AOL News:
Jake Wulf wants to keep the lid on it. The 9-year-old boy flushed out a plan for a foot-activated toilet seat lifter that is called the “Privy Prop,” designed to lower and raise the toilet seat.
While her son, who is in the school’s Talented and Gifted program, manages assignments with ease, he has one weak spot: remembering to lower the seat after he’s done, Beth Wulf said.
‘My mom was getting mad at me for forgetting to put the toilet seat down and she was falling in,’ said Jake, a fourth-grader at Odebolt-Arthur Elementary School.
‘He’s done this pretty much all his life,’ his mother said. ‘He’s in too big a hurry to take care of that. He’s been reminded thousands of times over the years.’
It was during a visit to a doctor’s office that Jake’s idea for the ‘Privy Prop’ began to take shape.
He noticed the lid to a small trash can, which opened and closed with a foot-powered lever. He went home and told his parents that he wanted to design a similar device for the toilet.
He made it for the school’s Invention Convention with the help of his dad, Jason, who designs equipment for a living.
‘Jake drew it all out and I supervised,’ Jason Wulf said. ‘I helped him with the tools to make sure he didn’t cut off any fingers.’
Jake built plywood base and then cut thin pieces of steel and fashioned a teeter-totter at the bottom. You step on it and the seats raises. You step off and it closes.
Once it was built, he used a dictionary to come up with a name for his contraption. The final choices - ‘Jake’s John Jack‘ ‘Privy Prop’ and ‘Privy Proper’ - were voted on by his family with ‘Privy Prop’ winning.
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As a mother of twin sons, I can understand a 9 year-old boy forgetting to lower the toilet seat. But, his mother falling into the toilet is comical.
What will he invent to help him to remember to use his foot-activated Privy Prop?
Sounds like both mom and her son need more toilet training!
Yay! It took an innovative 9-year old to give a “fair shake” to men everywhere. No more grabbing of nasty toilet seats, or harrassment from women who seem to embrace equality of the genders in every other way than the stupid “toilet seat rule”. Good for him. I hope the family changes their mind and opts to patent this little invention.
For more comments, please visit my blog post on this at:
http://angrylabrat.blogspot.com/2007/11/privy-prop.html
The author of this article has not done their research. This boy and his father have not invented anything new. This device exists already. It’s unfair to the many prior inventors of this device.
J. Safuto