Beetle beetle (also “bug-footman”, just “beetle” or “batman”, sometimes “vanka”) is the simplest device for easy and careful removal of shoes that do not have fasteners (laces, “zippers”, etc.) : boots, boots, low shoes, etc. It is useful, first of all, for people with reduced mobility and who find it difficult to bend down to take off their shoes (obese, suffering from rheumatism and other diseases).
Its name owes to the common form in the form of a beetle with a large horseshoe-shaped mustache (although it is often made in the form of a bull’s head with horns, or a simple horned head), as well as the name of the official servant, who was part of an official or officer - a batman .
Device
The orderly beetle has a U-shaped recess on one side of the wooden (or metal, forged) board, into which the “heel” and the heel of the shoe are inserted. The second foot must be stepped on the other half of the device, fixing it with its own weight. Shoes should be removed carefully so as not to tear it and not tear off the heel. Due to the distribution of the load throughout the “heel”, the use of a “batman” is less risky for the safety of shoes than attempts to remove one boot by stepping on its heel with another boot.
Occasionally there are specimens of “orderlies” having recesses of different sizes on both sides - for men's and women's (children's) shoes.
Some models of the device have a folding handle for vertical storage.
The simplest "batman"
Decorative "batman" in the form of a head of a calf.
"Batman" and hooks for putting on high boots.
"Batman" in the form of a bug.
Literature
- Zolotarev V. “Vanka” // Science and Life. - 1984. - No. 7. - S. 149.
- Insect-inspired boot jacks
- Tyler Beard. Art of the Boot . - Gibbs Smith, 2006 .-- P. 154. - 160 p. - ISBN 9781423600268 .
- Commissioner of Patents . - Washington: Robert Armstrong, printer, 1853. - P. 72. - 484 p.
- Edward H. Knight. Knights American Mechanical Dictionary . - New York: HURD and HOUGHTON, 1876. - P. 336. - 945 p.
Links
- Wikimedia Commons has media related to Bat-Batman