US1979209A - Book construction - Google Patents

Description

OCLJ30, 1934. MUELLER 1,979,209

BOOK CONSTRUCTION Filed July 29, 1932 Patented Oct. 30, 1934 I; ETED STATES PATENT OFFICE 1 Claim.

This invention relates to book construction.

While the invention is applicable to the construction of books for various purposes, it is particularly applicable to the construction of record 5 books, that is books within which records are to be written from time to time.

An object of the invention is to provide a simple, practical and" efficient book construction wherein, when the book is open, the leaves there- 19' of at both sides of the binding will lie suitably fiat and smooth to enable writing to be readily done upon the leaves, even upon portions of the leaves close to the binding.

A further object is to so construct the book that I .15 it will embody an automatically operable com- 20 from one position to another so as to more adequately support the leaves to be written upon.

A more specific object is to so construct the book as to embody certain pivotal connections at its binder portion and arranged in such relation T that when an increasing number of leaves are swung from one-side of the binder portion to the other, portions of the book structure will swing upon certain of said pivots, without definite attention or effort on the part of the operator, and in a manner such that the leaves may at all times be suitably supported for being written upon.

Other objects and aims of the invention, more or less specific than those referred to above, will be in part obvious and in part pointed out in the course of the following description of the :elements, combinations, arrangements of parts and applications of principles constituting the invention; and the scope of protection contemplated Will be indicated in the appended claim.

In the accompanying drawing which is to be taken as a part of this specification, and in which I have shown merely a preferred form of embodiment of the invention:--

Fig. 1 is a perspective View of a book constructed in accordance with this invention.

Fig. 2 is an enlarged fragmentary transverse sectional view through the binder portion of the book seen in Fig. 1, being substantially upon the plane of line IIII of Fig. 1.

Fig. 3 is a diagrammatic end view, showing the book thrown open in a first position, and

Fig. is a diagrammatic view similar to Fig. 3, but showing the book thrown open in a second position.

Referring to the drawing for describing in detail the structure which is illustrated therein, the reference characters L and G indicate the top and bottom cover members of the book.

. The cover member G has a separately formed piece 1 pivotally connected thereto as by a hinge joint 2, said piece constituting what, for the purpose of this description, may betermed the bottom binder member of the-book.

The cover member L is pivotally connected, as by a hinge joint 3, with a further separately formed piece H which, for the purpose of this description, may be termed the rear edge binder member of the book, said piece H being in turn pivotally connected, as by a hinge joint 4, with an edge of the bottom binder member 1 opposite 70 to the hinge joint 2.

The leaves portion of the book, as illustrated, consists of a pile of leaves 5. These may be normally loose with respect to each other but they are preferably clamped together at one edge be 7 tween two stiff, usually metal, strips as 6 and 7 which may be held in clamped'rclation against the sheets by appropriate means, such as by rivets or the like as 8, so that the leaves portion of the book may at times be handled as an entity to be inserted or removed from the remainder of the book at will.

The leaves portion ofthe book, including the strips 6 and 7 when said strips are present, is formed with one or more apertures as 9 there through by means of which the leaves portion of the book may be detachably threaded onto a corresponding number ofposts 10, said posts being fixed rigidly to the, binder member 1 as at 11 so as normally to project upwardly from said member 1 in a position so that the leaves portion 5 may be easily telescoped onto or off of said posts.

The posts 10 are preferably made hollow and threaded as at 12 so that suitable retaining screws as 13 may be inserted thereinto for cooperating with thebinder member 1 as clamp means between which the leaves portion 5 is held.

When the book stands in its normal closed position, as seen in Figs. 1 and 2, the binder member 1 lies substantially flat in the same general horizontal plane as the bottom cover member G, and'the edge member H extends upwardly along the edge of the leaves 5, approximately in surface contact against said leaves and against adjacent edges of the strips 6 and '7, the top cover member L overlying the whole.

Assuming the book to be in this position, if new the cover L is thrown open it may be made to stand in either of two different positions,

namely it may be swung only upon the hinge joint 3'and thus made to occupy the position indicated by the dotted lines 14 in Fig. 3, or it may be swung upon both the hinge joints 3' and 4 and thus made to occupy the position indicated by the full lines in Fig. 3.

When the cover L is in the position indicated by the dotted lines 14 it stands as an elevated support for any of the leaves 5 which may be swung over upon it and thus more efficiently supports said leaves to facilitate writingupon the upper surface of said leaves in locations close to the general binder portion of the book.

If no writing is to be done upon these leaves. or if writing is to be done thereon, further spaced from the binder portion of the book, the cover L may be made to swing down to the position shown in full lines and still constitute a suitable support for the leaves during the writing operation.

When the cover L is in this lowered position it enables the leaves thereon to lie further down toward the surface of the table upon which the book is resting so that the book is flatter and there is therefore somewhat less tendency for the an arc of only 90.

leaves to spring back to closed position.

' It will now be seen that if after the cover L has been thrown open as just described a considerable number of the leaves is swung over upon it the inherent resiliency of the accumulated leaves will become automatically operable to cause the binder member 1 to swing upwardly about the pivot 4, as indicated in Fig. 4, this swinging movement of the portion 1 being facilitated by the hinge joint 2 and serving to elevate the bottom cover G from its normalposition, Fig. 3, so as to follow and provide an adequate support for the relatively few leaves which have not yet been thrown over upon the cover L.

This movement of the binder member 1 about pivot 4 transposes the post or posts 10 from their normal vertical position, Fig. 3, to anabnormal horizontal position so that the portion of the leaves connected with said posts now extends verti'cally upwardly instead of being horizontal as before. Those leaves, which have been thrown over upon' the cover L, are now required to make less of a bend than before. Instead of bending through an arc of 180 they now bend through Their portionswhich are only slightly spaced from the posts are thus lowered toward the surface of the cover L and can be more readily pressed down toward or againt said surface in order to facilitate writing upon the sheets near to the posts.

. tioned parts are all made of sheet-metal suitably formed and connected as'indicated.

Preferably the member H is so formed and proportioned with respect to the remainder of the structure that when the parts are in the position as indicated in Fig. 4, said member H will provide a stop, as at 15, against which a part, for instance an edge of strip 6, of the leaves portion of the book may engage and rest so as to limit excessive swinging of the parts I and H with respect to each other when the leaves are in the position referred to in Fig. 4.

In making the part 1-1 of sheet-metal the main or body portion thereof may be arranged tangential with the inner side of the hinge portions thereof so as thereby to stand in a better position to support the leaves portion when the book is thrown open.

In making the part 1 of sheet-metal the body thereof may be disposed substantially midway between the top and bottom planes of the hinges 2 and 4 so as to accommodate the strip 7 in a relatively recessed upper portion of said part 1 and allow the leaves to extend flat across the hinge 2 and along the upper surface of the cover G, the cover being tangential with the upper plane of the hinge 2. At the same time the rivet-head portion 11 of the post 10 is accommodated within a relatively recessed under-portion of said part 1 so as not to bear upon or injure the surface of a desk or table upon which the book may be laid.

The cover L is preferably disposed tangential with the upper portion of hinge 3 so as to provide the necessary clearance for the posts 10 and screws 13 without necessity for undue width of the binder member 1-1.

As many changes could be made in this construction without departing from the scope of the invention, as defined in the following claims, it is intended that all matter contained in the above description, or shown in the accompanying drawing, shall be interpreted as illustrative only and not in a limiting sense.

Having thus described my invention, what I claim as new and desire to secure by Letters Patent is:

A book structure comprising top and bottom stiff cover members, and means providing hinge connection between said two cover members consisting of a rear edge binder member and a bottom binder member, a first hinge by which the rear binder member is hingedly connected along a its upper longitudinal edge to the rear edge of the top cover member, a second hinge by which the bottom binder member is hingedly connected along its forward edge to the rear edge of the botill) tom cover member, and a third hinge by which the remaining longitudinal edges of the two binder members are hingedly connected together, together with means carried by the bottom binder member by which a leaves portion may be fixed solely to said bottom binder member leaving all said cover and binder members free to swing with respect to each other upon all said hinges, said first hinge being arranged to permit the top cover member to swing to open position constituting an elevated support for leaves swung open thereonto, the first and third hinges co-acting with each other to permit the top cover and the rear binder member to swing to a common horizontal open position, and the second and third hinges co-acting with each other to permit the bottom binder member to swing to a vertical position holding the bottom cover member in position constituting an elevated support for leaves thereon.

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