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