ALEXANDRIA, Va., Dec. 9 -- United States Patent no. 12,492,776, issued on Dec. 9, was assigned to RODDIE Inc. (Columbia Fall, Mont.).
"Apparatus for lateral cable pulling and pipe replacement" was invented by Rod Herrick (Whitefish, Mont.) and Jared W Shappell (Kalispell, Mont.).
According to the abstract* released by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office: "A compact, open path cable pulling apparatus, having a low center of gravity, composed of two detachable, single person hand-portable components, and useful in either a vertical or horizontal configuration. The apparatus is competent to pull cable horizontally through space underground with a pulling force in the range of at least about 20 to 100 tons using low pressure flow hydraulics an...