User:Hcliff/Ripe fruit gauge

Ripe Fruit Gauge ... The Ripe Fruit Gauge is a gauge that determines when fruit is ripe.

Determining when some fruits are ripe and at their peak of flavor is hard to do without cutting open the fruit. Cantaloupe and avocado are especially tricky due to their hard surface. If the fruit is cut to soon the fruit stops ripening.

Inventor Hugh Johnson obtained a provisional patent for a simple device that tests fruit ripeness without stopping its ripening process.

This tool breaks the surface with a small hole of less than one millimeter or 1/16 of an inch in width, so the fruit can continue to ripen if need be.

The invention looks like a tube with a wire coming out of one end. The wire is plunged into the fruit, and the degree to which the body of the invention springs back, is determined by the hardness of the fruit and thereby the ripeness. The harder the inside of the fruit, the more the body of the invention springs back.