Abstract: A device adapted to serve as the anchor base of a screw-type anchor, wherein the base is intended to be embedded in the earth with a rod extending from the base to the earth's surface. (Placing the anchor in the earth is typically accomplished by rotating it with the aid of a mandrel or the like.) The device includes a generally helical shaped flight having a length of at least one full turn. The flight has an axial opening along its center, with the diameter of the opening being larger than the diameter of an L-shaped anchor rod. Means are provided to firmly connect the helical flight to the anchor rod. One such means includes a reinforcing collar which is rigidly fixed in the axial opening of the flight. Appropriate coupling means are provided to hold the anchor rod and the flight together, so that they may be rotated as a unit so as to burrow the anchor in the earth.

Abstract: The method of securely placing a screw-type anchor in the earth without unduly disturbing the surrounding soil, including the step of enveloping the anchor's shank in a special tubular mandrel. The mandrel has a helical flight near its bottom end, with a pitch that is substantially the same as the anchor's flight, such that the mandrel's flight constitutes an effective extension of the anchor's flight. When the anchor/mandrel combination is rotated in a first direction, the two elements will burrow as a unit into the ground. After the mandrel has been rotated sufficiently to put the anchor at a designed depth in the earth, rotating the mandrel in the opposite direction causes it to separate from the anchor and back out of the earth through substantially the same cut that was made when the anchor was turned into the earth.