US2276992A - Utility holder - Google Patents

Description

March 17, 1942. c. H. MANZLER UTILITY HOLDER Filed June 2, 1941 FIG 2 [1V VEN TOR Patented Mar. 17, 1942 UNITED STATES UTILITY HOLDER Clarence H. Manzler, Rochester, N. Y. Application June 2, 1941, Serial No. 396,247

4 Claims. (01. 24-85) v I This invention relates to utility holders for use on both straight and curved walls and the invention has for its principal object to provide a holder which is especially adapted for use in automobiles and provides a plurality of clamping means for the simultaneous support of one or more articles spaced from each other and'held clamped in place so that each article will be individually supported for manipulation and use without affecting the attachment of another article supported by the holder.

Another object of this invention is to provide a novel construction for a utility holder in which the clamping member cooperates with a supporting member to removably hold an article 0011- tainer in a predetermined position for the convenient removal of the articles within the container.

These and other objects and attendant advantages of the invention will become more readily apparent from the detailed description thereof which follows, reference being had to the accompanying drawing in which Figure 1 is a side elevation of the utility holder with a package of cigarettes and a book of matches predeterminedly held in place thereby.

Figure 2 is a front elevation of the holder.

Figure 3 is a front elevation of a modified form of the holder.

Figure 4 is a side elevation of a modified form of the holder.

The holder, as illustrated in Figures 1 and 2, is made up from a single piece of sheet stock which is bent back on itself at the top in a loop I and thus provides the anchoring strap 2 at the back of the supporting strap 3. A suitable hole in the anchoring strap I admits the head 4 of the rubber suction cup 5 so as to locate this head in the space between the anchoring strap and the supporting strap with the cup proper projecting from the anchoring strap for attachment to a supporting surface. Lugs 6, 6 are struck out from the anchoring strap to engage the back of the suction cup to provide increased frictional contact between the suction cup and the anchoring strap to keep the holder from loosely turning on the suction cup.

The upper portion of the supporting strap 3, in order to properly locate the anchoring strap 2 at the rear thereof, curves from the intermediate clamping section of the supporting strap. Similarly the lower portion of the supporting strap 3 curves rearwardly to provide for the formation of the loop 1 between the supporting strap 3 and the clamping tongue 8 which is a continuation thereof and extends upwardly in front of the supporting strap'in yielding contact with the clamping section of the supporting strap and is normally held in this position by the loop 1.

The lower portion of the clamping tongue 8 has the same width'as the supporting strap 3 until it reaches the'shoulders 9, 9 from which point the width of the tongue is reduced to the outer pointed end I!) thereof. Contact between the clamping tongue 8 and the clamping surface of the supporting strap is thus confined to the reduced width of the clamping tongue except for thepointed end thereof which is located in front of the rearwardly curved upper portion of the supporting strap and thu spacedly projects upwardly in front of it.

The free pointed end of the clamping tongue is thus adapted to enter between the folded ends of a paper package when the bottom of the package is forced endwise over the pointed end of the tongue. Any package which is surrounded by transparent or decorative material will have the pointed end of theclamping tongue penetrate therethru for engagement under the folded edges of the bottom of the package. The flat clamping tongue, in its engagement under the folded edges of the package, holds the bottom parallel to the surface of the supporting strap so that it will slide thereover until the end of the bottom engages the shoulders 9 on the tongue to stop further movement of the package on the tongue. By limiting the movement of the package on the tongue the package is held in a predetermined elevation on the tongue in orderto cause the tongue to clamp the bottom of the package between it and the supporting surface of the supporting strap in order to hold the package in a sufiicient- 1y fixed position so that cigarettes may be with drawn therefrom without displacing the package on the clamping tongue. For this purpose part of the top of the package is torn off as illustrated in Figures 1 and 2 to permit the withdrawal of one cigarette at a time and allow one of the remaining cigarettes to take its place in the package for removal therefrom.

A above described, the lower portion of the supporting strap curves rearwardly so that when the holder is attached to a supporting surface by means of the rubber suction cup, the bottom of the supporting strap yieldingly rests against the supporting surface. A book of matches l2 can thus be slipped under the bottom of the holder and held clamped in place between it and the supportin surface while a cigarette package re mains supported in front of the holder near the top thereof.

In the modification of the holder illustrated in Figures 3 and 4 the supporting strap with its clamping tongue is supplemented by a serpentine shaped backing strap ll of flexible material such as celluloid or similar material. This backing strap is preferably greater in width than the supporting strap and its upper end is anchored in the channel 13 provided at the top of the'supporting strap so that the upper forwardly curved portion of the backing strap is located in front of the supporting strap. The supporting strap passes thru a slot l4 intermediate the top and bottom of the holder and again thru a slot l5- near the bottom of the holder to have the bottom of the backing strap rest in the loop l6 which connects the supporting strap and the clamping tongue. In this way the rearwardly curved lower portion of the backing strap is located behind the supporting strap and is yieldingly held against the supporting surface to which the holder is attached while the clamping tongue yieldingly rests against the forwardly curved upper portion of the same backing strap.

The modified construction of the holder thus provides for the clamping of an article between the clamping tongue and the backing strap and the clamping of another article betweenthe backing strap and the supporting surface. These articles may be a cigarette package and a book of matches as illustrated in Figures 1 and 2. However, other articles such asmaps, data sheets etc. may be held in place by the holder. In holding a map by means of the clamping tongue, the map may be angularly held behind the tongue and at any desired elevation so that the pointedend of the tongue will operate as an indicator and point to a certain spot on the map while holding the map in place. A. map held in an angular position, as above described, is illustrated by the dotted lines I! in Figure 3.

I claim:

1. A holder having a flat supporting surface, a tongue of reduced width in front of said supporting surface substantially parallel therewith and held urged toward said supporting surface, a pointed end on said tongue for forcible engagement into an article and clamping action. of the engaged portion of the article against the flat supporting surface, and means cooperating with the pointed end of said tongue for limiting the engagement of the tongue into the article and limiting clamping contact between the article and the supporting surface.

2. A combination holder comprising a substantially V shaped spring member made up of a supporting strap at the back and a clamping tongue at the front in yielding contact with said supporting strap, anchoring means at the top of said supporting strap adapted to urge the bottom of said spring member into yielding clamping contact with a common supporting surface, and a pointed end on said clamping tongue projecting away from said supporting strap above the yielding contact between the supporting strap and theclamping tongue.

3. A combination holder embodying a substantially V shaped spring member made up of a supporting strap providing the back and a clamping tongue providing the front thereof, a supplemental clamping strap of substantially serpentine outline anchored at the top and bottom of the supporting strap with said supporting strap extending thru a hole in the supplemental clamping strap substantially in the middle thereof and near the bottom thereof to have the curved upper portion of the clamping strap yieldingly engage the clamping tongue at the front of the holder and have the curved lower portion of the clamping strap yieldingly engage the extension of the supporting surface to which the supporting strap is attached.

4. A combination holder as set forth in claim 3 in which said clamping tongue is pointed with the pointed end projecting from the clamping strap above the yielding contact between them and in which said clamping tongue is provided with a supporting shoulder spaced from the pointed outer end thereof.

CLARENCE H. MANZLER.

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