Um artigo sobre Never Too Curious afirma que o descascador de alho de silicone foi patenteado em 1998.
Do artigo:
However, I have a neat workaround in my kitchen, a silicone garlic peeler. It is essentially a rubbery tube that comfortably houses a clove of garlic – roll it back and forward on the counter a few times, and the garlic skin slides right off. Genius. The thing was patented in 1998, and the invention “aims to allow the skin to be removed from the individual garlic clove in a safe, speedy, hygienic and odour-free way using, if necessary, only one hand.” I peeled my 20+ cloves in mere minutes. Thank you genius person who invented it. In fact, I know exactly who that is.
The silicone garlic peeler was invented by Ben Omessi, a retired American architect who had taken to designing home items for people with disabilities. When he was recovering from a major operation in 1991, he found he was too weak to stand and peel the amounts of garlic his wife used for cooking. This lead to the idea that handicapped people would have trouble with this task, too. A few years later the E-Z-Rol garlic peeler was born.
Eu tenho que admitir que eu pensei que tinha sido por mais tempo.
Editar: por este artigo em The New York Times de fevereiro de 1996, o descascador de alho estava disponível para venda na época e tinha uma patente pendente.