Skip to main content
  • Main menu
Lemelson Center for the Study of Invention and Innovation
  • Home
  • Explore
    • Study
    • Try
    • About
    • Multimedia
  • Invention Stories
    • Blog
    • Places of Invention
    • Beyond Words
  • Innovating New Traditions
Color postcard of a painting of a young boy, holding a dead turkey and a pumpkin. Corn sheaves are in the background. The postcard border depicts turkey feathers. A Happy Thanksgiving is printed at the bottom .

Postcard from the Thanksgiving series, Warshaw Collection of Business Americana, AC0060-0001276, about 1910. Warshaw Collection of Business Americana, Archives Center, National Museum of American History.

Innovating New Traditions

November 25, 2013 by Kate Wiley

A look at the tech behind some popular Thanksgiving traditions.

Twitter Facebook Tumblr Email Print

As Thanksgiving approaches, our thoughts naturally turn to traditions—national traditions like the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade and our own personal traditions, which in my family means kielbasa and apple pie, going to the local Christmas tree farm, and my family members pretending to be shocked when I decline a serving of carrots for the 28th year in a row. (And, of course, my mother’s mashed potatoes, over which I rhapsodized in a previous post.) 

turkey woodcut_SAAM.jpg

Turkey woodcut.

Woodcut, The Marchbanks Calendar–November by Harry Cimino. Smithsonian American Art Museum.

 

We all have traditions, but where did they come from? When we deep-fry the turkey or add a spiral ham to the menu, it may not seem particularly innovative. But the technology behind these yummy traditions had to come from somewhere. While doing some Thanksgiving-inspired Googling, I came across some fun videos from History.com on the invention of deep-fried turkeys and turduckens.

While we may not know who invented the deep-fried turkey, we can take a look at Harry Hoenselaar’s patent (#2470078A) for an “apparatus for slicing ham on the bone.” Hoenselaar’s invention was ingeniously created out of various objects found around his home—a pie tin, brackets, a hand drill, and a broom handle, to name a few. The patent application reads:

In the meat industry there is a large market for sliced meats, particularly for ham slices, but the bone construction and the shape of a ham is such that no wholly satisfactory method of slicing it exists. This statement also applies to legs of lamb and other like cuts of meat.

It is an object of the invention to provide a method and a machine for slicing ham and other joints, which are of exceptional efficiency in operation. Another object of the invention is to prepare ham for the market in a new and superior form.

Millions of spiral cut hams are sold every year, so I believe we can safely say that Hoenselaar accomplished what he set out to do—create an “efficient” ham.

Ham Slicer Patent.png

Patent drawing for "a device to slice ham on the bone" by Harry Hoenselaar.

Patent drawing by Harry Hoenselaar.

So whatever your traditions are this Thanksgiving, enjoy the holiday!

And remember, when frying a turkey, safety first!

Tags

  • Food and drink (Relevance: 77%)
  • Photography, film, television, and video (Relevance: 40%)

VIEW 2736 Matching Results

Found 2736 Stories

  • Agriculture and horticulture (Relevance: 5.1900584795322%)
  • Air and space (Relevance: 6.7616959064327%)
  • Archives@NMAH (Relevance: 8.406432748538%)
  • Chemistry (Relevance: 3.0701754385965%)
  • Food and drink (Relevance: 3.2894736842105%)
  • Industry and manufacturing (Relevance: 7.5292397660819%)
  • Medicine, health, and life sciences (Relevance: 4.5687134502924%)
  • Military technology (Relevance: 3.3260233918129%)
  • Mining and drilling (Relevance: 3.3991228070175%)
  • Patents and trademarks (Relevance: 11.330409356725%)
  • Photography, film, television, and video (Relevance: 3.874269005848%)
  • Power generation, motors, and engines (Relevance: 3.4356725146199%)
  • Spark!Lab (Relevance: 3.5818713450292%)
  • Textiles and clothing (Relevance: 3.3625730994152%)
  • Transportation (Relevance: 5.9576023391813%)
  • Women inventors (Relevance: 3.3991228070175%)
❯
Go to the Smithsonian National Museum of American History website

About Menu

▼
Open menu
▲
Close menu
  • Explore
    • Blog
    • Invention Stories
    • Places of Invention
    • Beyond Words
  • Study
    • Research Opportunities
    • Archives
    • Lemelson Center Books
    • Lemelson Center Research
    • Symposia & Conferences
  • Try
    • DO Try This at Home!
    • Spark!Lab
    • Spark!Lab Network
    • Encouraging Innovative Thinking
  • About
    • Events
    • Exhibitions
    • News
    • Who We Are
    • FAQ
    • Donate
  • Multimedia
  • Tags
  • Surprise Me
  • Search
  • Open Drawer
Copyright 2023, Smithsonian Institution, All Rights Reserved
  • DONATE
  • Terms of Use
  • Privacy Policy
Twitter Facebook Tumblr Email Print