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March 3, 2020

Egg2 Week (day 3): Lawrence Darrah’s Square Eggs

Lawrence Darrah's Square Eggs

Day 3: Lawrence Darrah’s Square Eggs

We actually covered Darrah’s “Shell-less egg carton” once back in 2013. But we’ll revisit him now during Square Eggs of Science & Industry Week.

In some patents, we’ve noticed inventors highlight the “substantially square” aspects of their inventions. In Darrah’s patent, however, he never mentions square or rectangular eggs. Instead, he focus on the “substantially impervious” aspect of his egg re-packaging concept.

Here, as with the square eggs of Gerard Baerends, Life Magazine covered the story. And here again, the publication chose to make the story all about the squareness of the eggs.

“Eggs,” Designer Raymond Loewy once declared, “are the functionally perfect form.” He was talking about egg esthetics. But when it comes to marketing eggs, according to Professor Lawrence Darrah of the New York State College of Agriculture, their form is neither functional nor perfect. To remedy the situation he has devised a way to give eggs a handier square shape. He has done it so successfully that he thinks square eggs will become as familiar as the ovoid variety.

Science Squares the Egg, Life Magazine, April 30, 1956

Of course, Darrah’s idea of improving upon the egg, is pretty much the same idea that David Adams had in 1947. And, indeed, Adams’ 1953 patent US2660530 is among those credited with a citation in Darrah’s 1958 patent US2858224A.

And Life Magazine, was not the only publication to run with the “squareness” of the Darrah’s shell-less eggs concept…

Canadian newspaper man (and later editor in chief of the Calgary Herald) also made Lawrence Darrah’s square eggs (and the hubris of mankind) the focus of his 1956 shell-less eggs story.

« Egg2 Week (day 2): the square eggs of Gerard Baerends
Egg2 Week (day 4): Henry Garren’s Square Eggs »

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