Alfred L. Cralle was an African American inventor and businessman. While working as a porter in Markell Brothers drugstore and St. Charles Hotel in Pittsburgh, Pa, he noticed that ice cream stuck to the spoons and ladles the servers used, and they usually had to use two hands to separate them.
Cralle thought there had to be a better way. He decided he would be the one to come up with it. His work led to the creation of the ice cream scoop.
Cralle originally called his invention The Ice Cream Mold and Disher. It was designed to be strong, inexpensive and easy to operate with one hand. It had no moving parts that could break or malfunction.
On February 2, 1897, thirty-year-old Cralle applied for and received the patent #576,395. He was the first African-American in Pittsburgh to receive a patent.
“The mold or dishes will fill and dish out from 40 to 50 dishes of ice cream in a minute,” reported The Pittsburgh Press on Feb. 14, 1897. “It also does away with the soiling of the hands.”
Cralle was killed in an automobile accident in 1920 but his invention lives on today. Thank you, Mr. Cralle