Thank you for the sentence about the sports player, I had heard someone in my league was caught with an Emery Board but had no idea what it was.
Joe Niekro is the most infamous user of an emory board, but certainly not the only. I changed the article to reflect this more general use
- God forbid a baseball player wants to take care of his nails. :p
The word emery is of French origin, referring to mineral used on these boards. While I may be wrong in doing so, I find it very outlandish to believe that the maker and his location might also be named emery. Additionally, Reference.com shows the word's origin, via the Random House dictionary, coming from the 18th century, well prior to the date this article claims as the date of creation for the emery board.
Also, the term emery board (as emery-board) can be found in a U.S. patent filed approximately two decades prior to the date this article proposes.
Reference.com emery board
U.S. Pat #D15041 filed Dec 18, 1883
Based on these, I think that the dubious claims of origin should be removed. Furthermore, while I'm not very good at interpreting patent documents, I believe this source might suggest that J. Parker Pray may have been the first to patent an emery board design (in America). akuyume T C 04:12, 10 December 2009 (UTC)
Thank you for the sentence about the sports player, I had heard someone in my league was caught with an Emery Board but had no idea what it was.
Joe Niekro is the most infamous user of an emory board, but certainly not the only. I changed the article to reflect this more general use
- God forbid a baseball player wants to take care of his nails. :p
The word emery is of French origin, referring to mineral used on these boards. While I may be wrong in doing so, I find it very outlandish to believe that the maker and his location might also be named emery. Additionally, Reference.com shows the word's origin, via the Random House dictionary, coming from the 18th century, well prior to the date this article claims as the date of creation for the emery board.
Also, the term emery board (as emery-board) can be found in a U.S. patent filed approximately two decades prior to the date this article proposes.
Reference.com emery board
U.S. Pat #D15041 filed Dec 18, 1883
Based on these, I think that the dubious claims of origin should be removed. Furthermore, while I'm not very good at interpreting patent documents, I believe this source might suggest that J. Parker Pray may have been the first to patent an emery board design (in America). akuyume T C 04:12, 10 December 2009 (UTC)