1795

Samuel Henshall - rector of London’s Bow Church - files the first corkscrew patent for what would become known as the "Henshall button corkscrew".

"A new mode of applying the screw, and a mode which every person who sees it will be surprised that he himself did not find out. It will have the power to extract the hardest, tightest or most decayed cork."

1853

Widely-recorded date for the invention of potato chips (or crisps, as we would have it in the UK). Legend has it that, when railroad magnate Commodore Cornelius Vanderbilt was dining at Moon's Lake House in Saratoga Springs, New York, on this day he sent his fried potatoes back to the kitchen, complaining they were "too thick." Chef George Crum retaliated by slicing paper-thin strips of potatoes and frying them to a crisp.  Vanderbilt loved these "Saratoga Chips" and they became an instant success

1869 

Waffle iron patented in the US by Cornelius Swarthout of Troy, New York.

"Revolutionised a kitchen utensil that had been in use for centuries. His genius was to transform a long-handled contraption designed for use over an open flame into a stove-top version, making the iron both more practical to use and less likely to burn the waffles, or indeed the cook"