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Article: Cracking Up
- Article from:
- The Washington Post
- Article date:
- January 19, 2005
- Author:
CopyrightThis material is published under license from the Washington Post. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Washington Post. (Hide copyright information)
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A friend and I disagree on how walnuts are removed from their
shells commercially. He has an idea that the shells are drilled and
something is injected to make them explode apart. I thought there
must be something to do with heat and/or gases, but nothing
explosive.
How, exactly, are walnuts removed so cleanly from their shells?
Not with explosions, as far as I can determine. (I tried; read
further on.) Among many attempts to improve upon vises, hammers, high-
heeled shoes and other spur-of-the-moment tactics, 257 nut-cracking
patents have been granted by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office
since it awarded the first patent in 1790.
Walnuts have been consumed since prehistoric times, and we ...