Self-adjusting ladder

Claim 1

A mechanism for making a ladder self-adjusting, comprising: a U-shaped hollow tubular member adapted to be rigidly coupled to the bottom portion of the ladder, the tubular member including a pair of parallel channels and a bridge channel connecting the tops of the parallel channels, said bridge channel being flexible so that the mechanism may be utilized with ladders of varying widths; a pair of rods slidably received in each of said parallel channels, a plurality of balls movably received in said bridge channel and said parallel channels, said balls not being coupled to one another and adapted to freely and independently roll in said channels, the inside surfaces of said channels where said balls are located are substantially smooth, the far ends of each of said rod adapted to contact normal supporting surfaces for the ladder, a portion of each rod extending from the open end of the respective channel, the length of the portion of each rod which extends from the open end of each of said channels depending upon the relative level of the respective surface of which each of said rod contacts, said mechanism providing infinite levels of adjustment over its total range of adjustment.