The Weight-Closed Bootjack: Lean on Your Toes and the Jaws Close

"D, is a swinging platform which has its bearings in side pieces E, which are attached to the bottom about two thirds of its length from the front end of the same, and the platform D, rests on pivots c, so that it can be moved up and down freely." "The guide piece G, works into a mortise e′, in the bottom A, of the boot jack and it is obvious that by depressing this guide piece the back ends e, of the jaws are forced apart and consequently the jaws will close and by raising the guide piece the back ends are brought closer together and the jaws open."

**Bottom.** Saw a bottom 50 × 15 cm from plywood and screw a leg under its back end so it slopes. Cut a mortise 5 × 2 cm through it about 15 cm from the front. **Jaws.** Saw two jaws 20 × 3 cm from hardwood board and bolt each to the bottom's front end through its middle, so the front ends open and close round a heel and the back ends reach the mortise. **Platform.** Cut a platform 30 × 12 cm. Screw two side blocks to the bottom about two thirds of the way back and pivot the platform on a length of dowel through them. **Guide piece.** Cut a plywood tongue that hangs from the platform's front end down through the mortise. Cut two slots in it, sloping at 30° from vertical and apart at the bottom, and put a bolt through the back end of each jaw into its slot, so pressing the platform down spreads the back ends and closes the jaws. Put a light compression spring under the platform's front to lift it. **Test.** Stand one foot on the platform, heel back, and set the other boot's heel between the jaws. Lean onto the toes of the standing foot and check the jaws close; lean back and check they open. Time taking the boot off.

**Henry N. De Graw** of Green Island, Albany County, New York, received US 23,015, dated 22 February 1859. His jaws were pivoted to the bottom's front end with a cross brace, the back ends were twisted to match the inclined slots, and a spiral spring balanced the platform. He wrote that jacks with movable jaws were not new; his claim is the guide piece worked by the swinging platform. **Honest limits.** Plywood, hardwood, dowel and bolts stand in for his parts, and a compression spring for his spiral spring. The notebook ignores friction and the spring; its weights, lengths and angles are examples. Your trial is the result.