ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1997, Roanoke Times
DATE: Wednesday, April 2, 1997 TAG: 9704020010
SECTION: EXTRA PAGE: 1 EDITION: METRO
DATELINE: RICHMOND
SOURCE: MICHELLE CROUCH ASSOCIATED PRESS
Alex Weinstein watched as toddlers tried to feed themselves and studied the sloppy process. He saw applesauce and strained carrots dribble down their chins and into their laps. He saw moms sigh in frustration.
He saw an opportunity.
Weinstein has created a spill-proof spoon that he says will keep food from falling into the laps of children and others with unsteady hands.
The spoon is designed so that no matter how far it is tipped and turned, its scoop stays level.
It will allow small children and people with cerebral palsy, arthritis or Parkinson's disease to eat without help, Weinstein said. Elderly people with trembling hands and failing eyesight also will find the spoon useful, he said.
``I was overwhelmed that there wasn't already something out there to help these people,'' Weinstein said. ``We can make a smart bomb that can land in Saddam Hussein's living room from 500 miles away, but we can't give somebody a device to feed themselves?''
The spoon uses gravity and basic physics, Weinstein said. Its scoop is loosely attached to strings and pulleys that run through the tubing that serves as the spoon's handle. The scoop locks into place when it plunges into food, then it unlocks and its system of weights and pulleys takes over to keep the scoop level, no matter how the handle is held.
Weinstein, 35, of Richmond, received a patent on an early prototype of the spoon last month, and he is working with Mesa Marketing & Sales in Agora, Calif., to get it onto store shelves.
Mesa Marketing expects to begin manufacturing the spoon within 60 days, company president Sam Aranow said. It will probably sell for less than $20, he said. Weinstein will receive a royalty on sales.
``The need for this is literally in the hundreds of thousands,'' Aranow said. ``We've talked to doctors, occupational therapists. It will work for anything from old age to any disability that would cause your hands to shake.''
A smaller version of the spoon will be made for children, he said.
Nancy Flynn, a spokeswoman with the United Cerebral Palsy Association, said she didn't know of any similar product. Most people with cerebral palsy and other disabilities use utensils with big, rubber grips or metal instruments that strap to their hands, she said.
Weinstein, who makes his living in electrical sales, said the idea came to him during a chat with his mother-in-law, who raised five children and has plenty of young grandchildren.
``Immediately, she talked about kids not being able to eat because they can't hold their hands steady,'' he said.
For the next two years, Weinstein spent his spare time experimenting in his basement workshop with different kinds of spoons, tubing, pulleys and weights. Finally, he got it just right.
Weinstein has been a tinkerer since childhood. In the second grade, he rigged up an old typewriter so that a light bulb on top of it would illuminate every time the J key was hit.
``The way my mind works, when I look at things, I'm always seeing ways they could be better,'' Weinstein said.
He jots down ideas for new inventions in a notebook he carries everywhere, and said he's already thinking about other products for people with disabilities. But first, he wants to see his spoon succeed.
``I want it to give people who right now are not able to feed themselves a little more freedom, a little more self-sufficiency,'' he said.
LENGTH: Medium: 74 lines ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO: ASSOCIATED PRESS. Alex Weinstein of Richmond scoopsby CNBcereal with a prototype of his spill-proof spoon. He plans to have
it manufactured within a few months. color.