Alfred L. Cralle

Alfred L. Cralle (September 4, 1866 – May 3, 1920) was an African-American businessman and inventor of the "Ice Cream Mold and Disher".
Cralle was born in Kenbridge, Virginia in 1866 just after the end of the American Civil War (1861–1865).
He attended local schools and worked with his father in the carpentry trade as a young man, becoming interested in mechanics. He was sent to Washington, D.C.where he attended Wayland Seminary, one of a number of schools founded by the American Baptist Home Mission Society to help educate newly freed African-Americans after the Civil War.

After attending the school for a few years, Cralle moved to Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, where he worked as a porter at a drugstore and at a hotel. While working at the hotel, he developed the idea of the ice cream scoop. It came to him when he noticed ice cream servers having difficulty trying to get the popular confection desired by the customer into the cone they were usually holding. The ice cream tended to stick to spoons and ladles, usually requiring the server to use two hands and at least two separate implements to serve customers.
Cralle responded to that problem by creating a mechanical device now known as the ice cream scoop. On 10 June 1896, Alfred applied for a patent on his invention. He was awarded patent 576,395 on 2 February 1897. The patented "Ice Cream Mold and Disher," was an ice cream scoop with a built-in scraper to allow for one-handed operation. Alfred's functional design is reflected in modern ice cream scoops.

Cralle’s invention, originally called an Ice Cream Mold and Disher, was designed to be able to keep ice cream and other foods from sticking. It was easy to operate with one hand. Since the Mold and Disher was strong and durable, effective, and inexpensive, it could be constructed in almost any desired shape, such as cone or a mound, with no delicate parts that could break or malfunction.

Cralle was also a successful Pittsburgh business promoter as well. When local black investors created the Afro-American Financial, Accumulating, Merchandise, and Business Association in Pittsburgh, he was selected as assistant manager and then was promoted to general manager.

He did not become famous for his inventing of his ice cream scoop. It spread widely so quickly that people soon forgot or never knew Cralle as the inventor. Thus he never profited from his invention.

Married and with three children, Cralle experienced a number of personal tragedies. His wife and one of his daughters died in 1918 of a communicable disease. In 1920 he lost his only son to another disease. With their deaths, Cralle’s only surviving immediate family member was daughter Anna Cralle, born in 1910. Later in 1920, Cralle himself was killed in an automobile accident in Pittsburgh.

Sources:
"Afro-American Notes". The Pittsburgh Press. February 14, 1897. Retrieved May 28, 2018.
"The Gifts of African American Innovation". Desmond Tutu Foundation USA. February 12, 2014. Retrieved May 28, 2018.
"The Black Past: Remembered and Reclaimed". www.blackpast.org. Retrieved 2018-09-05.
"United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) : nombre de brevets délivrés à certains quelques opérateurs de télécommunications". United States Patent and Trademark Office. Retrieved 2018-09-05.
"History of Ices & Ice Cream". What's Cooking America. Retrieved May 28, 2018.
"A. L. Cralle Ice Cream Mold and Disher Patent Number 576395". U.S. Patent and Trademark Office. Retrieved May 28, 2018.
Stradley, Linda (2015-05-14). "Ice Cream History, Whats Cooking America". What's Cooking America. Retrieved 2018-09-05.