Fannie S. Spitz
Fannie Schutz Spitz (February 14, 1873 – October 17, 1943) was an American inventor. She patented the first machine to shell pine nuts for commercial use.
Early life[edit]
Fannie Schutz was from El Paso, Texas, the daughter of Samuel Schutz and Friederike Siebenborn Schutz. Both of her parents were born in Germany. Her father was a merchant.[1] Her cousin Solomon C. Schutz was elected El Paso's third mayor in 1880.[2]
Career[edit]
Spitz invented the first practical machine for shelling pine nuts in bulk.[3] She traveled to study nut processing methods, and spent months as an apprentice in a machine shop,[4] before she built a prototype of her original design in her basement workshop. She was granted a patent for the "Method and Apparatus for Shelling Nuts"[5] in 1918.[6] She also sold pine nuts from her Albuquerque farm, and promoted their nutritional value and culinary possibilities.[7] She also exhibited the machine at a national convention of confectioners in 1922, in Chicago.[8] She also experimented with using the machine for processing coffee beans.[9] The Albuquerque Journal declared her "the greatest known authority on the pinon nut and its possibilities".[10] In October 1923, she announced that she was retiring and seeking buyers to take over her business.[11]
Personal life and legacy[edit]
Fannie D. Schutz married Berthold V. Spitz, a Jewish immigrant from Bohemia, in 1893.[12] The couple were among the founders of Congregation Albert, a synagogue still active in Albuquerque, New Mexico.[13] She was widowed when Berthold died in 1933.[14] She died in Pasadena, California in 1943, aged 70 years, from a heart attack.[15]
The Berthold Spitz House in Albuquerque was placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1977.[1][16]
References[edit]
- ^ a b Berthold Spitz House, Nomination Form, National Register of Historic Places.
- ^ Arthur H. Leibson, "Solomon C. Schutz" Handbook of Texas Online (Texas State Historical Association).
- ^ Charles Abbott Goddard, "Interesting Westerners: A Woman Who Found a Fortune in a Nutshell" Sunset Magazine (January 1921): 42.
- ^ "Making More Money" Los Angeles Times (October 8, 1920): II2.
- ^ "Mrs. Fannie S. Spitz" American Nut Journal (February 1923): cover.
- ^ Official Gazette of the United States Patent Office (August 6, 1918): 131.
- ^ "To Supply the Sweet Tooth of a Nut-Eating Nation" American Nut Journal (April 1922): 44-45.
- ^ "Highly Valuable Invention" American Nut Journal (December 1922): 86.
- ^ "Nut Sheller Handles Coffee Beans" American Nut Journal (July 1923): 8.
- ^ "Mrs. Spitz has Great invention in Pinon Sheller" The Albuquerque Journal (November 21, 1921): 7. via Newspapers.com
- ^ "I Am Retiring from Business!" advertisement, American Nut Journal (October 1923): 77.
- ^ Untitled social item, Southwest Sentinel (June 13, 1893): 3. via Newspapers.com
- ^ "Congregation Albert: The Oldest Continuing Jewish Organization in Albuquerque, New Mexico" Jewish Museum of the American West.
- ^ "Berthold Spitz, Postmaster, Old Resident, Dies" Albuquerque Journal (September 5, 1933): 1, 3. via Newspapers.com
- ^ "Mrs. Fannie Spitz Dies in Pasadena" Albuquerque Journal (October 18, 1943): 8. via Newspapers.com
- ^ Regina N. Emmer, " The Berthold Spitz House" in Gabrielle Esperdy and Karen Kingsley, eds., SAH Archipedia (University of Virginia Press, online).
