Half (sp)oon, half f(ork), this utensil is the most handy one you could own. It's like the Duct Tape of Silverware. Every once in a while, I think of the wonderful Canadians who made the modern spork, Hubert Gagnon and Aldo Balatti. They patented the modern version in 1996, but the idea had been around for a long time, and was even mentioned in Edward's Lear "The Owl And The Pussycat", published in 1871, as you can see below.
"They dined on mince, and slices of quince,
Which they ate with a runcible spoon;"
Runcible Spoon is what the Spork was first referred to.
Gagnon and Balatti's version of the spork looked this, and what most of us are used to seeing
http://0.tqn.com/d/inventors/1/0/A/_/spork.jpg
Another version, patented by George Laramy of New Hampshire in 1907, looks more like a fork with a spoon glued on the front of it, to me anyway.
http://0.tqn.com/d/inventors/1/0/B/_/spork2.jpg
The other version I found, was created by Albert Mcneill in 1949. This Philadelphian spork looks very much like a regular fork, except for the fact that the part below the tines is curved, like a spoon.
http://0.tqn.com/d/inventors/1/0/C/_/spork3.jpg
There's just one more thing left to say, and it's this.
When will the knoof, (knife, spoon, fork), be created?
Source- http://inventors.about.com/od/sstartinventors/ss/spork.htm
