Who patented an edible ice-cream cup in the United States in 1903?

Italo Marchiony patented an edible ice-cream cup in the United States in 1903.

Marchiony was an Italian immigrant and ice-cream vendor in New York City. His patent described a mold and method for making a waffle-like edible container that could hold ice cream, helping replace fragile glass serving dishes.

The patent concerned a cup rather than the later cone-shaped wafer most people associate with ice cream. Histories of the cone include several competing origin stories, including claims involving the 1904 Louisiana Purchase Exposition in St. Louis.

Ernest Hamwi is often linked to a popular story in which a waffle vendor helped an ice-cream seller at that exposition, but the evidence for a single inventor is disputed. Marchiony’s 1903 patent is therefore a more specific and documented milestone than the broad claim that one person invented every form of ice-cream cone.