ALEXANDRIA, Va., June 9 -- United States Patent no. 12,284,946, issued on April 29.
"Resilient elastomeric single piece biasing connector for joining two lawn rakes" was invented by Stephen V Farland (Castle Pines, Colo.).
According to the abstract* released by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office: "The single piece connector is made from a tear resistant, and relatively high durometer elastomer, such as polyurethane. The connector has two adjacent bores separated by a common wall in which the shafts of two rakes can be firmly received. The connector's dimensions combined with the stiffness of the constituent material provide a significant restoritive biasing force when the rakes are pivoted relative to the connector that helps hold a load ...