[1] Cones, in the form of wafers rolled and baked hard, date back to Ancient Rome and Greece.

Antonio Valvona, from Manchester, patented a novel apparatus resembling a cup-shaped waffle iron, made "for baking biscuit-cups for ice-cream" over a gas range.

[11] The following year, Italo Marchiony, from New York City, patented an improved design with a break-apart bottom so that more unusual cup shapes could be created out of the delicate waffle batter.

One night, he bought a waffle from another vendor, Leonidas Kestekidès, who was transplanted from Ghent in Belgium to Norfolk.

[18][10] By 1912, an inventor by the name of Frederick Bruckman, from Portland, Oregon, perfected a complex machine for molding, baking, and trimming ice cream cones with incredible speed.

Initial sales were poor, but in 1976 Unilever bought out Spica and began a mass-marketing campaign throughout Europe.

[23] In 1979, a patent for a new packaging design by David Weinstein led to easier transportation of commercial ice cream cones.

Weinstein's design enabled the ice cream cone to be wrapped in a wax paper package.