Lockable kitchen tong
AssigneeBrowne & Co.
InventorHelen Kerr
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
The invention provides tongs for manually grasping items having two elongate tong members pivotally joined together with a hinge pin. The tong members pivot between an open position and a closed position, each member having a forward grasping end, a hinged portion adjacent and projecting rearward of the hinge pin, and an inner channel extending forwardly and rearwardly from the hinge pin. A novel bow spring has two arms each sliding in the channels between a forward position engaging the channels forward of the hinge pin, and a rearward position engaging the channels in the hinged portion adjacent the hinge pin. The spring resiliently biases the tong members to the open position when the bow spring is in the forward position, and retains the tong members in the closed position when the bow spring is in the rearward position.
Claims9
Tongs for manually grasping items, comprising:
- two elongate tong members pivotally joined together with a hinge pin, the tong members pivoting between an open position and a closed position, each tong member having a forward portion;
- a hinged portion adjacent and projecting rearward of the hinge pin;
- and an inner channel extending forwardly and rearwardly from the hinge pin;
- and
- a bow spring having two arms each slidably disposed in one said channel between a forward position engaging the channels of the tong members forward of the hinge pin, and a rearward position engaging the channels in the hinged portion adjacent the hinge pin, the spring resiliently retaining the tong members in the open position when the bow spring is in the forward position, and biasing the tong members to the closed position when the bow spring is in the rearward position.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.