A nutcracker is a mechanical device for cracking nuts. Usually they work on the principle of moments as described in Archimedes' analysis of the lever. The earliest use of the term nutcracker in English dates to 1481.
Manufacturers produce modern nutcrackers — designed solely to crack nuts — usually somewhat resembling pliers, but with the pivot point at the end beyond the nut, rather than in the middle. These are also used for cracking the shells of crab and lobster to make the meat inside available for eating.
Parrots use their beaks as natural nutcrackers, in much the same way smaller birds crack seeds. In this case, the pivot point stands opposite the nut, at the jaw.
Nutcrackers in the form of wooden carvings of a soldier, knight, king, or other profession have existed since at least the 15th century. These nutcrackers portray a person with a large mouth which the operator opens by lifting a lever in the back of the figurine. Originally one could insert a nut in the big-toothed mouth, press down and thereby crack the nut. Modern nutcrackers in this style serve mostly for decoration, mainly at Christmas time. The ballet The Nutcracker derives its name from this festive holiday decoration.
The carving of nutcrackers—as well as of religious figures and of cribs—developed as a cottage industry in forested rural areas of Germany. The most famous nutcracker carvings come from Sonneberg in Thuringia (also a center of dollmaking) and from the Ore Mountains. Wood-carving usually provided the only income for the people living there. Today the travel industry supplements their income by bringing visitors to the remote areas.
Steinbach Nutcrackers have become popular in the United States as well, and the recreated "Bavarian village" of Leavenworth, Washington, even features a nutcracker museum. Many other materials also serve to make decorated nutcrackers, such as porcelain, silver, and brass; the museum displays samples.
Carvings by famous names like Junghanel, Klaus Mertens, Karl, Olaf Kolbe, Petersen, Christian Ulbricht and especially the Steinbach nutcrackers have become collectors' items.
The United States Postal Service (USPS) in October 2008 issued four stamps with Nutcrackers for the first time. These featured custom-made Nutcrackers made by Richmond, Virginia, artist Glenn Crider.
[[Media:Example.oggbrett favre]]== External links ==
NUTCRACKER, the name given by G. Edwards in 1758 (Gleanings, No. 240) to a bird which had hitherto borne no English appellation, though described in 1544 by Turner, who, meeting with it in the Rhaetic Alps, where it was called "Nousbrecher" (hodie " Nussbrecher"), translated that term into Latin as Nucifraga. In 5555 C. Gesner figured it and conferred upon it another designation, Caryocatactes. It is the Corvus caryocatactes of Linnaeus and the Nucifraga caryocatactes of modern ornithology. F. Willughby and J. Ray obtained it on the road from Vienna to Venice as they crossed what must have been the SOmmerring Pass, 26th September 5663. The first known to have occurred in Britain was, according to T. Pennant, shot at Mostyn in Flintshire, 5th October 1753, and about fifteen more examples have since been procured, and others seen, in the island. Contrary to what was for many years believed, the nest of the Nutcracker seems to be invariably built on the bough of a tree, some 20 ft. from the ground, and is a comparatively large structure of sticks, lined with grass. The eggs are of a very pale bluish-green, sometimes nearly spotless, but usually more or less freckled with pale olive or ash-colour. The chief food of the Nutcracker appears to be the seeds of various conifers, which it extracts as it holds the cones in its foot, and it has been questioned whether the bird has the faculty of cracking nuts - properly so called - with its bill, though that can be used with much force and, at least in confinement, with no little ingenuity. The old supposition that the Nutcrackers had any affinity to the Woodpeckers (Picidae) or were intermediate in position between them and the Crows (Corvidae) is now known to be wholly erroneous, for they undoubtedly belong to the latter family (see also CROW). (A. N.)
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   | Information about Nutcrackers - Christmas Nutcracker buying, Information about Types and History |
| | ''Nutcracker Auditions'' - Moscow Ballet Audition Dates |
| | ''The Nutcracker Ballet'' - Moscow Ballet » The Moscow Ballet's Great Russian Nutcracker |
| | Traditional German nutcrackers hand made in the Erzgegirge region - Steinbach - Authentic German Gifts - Steinbach Nutcrackers |
| | The Frame Workshop, Appleton, Wisconsin - Christian Ulbricht, Steinbach, Richard Glässer & Straco - Nutcrackers from Germany |
| | "The Art & Character of Nutcrackers" - The Art & Character of Nutcrackers - Book by Arlene Wagner |
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