With all the advances we hear about in fields such as nanotechnology and electric vehicles, it’s easy to believe that simpler technology has evolved as far as it can go – that there is simply no way of improving things like the stapler, the dinner plate or the garden hose. Well, that line of thinking was recently proven wrong with the invention of a better type of sandbag. Now, as if to drive the point home, we hear about a better way of filling sandbags, and it’s a device called the GoBagger.
The usual sandbag-filling scenario involves two people, one of them holding the bag open, and the other shoveling sand into it. According to the folks at GoBagger, about 85-90 bags can be filled per hour in that way. With their device, however, they claim that two people with two GoBaggers could fill 480 bags in the same amount of time.
The GoBagger was invented by Sacramento, California, architect Matt Piner. Its design is very simple. A scoop on the front bites into the sand, and that sand then slides out of a chute on the back, and into an attached bag. A handle on top lets users hang onto the thing with one hand, while another handle on the back lets them use their other hand to hold the bag in place. Depending on the size of bag, one swing of the device into a sand pile will be enough to fill it.
Low-density polyethylene construction keeps the GoBagger’s weight down to an ergonomically-friendly 4.2 pounds (1.9 kg), although you could still undoubtedly mess up your back if you didn’t maintain the right posture when using it. The same thing, of course, could certainly be said about a shovel.
The GoBagger retails for US$59.95.
