Barbeque blower

Claim 1

In combination with a barbeque fire box having a rolled upper edge, which fire box holds a plurality of charcoal briquettes in side-by-side relationship, a power-driven blower unit that may be oriented in a desired direction relative to said fire box to generate a stream of air that sweeps across said briquettes to serve as a draft to assist in the initial ignition of said briquettes and to maintain said briquettes in a glowing heat emitting condition after said ignition, said power-driven blower unit including: a. an elongate housing that has first and second open ends; b. a transverse spider in said housing intermediate said first and second ends; c. an air intake member transversely disposed in said second end, said intake member having a number of circumferentially spaced air openings therein; d. a transverse bladed fan disposed in said housing intermediate said spider and said second end; e. a plate that defines a number of circumferentially spaced, radially extending spokes, said plate adjacently disposed to said air intake member, and said plate when rotated controlling the effective area of said openings in said air intake member; f. a prime mover mounted on said housing adjacent said second end, said prime mover including a drive shaft that extends into said housing; g. first and second meshing bevel gears, said first gear secured to said drive shaft and said second gear secured to said bladed fan; h. a longitudinal shaft rotatably supported by said spider and said air intake member and rigidly secured to said plate, said shaft rotatably supporting said bladed fan; i. a handle secured to said shaft adjacent said plate and outwardly disposed therefrom, said shaft serving the dual function of rotatably supporting said bladed fan, said rotatably adjusting said plate relative to said air intake member when said handle is manually rotated; and j. spring loaded clamp means secured to said housing that may removably engage said fire box to support said housing at a desired position on the latter, and the rate at which air is discharged from said first end of said housing being controlled by rotating said handle to vary the effective area of said air openings.