1785
_Description of an Instrument for Taking Down Books from High
Shelves_
January, 1786.
Old men find it inconvenient to mount a ladder or steps for
that purpose, their heads being sometimes subject to giddinesses, and
their activity, with the steadiness of their joints, being abated by
age; besides the trouble of removing the steps every time a book is
wanted from a different part of their library.
For a remedy, I have lately made the following simple machine,
which I call the _Long Arm._
_A B_, the _Arm_, is a stick of pine, an inch square and 8 feet
long. _C, D_, the _Thumb_ and _Finger_, are two pieces of ash lath,
an inch and half wide, and a quarter of an inch thick. These are
fixed by wood screws on opposite sides of the end _A_ of the arm _A
B_; the finger _D_ being longer and standing out an inch and half
farther than the thumb _C._ The outside of the ends of these laths
are pared off sloping and thin, that they may more easily enter
between books that stand together on a shelf. Two small holes are
bored through them at _i, k._ _E F_, the sinew, is a cord of the size
of a small goosequill, with a loop at one end.
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