Carpet Installer Awaits Patent for Device He Inven
Pittsburgh, PA, May 29--Dale Marizzaldi never expected to become an inventor when he chose freelance carpet-laying as an occupation 27 years ago, according to the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. "I was just trying to make a living," he said. But the Brookline resident created an ingenious device to help him cope with that job -- and has a patent pending.
Not bad for a plainspoken 43-year-old blue-collar guy who does "a job nobody else wants to do."
His invention, dubbed the "jack rabbit," helps him to reduce the time and energy expended on his job.
The name stems from the fact that Marizzaldi can use it to rapidly jack up carpet that has been glued to a floor. The tool is a lightweight all-steel unit with a long, thin handle and a ratchet mechanism at the end.
By applying leverage to the jack rabbit, Marizzaldi discovered that he could speedily remove 4- or 6-foot sections of glued-down carpet at a time.
A carpet removal job that might have taken all day is done in about an hour, he said. "You never even break into a sweat."
He recalled abandoning carpet removal jobs because he and co-workers found some glued-down carpet that seemed stubborn and unyielding.
Marizzaldi read a book about patents and looked in the Yellow Pages for a patent agent. He submitted a rough draft, paid for a critique and then submitted his invention to the government for a patent. The current status is "patent pending."
Marizzaldi has been using trade magazines and word-of-mouth to peddle the jack rabbit through distributors. He plans to go soon to a trade show to promote the tool.
