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The Strap-Socket Shovel: Let the Blade Carry the Handle
A shovel's handle joint takes the whole weight of every load, levered out at the length of the blade. Rivets alone loosen and the handle works free.
Harrison Brand of Ilion, New York, assignor of one-half to Albert M. Ross, received US 397,964, dated 19 February 1889 (filed 12 December 1888), for a shovel whose blade is slit and swaged into a rib and loop that seat the handle, so that "the entire strain brought on the handle in using the shovel is supported by the metal of the blade itself".
This rung works out the load a shovelful puts on the joint, then weighs shovelfuls of soil and fits a handle into a strap socket.
Intermediate
About 3 hours
Instructions
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A shovelful and the load on the joint
A shovelful and the load on the joint
Loading Jupyter Notebook...
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An earlier digging tool on one handle
An earlier digging tool on one handle
The embedded blueprint combines a fork, a pick and a spade on one handle in 1872. Brand looks at how the blade holds its handle.
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Read US 397,964
Read US 397,964
"The object of my present invention is to so improve the construction to render the shovel strong and at the same time cheapen its manufacture."
"When the handle is inserted, it will be seen that while its lower portion laps under the blade A in the groove the loop D passes around the under side of the handle at the extreme upper edge of the blade, and that thus the entire strain brought on the handle in using the shovel is supported by the metal of the blade itself, it only being necessary to secure the handle against being pulled out."
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Weigh shovelfuls and fit a strap socket
Weigh shovelfuls and fit a strap socket
Fill a bucket with loose soil, weigh it, and count how many level shovelfuls empty it. Work out the mass per shovelful and compare with the notebook.
On a small scale, cut a blade from steel sheet with a tab at the top. Slit the tab and bend the strip outward over a dowel into a loop. Shape the end of a hardwood handle to lie in the recess under it and pass through the loop. Fix it with one rivet. Load the blade and see where it bends or loosens.
Materials for this step:
Steel Sheet1 piece
Hardwood Handle Stock1 piece
Pop Rivets2 pieces
Garden Soil1 pieceTools needed:
Shovel
Tin Snips
Bench Vise
Hammer
Rivet Set
Cordless Drill
Digital Kitchen Scale
Bucket5
5
A shovel that works loose, bends or splits its handle
A shovel that works loose, bends or splits its handle
Shovel handle troubleshooting.
Flow
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History and honest limits
History and honest limits
**Harrison Brand** of Ilion, Herkimer County, New York, assignor of one-half to Albert M. Ross, filed US 397,964 on 12 December 1888; it is dated 19 February 1889. His T-shaped rivet has a long head bent down on both sides of the handle to stop it splitting.
**Honest limits.** The notebook takes the load at one point and the two-rivet comparison as a simple couple. Real soil heaps unevenly and shovels are thrust as well as lifted. The sizes and densities are examples. Your weighed shovelfuls are the measurement.
Materials
4- 1 piecePlaceholder
- 1 piecePlaceholder
- 2 piecesPlaceholder
- 1 piecePlaceholder
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