Man invents toilet 'Courtesy Wand'

STATESBORO, Ga. - Four years ago, when his mother couldn't bend over to lower the toilet seat, Emory Jones sprang into action.

First, he put the seat down for her. Then he began work on a tool to help people with similar dilemmas, a gizmo to assist them in raising and lowering the lid. Jones named his invention the "Courtesy Wand," and once it's manufactured, it will sell for $19.95.

"You really have to use it to appreciate it," Jones said.

His mother was recovering from triple bypass surgery when she had her encounter with the toilet, so when she yelled for his help, Jones feared she had suffered a heart attack.

That wasn't her problem.

"Mama was holding the hand rail, and asked, 'Would you please put this dang seat down for me?'" Jones said.

The wand is a contoured rod with a hook for the lid on one end and a handle on the other. It might look simple, but Jones struggled with several variations before settling on the final version.

"You ought to see some of the crude drawings I first came up with," he said.