, , patent number US The original invention of the Spork was not successful for several reasons.

The bowl of the spork was too shallow to hold an acceptable amount of soup, and the prongs were too short and stubby and the knife edge was not able to properly penetrate anything firm. Francis continued to create new inventions until his death on March 25, The three-in-one cutlery combination was not an immediate hit for Samuel W. Francis but the merit of the idea was picked up by other inventors and entrepreneurs. Various improvements and 'tweaks' were made to the original design.

The 'Splayd' was created in the s by Australian inventor William McArthur that combining the functions of spoon, knife and fork. The invention of synthetic Plastic and Bakelite by Leo Baekeland in and the emergence of fast food, take-away food made Sporks a success and an "overnight sensation".