small spade for clay soil; the other one for sandy soil and loamy soil

A spade is a tool designed primarily for the purpose of digging or removing earth. Loam is Soil composed of Sand, Silt, and Clay in relatively even concentration (about 40-40-20% concentration respectively considered ^[1] The first spades were made of graven wood. After the art of metalworking was discovered, spades were made with sharper tips of metal. Before the advent of metal spades manual labor was more inefficient at moving earth, with picks being required to break up the soil in addition to a spade for moving the dirt. With a metal tip, a spade can both break and move the earth in most situations, increasing efficiency.

Etymology

English spade is from Old English spadu, spædu (f. ) or spada (m. ). The same word is found in Old Frisian spade and Old Saxon spado. Old Frisian was the West Germanic language spoken between the 8th and 16th centuries by the people who had settled in the area between the Rhine Old Saxon, also known as Old Low German ( ISO 639 -3 code osx) is the earliest recorded form of Low German, documented from the 9th century High German spaten only appears in Early Modern German, probably loaned from Low German. Early New High German (ENHG is a term for the period in the history of the German language, generally defined following Wilhelm Scherer, as the period 1350 Scandinavian forms are in turn loaned from German. The term may thus not originate in Common Germanic and appears to be a North Sea Germanic innovation or loaned. Proto-Germanic, or Common Germanic, is the hypothetical common ancestor ( Proto-language) of all the Germanic languages such as modern English Ingvaeonic, also known as North Sea Germanic, is a postulated grouping of the West Germanic languages that would fork into Old Frisian, Old English Closely related is Greek σπαθη, whence Latin spatha. The spatha was a type of straight Sword with a long point measuring between 0

Designs of spades

Spades are made in many shapes and sizes, for a variety of different functions and jobs. There are many different designs used in spade manufacturing. The most common spade is a garden spade, which typically has a long handle, is wide, and is treaded (has rests for the feet to drive the spade into the ground). An Irish spade is similar to a common garden spade, with the same general design, although it has a much thinner head. A turfing iron has a short, round head, and it used for cutting and parring off turf. A digging fork, or grape, is forked much like a pitchfork, and is useful for loosening ground and gardening.

Digging tool

In gardening, a spade is a hand tool used to dig or loosen ground, or to break up clumps in the soil. Gardening is the practice of growing Plants for their attractive flowers or foliage and Vegetables or Fruits for consumption A broader definition of a tool is an entity used to interface between two or more domains that facilitates more effective action of one domain upon the other Together with the fork it forms one of the chief implements wielded by the hand in agriculture and horticulture. It is sometimes considered a type of shovel. A shovel is a Tool for lifting and moving loose material such as Coal, Gravel, Snow, Soil, or Sand and is an Its typical shape is a broad flat blade with a sharp lower edge, straight or curved. A blade is the flat part of a Tool, Weapon, or Machine (such as a fan) that normally has a cutting edge and/or pointed end typically made The upper edge on either side of the handle affords space for the user's foot, which drives it into the ground. The wooden handle ends in a cross-piece, sometimes T-shaped and sometimes forming a kind of loop for the hand.

Small and/or plastic toy versions of the same tool are used to dig sand castles on a beach or in a sand-box.

Other use

In the oil and chemical process industries, a spade is a round piece of metal with a small tab that is placed in between two pipe flanges to give positive isolation from the central atom; usually to prevent cross contamination between fluids or to allow work on the line. The name comes from the shape: a little like a garden spade. The small tab lets one see that the spade is in place. At Peterhouse, Cambridge, the expression "to hit spade" is used to mean "to chat up".

See also

• Shovel

Sources and references

• This article incorporates text from the Encyclopædia Britannica Eleventh Edition, a publication now in the public domain. A shovel is a Tool for lifting and moving loose material such as Coal, Gravel, Snow, Soil, or Sand and is an The Encyclopædia Britannica Eleventh Edition (1910–1911 is a 29-volume reference work that marked the beginning of the Encyclopædia Britannica The public domain is a range of abstract materials &ndash commonly referred to as Intellectual property &ndash which are not owned or controlled by anyone
• Etymology OnLine