Patent Application
20070075027
The present invention relates to a book end, and more particularly to a book end with a saving-box adapted to collect coins and hold books.
With the rapid development of information industry, people could obtain the knowledge of every branch from many other new approaches other than published books. However, the functions and values of the published books are hard to replace. This is because books containing various texts and pictures are not only tools for people to accumulate the knowledge of different fields, but also important mental food for people's spiritual life. Books play a very important role in helping children to develop good personality.
However, when viewing from the angle of real life, books are heavy and occupy a lot of space to store them. It has become a new issue as how to ideally utilize the very limited space to manage the educationally meaningful books.
Most of the currently available devices for storing or holding books are in the form of book cabinets, book shelves, and bookends. Since the bookends are more flexible in use and occupy relatively small space, they are most widely accepted among the consumers.
The conventional bookends have poor stability and tend to tilt over, and are therefore not suitable for areas frequently threatened by earthquakes.
Moreover, the conventional bookends 1a, 1b have monotonous appearance and fail to match with esthetic interior of a room. The monotonous bookends 1a, 1b also fail to attract children who are more interested in various shaped toys and novel articles, and almost have not the possibility of drawing children's attention to the books held between the bookends.
It is also known that most children envy other people's progress in learning and good living conditions, while they do not have correct concept about learning and saving. In other words, children seldom or never know that knowledge and wealth are accumulated little by little.
It is therefore desirable to develop bookends that are not only structurally stable and safe for use, but also have beautiful and attractive designs to provide multiple functions, such as serving as saving-box and interior ornament with educational meaning.
A primary object of the present invention is to provide a unique book holding device that is different from the conventional bookends and has good stability for use safely.
Another object of the present invention is to provide a saving-box also functioning like bookends, which helps to remind people in daily life that knowledge and wealth are accumulated little by little.
A further object of the present invention is to provide a book end that presents three-dimensional and lovely animal designs to also serve as an ornament.
To achieve the above and other objects, the book end according to the present invention includes two upright hollow bodies, each of which has a planar inner side and a shaped outer side to define a coin collecting space between the inner and the outer side. The upright hollow body has a size-expanded lower portion and has a bottom board connected to and horizontally extended from a lower end thereof, allowing the upright hollow body to stand stably without the risk of easily tilting over.
The upright hollow body is also provided with a coin slot communicating with the coin collecting space, and a key-controlled openable cover for removing saved coins from the coin collecting space.
When the two upright hollow bodies having the horizontal bottom boards are positioned with the planar inner sides facing toward each other, a book-holding space is formed between the two upright hollow bodies for holding books.
The book end of the present invention has unique structure and attractive appearance, allowing it to also function like stable bookends for orderly holding books on a horizontal surface.
The present invention will be apparent to those skilled in the art by reading the following description of a best mode of the operation of the method, with reference to the attached drawings, in which:
Please refer to
The upright hollow body 2a includes a planar inner side 21 and a shaped outer side 22 to define a coin collecting space 23 between the inner and the outer side 21, 22. A coin slot 24 is provided on the shaped outer side 22 at a predetermined position corresponding to and communicating with the coin collecting space 23. Similarly, the upright hollow body 2b includes a planar inner side 21′ and a shaped outer side 22′ to define a coin collecting space 23′ between the inner and the outer side 21′, 22′. A coin slot 24′ is provided on the shaped outer side 22′ at a predetermined position corresponding to and communicating with the coin collecting space 23′, as can be clearly seen from
The two shaped outer sides 22, 22′ may present, for example, a three-dimensional animal design.
A coin inserted into the coin slot 24 or 24′ would fall into the coin collecting space 23 or 23′ and be saved therein.
It is noted the upright hollow bodies 2a, 2b all have a size-expanded lower portion, and can therefore more stably stand on a horizontal surface without the risk of tilting over due to a high center of gravity.
Please refer to
In the illustrated preferred embodiment, the cover 25 is pivotally connected to the planar inner side 21. The lock 26 may be a cylinder lock embedded in the cover 25, or a padlock externally hung on the cover 25. In the illustrated preferred embodiment, the lock 26 is a padlock. A user may use a correct key to open the lock 26 and the cover 25 to collect or remove the coins from the saving-box. Since the planar inner side 21′ has the same structure as the planar inner side 21, it is not repeatedly described.
The lying bottom boards 2c, 2d may be pivotally connected at an end to a lower end of the upright hollow bodies 2a, 2b, respectively, so that the two lying bottom boards 2c, 2d may be folded to or extended from the upright hollow bodies 2a, 2b depending on actual need. The lying bottom boards 2c, 2d may be further provided with at least one slot each for a partition board to insert thereinto.
Please refer to
With the size-expanded lower portions of the two upright hollow bodies 2a, 2b, the bookends provided by the book end 2 of the present invention are more stable than the conventional bookends 1 shown in
While the invention has been described in connection with what is presently considered to the most practical and preferred embodiments, it is to be understood that the invention is not to be limited to the disclosed embodiments, but on the contrary, is intended to cover various modifications and equivalent arrangement included within the spirit and scope of the appended claims.
| Number | Date | Country | Kind |
|---|---|---|---|
| 94217047 | Sep 2005 | TW | national |
