Patent ID: 7387127
Filing Date: 2008-06-17
Classification: A24F,A63B,B62B

Abstract:
1. A portable apparatus for holding smoking materials in a vehicle, comprising: a substantially vertical panel having an upper edge, a right edge, a left edge, and a lower edge, and a clasp biased against the vertical panel for releasably holding lit smoking materials; a substantially horizontal ash tray, the ash tray having a right end and a left end, and the ash tray being releasably attached to the lower edge by a tray attachment means; a securing means attached to the panel, for removably securing the apparatus to a vehicle; the tray attachment means allowing the ash tray to pivot freely beneath the lower edge about an axis substantially parallel to the lower edge, and further comprising opposing elongate springs attached to, and dependent from, the right and left edges of the vertical panel, each elongate spring having an upper end attached to the vertical panel and a free lower end; the clasp biased against the vertical panel being shaped so that a smoking material may be clasped in a substantially vertical orientation against the vertical panel by the clasp biased against the vertical panel; a first spacing means to keep the lit end of the smoking material above the ash tray and out of contact with surfaces, comprising a substantially horizontal bar fixed to the vertical panel near the lower edge, the bar being indented so as to conform to the external surface of a substantially cylindrical smoking material; a second spacing means to keep the unlit end of the smoking material out of contact with surfaces, comprising a substantially horizontal bar fixed to the vertical panel near the upper edge, the bar being indented so as to conform to the external surface of a substantially cylindrical smoking material; the clasp biased against the vertical panel comprising a pair of brackets fixed to the vertical panel and horizontally spaced apart, the first bracket having a first hole, the second bracket a second hole, the holes bored through the brackets along a common horizontal axis; a thin, rigid, elongate rod having a first end and a second end, the rod being shaped so that the first end is mounted rotatably within the first hole, the rod being further shaped to pass horizontally behind a smoking material, through the second hole, downwardly alongside the smoking material, horizontally in front of the smoking material, and diagonally downwardly and away from the smoking material so that the second end forms a curved finger-pull; and a spring interposed between the first bracket and the rod so as to bias the rod rotationally within the first hole so that the second end is forced toward the vertical panel.