Alfred L. Cralle
Alfred L. Cralle (September 4, 1866 – May 3, 1920) was an African-American businessman.
Cralle was born in Kenbridge, Lunenburg County, 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, DC where he attended Wayland Seminary, one of a number of schools founded by the American Baptist Home Mission Society to help educate African-Americans after the Civil War.
After his education, Cralle settled in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania where he first served as a porter in a drug store and at a hotel. In 1897 he received a patent on a type of ice cream disher (a scoop with a built-in scraper).[1] He later become an assistant manager in a local business association.
Cralle died in a car accident in 1920, survived by his daughter.
Sources
- ↑ US Certain new and useful Improvements in Ice-Cream Molds and Dishers 576395, Cralle, Alfred L., "Ice-Cream Mold and Disher", issued February 2, 1897