US736798A - Fire-shovel. - Google Patents

Description

PATBNTED AUG. 18, 1903.

H. G. STIEFEL.

FIRE SHOVEL.

APPLICATION FILED MAY 9, 1902.

N0 MODEL.

UNITED STATES Patented August 18, 1903.

HENRY O. STIEFEL, OF PITTSBURG, PENNSYLVANIA.

FlRE-SHOVEL.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 736,798, dated August 18, 1903. Application filed'May 9, 1902; Serial No. 106,504. (No motleld To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, HENRY O. Srrnrnn, a citizen of the United States of America, residing at Pittsburg, in the county of Allegheny and State of Pennsylvania, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Fire- Shovels, of which the following is a specification, reference being had therein to the accompanying drawings.

This invention relates to certain new and useful improvements in shovels, particularly that class which are adapted for household use and applicable for use in one hand.

The invention has for its object to construct a shovel of this character with means to strengthen the shovel, and particularly at those points where the same is weakest, and also to construct the shovel in such a manner that the same may be more easily inserted under coal, ashes, or the like, or, in other words, be employed with less resistance being oifered than is possible with the ordinary shovel of this nature.

My invention may also be designated and described as an attachment to shovels, inasmuch as the strengthening means may be attached to the ordinary shovels and the latter may be altertered in construction so as to conform to my improvements in the body of the shovel proper.

In describing the invention in detail reference will be had to the accompanying drawings, forming a part of this specification, and wherein like numerals of reference will indicate like parts throughout both views, in which- Figure 1 is a detail perspective view of a shovel constructed in accordance with my invention, and Fig. 2 is a plan view thereof.

Shovels of this character, sometimes designated in the trade as small hand-shovels, are ordinarily stamped from a single piece of suitable metal and embody the shovel-body 1, with the integral handle 2 and curved side walls 3. In accordance with my invention I construct the end l of the shovel-body at an angle approximately fifteen degrees in the present illustration, the corner 5 thus projecting some distance beyond the corner 6 of the said shovel-body. By reason of the shovel having its forward end out diagonally at an angle the point or corner 5 will readily push its way .into and through the coal, ashes, or the like on which it is being used and oifering much less resistance than is the case where the shovel is cut across the end in a straight line-that is, on a line that is at a direct right angle to each side edge of the shovelas in the usual construction.

In the manufacture of metal shovels of this character it is well known that the strain on the handle is principally at the point where it joins the shovel-body or in the bond 7 in the handle, which is made in order that the handle will lie in a plane above the shovelbody. One of the objects of my invention is to strengthen this point in the shovel and also to strengthen the shovel-body throughout. To this end I employ a metallic strengthening device, which may consist of a single piece of wire 8, as shown in Fig. 1, or a flat metal strip 9, as shown in Fig. 2. In either construction the strip, whether of wire or flat metal,is doubled, so as to form the two strands 10, which are securely riveted to the handle on'the bend 7 of the latter, and the two legs or arms of the wire or strip are securely riveted to the body of the shovel on the face thereof, one leg or arm lying adjacent to'each side wall of the shovel-body. The wire or strip has its ends flattened down, as at 11, so as to offer little or no resistance as the shovel is being used, and these flattened portions 11 serve to permit the secure riveting of the arms or legs at their ends. By this construction it will be observed that a frame is practically provided which is rigidly secured to the shovel body and materially serves to strengthen the same, while the extending portion of this strengthening-frame imparts the necessary and desired strength to the handle at the point where the same is required.

The strengthening frame, it will be observed, can be attached to the ordinary stamped-metal shovel, and such shovel could also be altered as to conform tomy invention entire by cutting the end of the same at an angle, as shown in the illustration of my-invention. The strengthening-frame is riveted at such points as may be found desirable or necessary in order to securely fasten the same to the shovel-body and to the handle in the manner shown.

Having fully described my invention, what I claim as new, and desire to secure by Letters Patent, is-

1. In shovels, ashovel-body, and a strengthening-frame formed of a single piece of material riveted to the face of the shovel-body adjacent to the side walls, and doubled upon itself and riveted to the handle, substantially as described.

2. In shovels, the combination with the shovel-body, of a wire strengthening-frame riveted to the upper face of the shovel-body adjacent to the side walls and extended onto the handle and riveted thereto, substantially as described.

3. In shovels, a shovel-body, and a strengthening-frame comprising a single strip of material shaped to form two parallel arms secured to the shovel-body adjacent the sides thereof and engaging said body throughout their length, substantially as described.

4. In shovels, a shovel-body, and a strengthening-frame comprising two parallel arms engaging the upper face of the shovel body throughout their length and secured thereto, said arms having flattened forward ends, a part of said frame extending onto the handle and riveted thereto, substantially as described.

5. As a new article of manufacture, a fireshovel comprising a shovel body and handle made from one piece of material, the shovelbody having its forward end cut at an angle extending in a straight line from one side edge to the other side edge of the body, the said forward end of the shovel being acute to one side edge and obtuse to the other side edge whereby the forward end of one side of the shovel-body lies in a transverse plane beyond the forward end of the other side.

6. As a new article of manufacture, a fireshovel comprising a shovel-body having its forward end out at an angle extending in a straight line from one side edge to the other side edge of the said body, the said forward end of the shovel being acute throughout the width of the shovel-body to one side of said body and obtuse throughout the width of the body to the other side of said body whereby the forward end of one side of the shovelbody lies in a transverse plane beyond the forward end of the other side.

In testimony whereof I affix my signature in the presence of two witnesses.

HENRY C. STIEFEL.

Witnesses:

JOHN NOLAND, E. E. POTTER.

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