The Shovel and Tongs: One Handle, a Sliding Arm, Two Tools

"The combination of the shaft A with the shovel B is made by means of the bolt e passing through the slot in the shaft and through the handle of the shovel, permitting the shaft to slide in and out of the handle from the point b to the point b b, with a spring, d, attached to the shovel-handle at the point n, and pressing upon the under side of the shaft, the whole covered and held in place and protected from the hand by the handle D, as shown in Fig. 1." "By means of the combination, as described, the shaft A can be moved outward by the hand pressing upon the elevated point G until the end a is brought on a line with the end of the shovel-blade g, when, from the position of the slotted end of the shaft on the bolt e, and the upward pressure of the spring d upon the under side, the shaft is thrown out, and the whole made to present the appearance of an open pair of tongs."

**Shovel.** Cut a blade 9 × 12 cm from mild steel sheet, turn up its sides a little, and rivet it to the end of a 45 cm length of 20 × 3 mm flat bar as the shovel's shank and handle. **Arm.** Bend 90 cm of 4 mm steel wire in half and silver-solder the two halves together at the far end, leaving them open near the fold as the slot. Bend a raised kink in it as the thumb-piece G, and flatten and turn down the far end as the jaw a. **Slide and spring.** Pass a bolt through the slot and the handle as e, with a washer and lock nut, so the arm slides. Rivet a strip of spring steel under the handle that presses up on the arm, as the spring d, and cover the handle and slot with two hardwood grips as the handle D. **Test.** Shovel cold ashes or sand. Then push the thumb-piece until the arm springs out, and lift sticks, charcoal lumps and sugar cubes between the jaw and the blade.

**George Washington Whelan** of Sun Prairie, Dane County, Wisconsin, filed US 189,978 on 21 October 1876; it is dated 24 April 1877. The shaft could be two metal wires joined and soldered, or one piece with a slot, and he listed iron, galvanized iron, steel, brass, copper and silver as materials. His claim is the slotted tong arm with its guard or thumb-piece, the shovel with its spring, and the handle with its bolt. **Honest limits.** Sheet, flat bar and wire stand in for his made-up parts. The notebook treats the grip as simple friction; its weights and friction coefficients are examples. Your shovelling and lifting are the result.