Untitled record

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United States Patent Office.

D. F. DIMON AND G. H. CARSWELL, OF FISHKILL LANDING, NEW YORK, k, IMPROVED BOOK-HOLDER.

Specification forming part of Letters Patent No. 43,575, dated July 19, 1864.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that we, D. F. Dimon and G. H. Carswell, both of Fishkill Landing, in the county of Dutchess and State of New York, have invented a new and Improved Book-Holder; and we do hereby declare that the following is a full, clear, and exact description of the same, reference being had to the accompanying drawings, in which—

Figure 1 represents a perspective view of our invention. Fig. 2 is a transverse vertical section of the same.

Similar letters of reference in both figures indicate corresponding parts.

This invention consists in the arrangement of a crank-shaft which has its bearings in the upper ends of the uprights of a frame or stand suitable to support, books of different size, and which is provided with two spring-arms in combination with a support or prop hinged to the crank of the crank-shaft in such a manner that when a book is placed on the stand held in an inclined position by the prop the weight of the book, acting on the crank-shaft, holds the spring-arms down and the leaves aie effectually prevented from turning over spontaneously.

To enable others skilled in the art to make and use our invention, we will proceed to describe it.

A represents a frame or stand, made of wood or any other suitable material, and consisting of two uprights, a, which are united near their bottom ends by a transverse strip, b, sufficiently broad to support a book of any ordinary size. The upper ends of the uprights «form the bearings for the crank-shaft B, and from this shaft two arms, C, extend, as clearly shown in Fig. 1 of the drawings. Each of these arms is bent at right angles, and its outer end forms a spring intended to bear down upon the leaves of a book and to prevent them from turning.

D is the prop which holds the stand A in an inclined position, and which connects with one or both of the uprights a by a hook, c, which prevents it from slipping, in the same manner as the prop of an ordinary step-ladder. The upper end of this prop is hinged to the crank (?, which is situated about in the middle of the crank-shaft B. This crank is turned in such relation to the spring-arms 0 that when the stand is placed in an inclined position, as shown iu Fig. 2, and a bookisput on it, the weight of the book has a tendency to throw the arms in and to hold the leaves down.

Bj· referring to Fig. 2 it will be readily understood that the weight of the book has a tendency to throw the upper ends of the uprights in the direction of the arrow marked near them, and consequently the crank will have a tendency to rotate in the direction of the arrow marked near it, aud the outer ends of the spring-arms will be thrown down toward the uprights. By this arrangement our book holder can be used equally well for thick or thin books, and the correct action of the same does not depend upon the elasticity of the spring-arms, but entirely upon the direct action of the gravity of the book itself on said spring-arms.

For new books, or whenever the weight of the book should not be sufficient to hold the leaves down, the spring-arms may be locked by means of one or two hooks, e.

This book-holder can be made very cheap, all the metal parts being bent out of wire, and the crank shaft and arms can be easily made out of one and the same piece of wire, which is bent in the desired shape, as will be seen by referring to Fig. 1 of the drawings.

It will be of particular advantage in schools to enable children to have their books in an upright position before their eyes, and to avoid the bad and unhealthy practice of pressing their chests against the edge of the desk and of stooping down over the book when they desire to read or study.