Sanitary, minimum contact handle
OwnerScott Macfarlaneinventor
Life of this patent
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Abstract
A door opener with a miniature handle sized for operating solely with a pinky minimizes the transfer of germs by reducing the area of the hand in contact with the door opener and limiting contact to a part of the hand less likely to transfer germs to the nose, eyes and mouth. A method for making current door openers more sanitary involves adding a handle sized for operating solely with a pinky. A stackable hand protector shaped like a pilgrim's or witch's hat with a broad rim prevents all contact with the miniature handle.
Claims21
A door opener comprising a first handle having sufficient length or girth for a substantial portion of at least two fingers to be in contact with it;
- and a second handle that only one finger at a time can be substantially in contact with.
A door handle comprising a support adapted for mounting to a door, and a first grip attached to the support and having a longitudinal axis roughly orthogonal to the direction of movement of the door to which it is mounted, a length of between about one-quarter inch and three-quarter inch, and a maximum transverse cross-sectional dimension of about three-quarter inch measured at least one-quarter inch away from the support.
A method of making sanitary door opener comprising the steps of:
- providing a manual door opener having a first handle large enough to be grasped by wrapping two or more fingers around it;
- attaching a first end of a second handle to the door opener such that a longitudinal axis of the second handle will be at an angle of between forty-five degrees below horizontal to ninety degrees above horizontal in a plane roughly perpendicular to the direction of the force to open the door and a second end of the second handle is a distance of between about 0.25 and 0.75 inch from the door opener;
- wherein the maximum cross-sectional dimension of the second handle measured about 0.25 inch from the door opener is between about 0.25 and 0.75 inch.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.