This application relates to gardening tools such as bulbers. In particular, this application relates to hand-held bulbers of the type used to dig holes in, for example, a flower or vegetable garden. The application relates most specifically to a hand-held bulber having a dirt release mechanism.
A bulber of the common form includes a handle, usually made of wood, steel, or hard plastic, either with or without a cushioned covering material, attached to a metal cylindrical body having a distal edge. The distal edge is typically crenellated or serrated to assist “cutting” into hard ground surfaces. With sufficient downward pressure and moderate back-and-forth rotational movement of the handle, the formed edge facilitates digging. Once a sufficient depth is reached, the digging motion is reversed to extract a core of dirt within the cylindrical body. Before a subsequent hole can be dug the dirt core must be removed from the bulber.
One option is to remove the dirt by hand, attempting to push the packed earth out either end of the cylindrical body. This is an undesirable solution because people working with or without gloves may not want to dirty the gloves or their hands. Also, the steel edges of the bulber may be sharp enough to cause injury if impacted by a bare hand. Another solution has been to provide an expandable cylindrical body at the distal end. While this has been accomplished in several ways, the common element seems to be to use a two-piece handle where one piece telescopes into the other and can be compressed together to thereby force out the distal end of the bulber. Initially, this compression may be done by the fingers of one hand. However, due to the structural rigidity required of the cylindrical body, repeatedly compressing the handle may require considerably more strength than is capable by a single hand of the user.
The present invention is unique in that it addresses each of these, as well as other problems found in the prior art. By providing a bulber which is suitably rigid along the metal body to support digging, but which also provides a suitable mechanism to repeatedly and reliably release dirt from the body, the present invention solves these problems.
There is disclosed herein an improved handheld bulber which avoids the disadvantages of prior bulbers while affording additional structural and operating advantages.
In an embodiment there is provided a bulber comprising a substantially rigid inverted-conical frustum body having opposing side members, a handle attached at one end to each side member, and a release mechanism movably attached to each of the side members, wherein moving the release mechanism from a first position to a second position thereby pivots the side members outward at an opposite end.
In one aspect of the bulber the release mechanism is preferably attached to a recessed surface on each side member. The recessed surfaces are preferably sloped outward in a direction toward the handle. The release mechanism are preferably attached within slotted openings in each side member. However, an area of the side members proximate each slotted opening may be sloped outward in a direction toward the handle.
Another aspect of an embodiment of the bulber is the use of a biasing member for automatically returning the release mechanism to a first position after freeing the release mechanism with the discharge of a earth plug. The biasing member is preferably housed in the handle.
In another embodiment there is provided handheld gardening tool for creating holes in the earth comprising two side members meeting along side edges to form an inverted-conical frustum body having a first end and a second end, wherein the side members are pivotably connected to one another at two pivot points located at the side edges between the first and second ends, a handle attached to each side member at the first end of the conical body, and a movable release mechanism coupled to each side member between the handle and the pivot points within slotted openings located on each side and perpendicular to a longitudinal axis of the handle, wherein the second end is configured to facilitate digging and movement of the release mechanism toward the handle pivots the side members apart at the second end of the conical body from the pivot points.
For the purpose of facilitating an understanding of the subject matter sought to be protected, there are illustrated in the accompanying drawings embodiments thereof, from an inspection of which, when considered in connection with the following description, the subject matter sought to be protected, its construction and operation, and many of its advantages should be readily understood and appreciated.
While this invention is susceptible of embodiments in many different forms, there is shown in the drawings and will herein be described in detail a preferred embodiment of the invention with the understanding that the present disclosure is to be considered as an exemplification of the principles of the invention and is not intended to limit the broad aspect of the invention to the embodiment illustrated.
Referring generally to
Referring specifically now to
As shown in
As shown in the referenced figures, the second end 27 of each member 13, 14 is preferably comprised of a serrated or toothed edge to improve digging. Such toothed edge can be of any suitable shape, including crenellated, pointed, scalloped, or the like. Further, at least one of the members includes graduated markings, e.g., (in inches) 2, 3, 4, etc., on an outer surface of the middle section 28 to indicate to the user the approximate hole depth.
Referring to
The connection of the handle supports 17 to the handle 15 is shown more clearly in
The two handle supports 17 are slidably connected together within the handle 15, as shown in
In a preferred embodiment, the handle 15, and particularly the core 35, is comprised of a relatively hard material, such as a rigid polymer, wood, or metal, with at least a portion of the outer surface of the handle over-molded with a soft material, such as SANTOPRENE™ or similar material. Similarly, as illustrated in
Referring to
The dirt release mechanism 16 of the present bulber 10 is a collection of components, including the release handle 24, the handle biasing member 31, the body pivot point 18, the recesses 21 of the handle supports 17, and slide members 23, as shown in the many drawing figures. Operation of the mechanism 16 is uncomplicated. For example, the slide members 23, located within each recess 21, secure the release handle 24 to the sidewall members 13, 14, as illustrated in
With reference to
Upon reaching the desired depth, the user retracts the bulber 10 from the ground, removing the dirt now entrapped in the bulber body 12 from the resulting hole. Once a plant bulb is placed into the hole, as shown in
The matter set forth in the foregoing description and accompanying drawings is offered by way of illustration only and not as a limitation. While particular embodiments have been shown and described, it will be apparent to those skilled in the art that changes and modifications may be made without departing from the broader aspects of applicants' contribution. The actual scope of the protection sought is intended to be defined in the following claims when viewed in their proper perspective based on the prior art.
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