IMPROVEMENTS IN THE HANDLES OF SPADES AND SHOVELS DRAINING TOOLS AND AGRICULTURAL FORKS
Year: 1884

page_text: I DAVID YARDLEY of Stamber Mills Stourbridge in the County of Worcester
Manufacturer do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for
"IMPROVEMENTS IN THE HANDLES OF SPADES AND SHOVELS DRAINING TOOLS
AND AGRICULTURAL FORKS" to be as follows:-
My invention has for its object to strengthen the wooden handles of socket and
langet spades and shovels draining tools and agricultural forks and thereby to
prevent the breaking of the handles when great strain is put upon them the
fracture of the handle generally taking place in the case of socket spades and like
articles at or immediately above the top of the metal socket.
I will describe my invention as applied to the handle of a socket spade or
shovel.
The ordinary wooden handle consists of a cylinder of wood having a tapering or
socket part at its lower end and a cross piece or head at its upper end.
In making a handle according to my invention I divide by sawing the greater
part of the wooden handle by a longitudinal slit or division into two halves or
parts the said slit being situated in a plane at right angles to the plane in which
the blade of the spade or shovel is situated. The longitudinal slit or division in
the handle may either extend from the bottom of the tapering part which enters
the socket to about eight inches above the said tapering part or may extend to a
short distance below the cross piece or head of the handle but I do not limit
myself to the length of the divided or branched part of the handle. I insert in or
fill up the space between the branches or divided parts of the handle by a
strengthening strap or plate of wrought iron or steel having a breadth equal to the
diameter of the handle and of such a thickness that it fills up the space or slit in
the handle. This strengthening strap or plate is fixed in its place by cross rivets
and washers above the tapering or socket part of the handle.
A compound handle is thus constructed having a middle strap or plate of metal
running through the greater part of its length whereby the said handle is much
strengthened and the liability to the fracture of the handle is done away with
The compound handle is connected to the socket by rivets as usual the said rivets
being passed through the middle of the strengthening strap or plate in the tapering
part of the handle.

page_text: In applying my invention to the handles of langet spades and shovels I make
in the handle two parallel slits or divisions at a short distance apart into which
slits strengthening straps or plates are inserted the cross rivets by which the
langets are fastened to the handle being passed through the wood of the handle
situated between the two strengthening straps or plates.
The double arrangement of the strengthening straps or plates described with
respect to the handles of langet spades and shovels may also be applied to the
handles of socket spades and shovels.
I apply, my invention to the handles of draining tools (which said tools are
particular kinds of spades) and agricultural forks in the manner herein before
described with respect to the handles of spades and shovels..

page_text: I DAVID YARDLEY of Stamber Mills, Stourbridge in the County of Worcester
Manufacturer, do hereby declare the nature of my Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS
IN THE HANDLES OF SPADES AND SHOVELS DRAINING TOOLS AND AGRICULTURAL
FORKS and in what manner the same is to be performed to be particularly
described and ascertained in and by the following statement :-
"
My invention has for its object to strengthen the wooden handles of socket and
langet spades, and shovels, draining tools and agricultural forks and thereby to
prevent the breaking of the handles when great strain is put upon them, the
fracture of the handle generally taking place in the case of socket spades and like
articles at or immediately above the top of the metal socket.
.I will describe my invention as applied to the handle of a socket spade or
shovel.
The ordinary wooden handle consists of a cylinder of wood having a tapering or
socket part at its lower end and a cross piece or head at its upper end.
In making a handle according to my invention I divide, by sawing, the greater
part of the wooden handle by a longitudinal slit or division into two halves or
parts, the said slit being situated in a plane at right angles to the plane in which
the blade of the spade or shovel is situated.
The longitudinal slit or division in the handle may either extend from the
bottom of the tapering part which enters the socket to about eight inches above
the said tapering part or may extend to a short distance below the cross piece or
head of the handle but I do not limit myself to the length of the divided or
branched part of the handle. I insert in or fill up the space between the branches
or divided parts of the handle by a strengthening strap or plate of wrought iron or
steel having a breadth equal to the diameter of the handle and of such a thickness
that it fills up the space or slit in the handle. This strengthening strap or plate is
fixed in its place by cross rivets and washers above the tapering or socket part of
the handle.
A compound handle is thus constructed having a middle strap or plate of metal
running through the greater part of its length, whereby the said handle is much
strengthened and the liability to the fracture of the handle is done away with.
The compound handle is connected to the socket by rivets as usual, the said rivets
being passed through the middle of the strengthening strap or plate in the tapering
part of the handle.
In applying my invention to the handles of langet spades and shovels I make in
the handle two parallel slits or divisions at a short distance apart into which slits
strengthening straps or plates are inserted the cross rivets by which the langets are
fastened to the handle being passed through the wood of the handle situated
between the two strengthening straps or plates.
The double arrangement of the strengthening straps or plates described with
respect to the handles of langet spades and shovels may also be applied to the
handles of socket spades and shovels.
Figure 1 of the accompanying Drawings represents in front elevation partly in
longitudinal section and Figure 2 in cross section, a socket spade or shovel provided

page_text: 1
with a handle constructed according to my invention; Figures 3 and 4 represent
other handles of the same construction in which the strengthening strap or plate is
longer than in the handle Figures 1 and 2.
a is the wooden handle; b the blade of the spade or shovel and c the socket on
the said blade into which socket the tapering part or lower end a³ of the wooden
handle a is inserted and fixed; d is the strengthening strap or plate of wrought
iron or steel inserted in and filling up the space between the branches or divided
parts of the handle a, a². The said strengthening strap or plate d is situated at
right angles to the plane of the blade b of the spade or shovel and the said strap or
plate has a breadth equal to the diameter of the handle, that is, it passes from one
side to the opposite side of the handle as seen in the cross section Figure 2. The
strengthening strap or plate d is fixed in its place in the handle Figures 1 and 2 by
.the cross rivet and washers at e in addition to the cross rivet e² by which the
handle is fixed.in the socket c. When the strengthening strap or plate d has the
length represented in Figure 3, two rivets and washers ff are employed and when
the strengthening strap or plate d has the length represented in Figure 4, three
rivets and washers.g, g, g are used above the tapering or socket part a² of the
handle as represented.
Figure represents a handle for a socket spade or shovel in which two
strengthening straps or plates d, d are employed. In this case, two parallel
longitudinal slits or divisions at a short distance apart are made in the handle into
which slits, the two strengthening straps or plates d, d are inserted and fixed by
the cross rivet and washers at h.
"
· Figure 6 represents a handle for a langet spade or shovel in which the
double arrangement of the strengthening straps or plates is employed the said
strengthening straps or plates being marked d, d and the fixing cross rivets and
washers i, i.
When the double arrangement of the strengthening straps or plates is employed
the rivet or rivets by which the handle is fixed to the socket or to the langets of
the spade or shovel, is or are passed through the wood of the handle situated
between the two strengthening straps or plates d, d. The single middle
strengthening strap or plate as described and illustrated with respect to the
handles of socket spades or shovels may be applied to the handles of langet spades
'or shovels.
I apply my invention to the handles of draining tools (which said tools are
particular kinds of spades) and agricultural forks in the manner herein before
described and illustrated with respect to the handles of spades and shovels.
Having now particularly described and ascertained the nature of my said
invention and in what manner the same is to be performed I declare that what
I claim-is
Strengthening the wooden handles of socket and langet spades and shovels,
draining tools and agricultural forks by means of a middle strap or plate of
wrought iron or steel or by means of two straps or plates of wrought iron or steel
inserted in and filling up a longitudinal slit or two parallel longitudinal slits in the
handle the said strengthening strap or straps being situated in a plane or in planes
at right angles to the blade of the spade or shovel, draining tool or agricultural
fork substantially as herein before described and illustrated in the accompanying
Drawings.