shovel
A shovel ( ahd. Scuvala ; mhd. Schuvel ), colloquially in northern and central Germany also Schippe or Schüppe , in the Rhineland also Schöppe , is a tool for picking up and removing loose material (e.g. earth , sand or bulk material ).
history
The forerunners of the shovels are the grave sticks , which have been known since the Neolithic . At first these were simple sticks, but depending on the purpose, they also had a carved leaf or shoulders. With the advent of metals, initially only the cut edges of the blade were reinforced with metal, until finally, with increasing popularity, especially of iron, the blades were made entirely of iron. Shovels with an iron-reinforced wooden blade were still used in peat cutting until the 20th century.
Basic design and performance of the hand tool
The shovel is primarily used to pick up and transport the material, whereas the spade is better suited to loosening solid materials. The possible uses and design differences between these two basic designs are fluid, for example a digging shovel can also be used for digging. The use of the respective specialized device is cheaper in terms of work. The shovel can also be used for leveling.
Blades have a more or less concave in longitudinal and transverse direction, that is upwardly drawn, sheet (Einstechkante) with edges of the side and / or at the trailing edge as well as a differently shaped depending on the type leading edge.
As hand tools, they have a manufactured mostly wooden stick as a handle. This is usually man-length, but there are also shorter versions. The handles are often slightly curved for ergonomic reasons. Some shovel handles also have a D-shaped handle at the upper end (spade handle) .
A worker can shovel around three to four cubic meters of earth with a shovel in one hour, around one to two meters high and wide. In the case of very light material such as peat, the performance can be approximately twice as high when using a particularly large shovel such as a Halle edge shovel.
Types of execution of the shovel hand tool
- Shovels with a larger blade are used to pick up and move relatively loose material (e.g. sand):
- The Holsteiner shovel with a straight front edge is well suited for shoveling earth and other material masses.
- The Holländer Schaufel is similar to the Holsteiner Schaufel, but has an arched front edge for digging free moats.
- The Emsländer Schaufel , like the Holländer Schaufel, also has a curved but sharpened front edge, and its blade is additionally reinforced by flanging on the sides.
- The Frankfurter Schaufel has a pointed, rounded heart-shaped blade for digging up stony soils
- Smaller shovels with curved shovel blades are used for moving heavy soil ( loam , clay , etc.):
- Bavarian shovel with a pointed, only slightly curved blade for easier penetration into heavier, stony soils.
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Shovels are specially designed for powerful use to loosen harder soil and are similar to a spade: They have a straight, usually reinforced rear edge for using the foot to "step on":
- Ansbacher shovel with a pointed, pentagonal and very flat blade without a side edge.
- The spade shovel, also known as the grave shovel , was imported from America, which is why it is also called the American spade shovel in this country . In America the shovel is called the Round Point Shovel . The narrow, tapering shovel blade is ideal for digging holes or trenches. One advantage is that you can move the loose earth out of a pit with the same tool and you don't have to change the tool like z. B. with a spade. The spade shovel is enjoying increasing popularity in Germany.
- To move light bulk material such as grain or light loose material such as peat or snow, very hollow shovel blades are used:
- The Worfschaufel was a fork-like shovel with which the threshed grain was thrown up against the wind and thereby cleaned of the chaff.
- A Halle edge shovel has a very large, rectangular and flat blade with a rim. This shovel is mostly made of light metal, but partly with a steel insert edge, and is particularly suitable for picking up and moving grain.
- A dustpan , garbage shovel or dung shovel , often made of plastic or metal , is used together with a hand brush .
- A snow shovel is a special, wide shovel that is used to clear snow.
- The avalanche shovel serves the same purpose, mostly with a pointed, sometimes even serrated front edge for use in compacted avalanche snow, but particularly light and handy and often with a foldable handle.
- Planting shovels or plant trowels are small, one-handed shovels with a long, lanceolate and very elongated blade for setting or digging up smaller plants.
- Sand play shovels for children, small shovels, often made of plastic and colorful, for playing in the sandpit or on the beach
- The perforated shovel is used to dig holes in the ground .
- Shaped similar to the Holsteiner shovel, but made up of (estimated) 9 to 10 tines, the ballast fork is used to shovel coarse railway track ballast . Only the flexible tines allow penetration into the gravel material, which interlocks with one another, unwanted fine grain can be sieved out by light shoveling.
- The salt shovel was used in salt production.
Emsland sand shovel, large on the left, smaller on the right and heavily worn
Coal shovel for operating a coal heating system in a residential building (Germany, around 1950)
Dustpan to a hand brush
Setting shovel
Mechanization of the shovel and shovel work
- The working tools (e.g. backhoe bucket) of an excavator for picking up and moving earth, sand or the like are also referred to as shovels, they are designed and have more stable according to the much larger design and the higher load, for example when digging in rocky soil often over teeth made of hardened steel on the scraper for better penetration into compacted material.
- Buckets are also available as attachments for front loaders .
- When it comes to the snow plow , however, one does not speak of a shovel, but of a shield - it is used for pushing and lateral displacement, the throwing function of the shovel is performed by the snow blower .
Individual evidence
- ^ A b Ulrich Sachweh (ed.): The gardener, Volume 1, Basics of horticulture . 5th edition, Ulmer, Stuttgart 1984, 2001, ISBN 3-8001-1184-5 , p. 508.
- ↑ Frankfurter Schaufel At: http://spaten-schaufel.de/
