Published: October 10, 2009 10:34 pm      

Inventor finds answer to tangled flags on poles

MOUNT HOPE — A knock on the door can lead to just about anything these days — a lost traveler, persistent salesman, fervent cultist, or someone with mischief in mind.

For Mount Hope Mayor Michael Martin, the man outside his home recently turned out to be Jim Dandy to the rescue.

Like any American mayor taking pride in flying Old Glory on city streets, especially at holidays and city functions, Martin typically faced the annoyance of seeing flags twisting and flapping so much in sudden gusts of wind that the standards ultimately entangled and wrapped around the pole.

Not any more.

Beckley inventor Jim Cullop issued an offer on the spot to test 10 of his new invention — known simply as the “flag restraint.”

“I’ve got a little device that will keep a flag from wrapping around a pole,” Cullop announced to the startled mayor.

Martin’s curiosity was whetted, and, after a brief chat, the mayor took Cullop up on his offer to install 10 of the restraints on poles in Mount Hope as a test ride.

“I couldn’t see how they would work,” the mayor acknowledged. “But what it boils down to is just good old ingenuity.

“He reminded me of my grandfather who may have possessed eight patents when he passed away. All my grandfather’s patents were things to help you. Just little things he had invented to make his own life easier.”

Martin was willing to give the restraint a whirl. After all, he had wearied of having town crews straighten out flags.

“We had that nasty weather one weekend, and those flags get heavy when they’re soaking wet,” he noted.

A slender rod comprised of red oak — chosen for its supreme durability over other woods — is attached to the pole at one end, while a metallic clamp is hooked directly to the bottom of the flag.

When the wind blows, the restraint’s pivot allows the flag to flap up to 90 degrees in either direction, but no farther.

Which means the flag cannot become a mess for someone to untangle, as Martin learned after the restraints were installed for a demonstration in Mount Hope. So far, there are no tangled flags in Mount Hope and none of the restraints has snapped.

A Stotesbury native who was raised in Mead, the fledgling inventor is awaiting a patent on his first creation, but this isn’t the first time an idea has caught someone’s attention.

In his days as a space shuttle technician with Lockheed and the United Space Alliance from 1987 to 2003, he pocketed some $5,000 for his offerings in the suggestion box.

Cullop toiled as a butcher at age 18, and entered the Navy in 1952, moving over to the Air Force 11 years later. He earned a Bronze Star in his 1969-70 stint in Vietnam while working with the South Vietnamese in the Air Force’s Special Activities Group.

Upon retirement from the Air Force in 1973, Cullop serviced mien battery equipment and chargers for Tri-State Coal Mining Industry until 1987.

His flag restraints are available at his Web site, www.flyfreeflagrestraint.com, and, in this area, The Little Brick House, Grandview Country Store, Beaver Creek Antiques, and Dove’s Outlet Village.

“The reason I gave them to Mount Hope was that I wanted a good test bed where I would not be involved,” he said.

No tools are required to either install the flag restraints or remove them. On a return visit, Cullop found the flags still waving, and no breakage in his restraints.

“I’m happy with it now,” he said. “It took me four or five tries before I got to where I felt good about it.”

— E-mail: mannix@register-herald.com