There may come a time in a person's life where it is almost impossible to open a door; generally caused by the lack of a free hand. In one instance this may be the result of carrying, for example, groceries, clothes or other types of packages. In order to open the door, one would have to put whatever they were carrying down and pull the door open. In another instance, one may be cooking and working with a product that may cause cross contamination, such as raw chicken, or beef. When working with such food it is important to wash one's hands before touching other objects, such as the handle on a door of lets say a refrigerator or pantry. Prior art opening devices tend to be complex mechanical devices. One prior art foot operated device is used for opening a lid to a waste receptacle. There is a foot operated member that is depressed. A linkage is operated by the depression of the member. The linkage causes a lid to be raised for use.
A basic lever (from old French levier, the agent noun to lever “to raise”) is a rigid object that is used with an appropriate fulcrum or pivot point to multiply the mechanical force that can be applied to another object. This is also termed mechanical advantage, and is one example of the principle of moments. The principle of leverage can also be derived using Newton's laws of motion and modern statics. Levers have been around for centuries, from the ancient Egyptians, who used the levers to move and uplift obelisks weighing more than 100 tons, to the modern construction worker, who use levers for a variety of different tasks every day.
In normal operation the force applied (at end points of the lever) is proportional to the ratio of the length of the lever arm measured between the fulcrum and the application point of the force applied at each end of the lever. There are three types of levers, and all follow this same principle: First class levers, as in the present invention, which include, seesaw, crowbar, pliers, scissors, oar, wheel and axle, trebuchet; Second class levers, which include, wheelbarrow, and nutcracker; Third class levers, which include, human arm, tongs, catapult and fishing rod, hoe, rake, baseball bat, and broom.
USPTO Backgrounds
USPTO Backgrounds