While I was investigating – and debunking – the claim that jews were responsible for inventing the doughnut I came across of what I believe was the source of that claim which was the claim that a jew named that Adolph Levitt – born Adolph Yudalevich – invented the doughnut making machine which often confused with - and became - the false claim that he invented the doughnut which is simply nonsense. (1)
When I further looked into the claim that Levitt created the doughnut making machine I also quickly discovered that while it was widely claimed the source material for the claim was almost entirely non-existent and largely non-specific.
A good example is provided by the ‘Lower Manhattan Historical Association’ – who really should have known better and checked the basic claim – who write:
‘1920 - Russian-born Adolph Levitt created the first doughnut machine in New York City. Being impressed by the troops’ fondness for the doughnut, Levitt wanted to ramp up production of doughnuts at his Harlem Bakery. As he did, he quickly found that his dislike of frying was beginning to hamper his desire to boost production. This dislike led him to design and market the first doughnut machine. He called the machine the Wonderful Almost Human Automatic Doughnut Machine. The machine would form and plop perfectly shaped rings of dough into a vat of oil, turn them at a time interval, then pushed them out when done. This machine ultimately led Levitt to create the Doughnut Corporation of America, where he could flood the market with his machine. Later additions to the machine would allow the machine to send the doughnuts down a belt to be coated in glaze, sugar or other types of coverings.’ (2)
The source for much of these claims appear to either be folk-wisdom or Sally Levitt Steinberg’s 2004 ‘The Donut Book’ – Levitt Sternberg is the granddaughter of Adolph Levitt – but a bit of research completely debunks this.
Since for example in early 1920 I found an earlier successful patent in the form of William Schaller’s 20th April 1920 patent application US1391212A for a ‘Doughnut forming and cooking machine’ (aka a doughnut making machine) which predates Levitt’s creation. (3)
Further as Heather Hunwick Delancey points out; patents for automated doughnut making machines started appearing as early as 1907 long before Levitt’s patent for his doughnut making machine in 1920 was ever thought of let alone actually registered! (4)
One example of this is Thoursten Eric Ericson’s ‘Doughnut Dipper’ patent US979388A that was registered on 13th December 1909 (5) which gives you some indication of just how silly the myth is that Adolph Levitt ‘created’ the first doughnut making machine.
The truth is that he merely invented the first known commercially successful doughnut making machine which is not the same thing, while the original creators of doughnut making machines were simply not successful.
References
(1) See my article: https://karlradl14.substack.com/p/jewish-invention-myths-the-doughnut
(2) https://www.historiclowermanhattan.org/innovations/wonderful-almost-human-automatic-doughnut-machine-is-invented
(3) https://patents.google.com/patent/US1391212A
(4) Heather Delancey Hunwick, 2015, ‘Doughnut: A Global History’, 1st Edition, Reaktion Books: London, p. 74
https://patents.google.com/patent/US979388