An ash scoop which remains out of the water during most of its operation. The ash scoop has a retaining and a nonretaining configuration. It moves along a track downward into the pit while poised in its nonretaining configuration. Once in the pit, it moves to its retaining position to grab debris within the pit. It then moves back out of the pit along the track until it reverts to its nonretaining configuration to dump the ashes dragged out of the pit.
The present application constitutes a continuation-in-part of U.S. patent application Ser. No. 7/685,630, filed Apr. 15, 1991, now U.S. Pat. No. 5,209,169, issued May 11, 1993, which was a continuation-in-part of U.S. patent application Ser. No. 7/60,761, filed Jun. 1, 1987, now U.S. Pat. No. 5,007,353, issued on Apr. 16, 1991, which also was a continuation-in-part of U.S. patent application Ser. No. 659,849 filed Oct. 9, 1984, now U.S. Pat. No. 4,706,578, which itself represents a continuation of U.S. patent application Ser. No. 362,853 filed Mar. 29, 1982, now U.S. Pat. No. 4,475,469, which in turn constitutes a continuation-in-part of U.S. patent application Ser. No. 248,054 filed Mar. 27, 1981, now U.S. Pat. No. 4,438,705.
