The Sprung Carpet Beater: One Wire, a Hoop and a Coil

"My object is to produce such a whipping beater, so constructed as to be easy to operate, cheap and durable and of great utility". The hoop is made "by first bending a piece of wire centrally to form a loop, the wire thence being bent at a point adjacent to its ends to form a coil or eye". Its ends pass through holes in cross-pieces of the handle, which are "preferably of malleable iron and compressed to hold the ends of the wire loop after they have been inserted". "It will be observed that by forming the coil or eye -a- between the whipping hoop and handle an elasticity is produced between the hand of the operator and the object to be beaten, thereby relieving the hand from the unpleasant sensation which it would otherwise experience."

Bend two beaters from the same steel wire as in the program, one with the coils and one without. Wrap each handle with tape. Hang a rug or a heavy cloth over the line and beat it with each in turn, the same number of blows at the same strength; note which jolts your hand less. Then, with gloves on, drop a weight onto the kitchen scale through each beater's hoop held by the handle and watch the peak reading. Compare with the notebook's trend.

**Judson J. Hilton** of North East, Erie County, Pennsylvania, filed US 533,061 on 24 September 1894; it is dated 29 January 1895. His claim is the open metal handle with compressed cross-pieces gripping the single-wire loop. **Honest limits.** The notebook's model puts all of the hoop's energy into the neck spring; in a real blow much goes into the rug, and the hand and arm are springs too. Mass, speed and stiffnesses are examples. What your hand feels, and the scale's peak, are the measurement.