Dispenser for sheets of paper and the like

A dispenser for dispensing one sheet at a time from a stack of sheets includes a hollow rectangular receptacle which receives and holds the stack and has an opening in the top wall to expose the top sheet of the stack and permit the top sheet to be removed through the opening. A lever is resiliently mounted on the receptacle adjacent the top wall and has a free end which normally extends over the opening in the top wall and which carries a pad of adhesive material on its underside. The free end of the lever may be pressed down manually to engage the pad with the top sheet of the stack and, when the free end is released, the lever returns to its normal position thereby lifting an end portion of the top sheet up through the opening where that sheet may be grasped and removed from the receptacle.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 
This invention relates to a means for dispensing a single sheet at a time 
from a stack of such sheets and is particularly useful in dispensing 
tissue end wrap sheets such as are used in curling hair. 
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION 
The general object of the invention is to provide a new and improved 
dispenser for sheets with which the top sheet of the stack may be removed 
simply and easily through the use of just one hand. 
A more detailed object is to achieve the foregoing by providing the top 
wall of the receptacle with an opening which exposes an end portion of the 
top sheet of the stack and to utilize a lever which is resiliently mounted 
on the receptacle with its free end normally over the opening so that the 
free end may be pushed down through the opening and into engagement with 
the top sheet, the underside of the free end carrying a pad of adhesive 
material to which the top sheet adheres so that a portion of the top sheet 
is lifted through the opening and out of the receptacle when the free end 
is released and the lever resiliently returns to its normal position. 
The invention also resides in the novel construction and arrangement of the 
receptacle and the lever.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT 
As shown in the drawings for purposes of illustration, the invention is 
embodied in a dispenser for retrieving individual sheets 10 from a stack 
11 of sheets disposed within a receptacle 12. Although the invention is 
particularly useful for dispensing tissue paper sheets known as end wraps 
for curling hair, it may also be used for dispensing sheets of various 
other types. In general, the dispenser includes the hollow rectangular 
receptacle 12 having top and bottom walls 13 and 14, side walls 15 and 
front and rear end walls 16 and 17. For convenience of manufacture, the 
receptacle may be formed from two pieces of molded plastic material such 
as medium impact styrene with the bottom, end and side walls being molded 
as one unitary piece and the top wall being molded as the other piece as 
illustrated in FIG. 3. 
Spaced tabs 18 project inwardly from the rear wall 17 adjacent the upper 
edge thereof and a similar tab 19 projects inwardly from each of the side 
walls 15 intermediate the ends thereof and adjacent the upper edges of 
these walls. Mating with the tabs 18 are hooked lugs 20 which project 
downwardly from the rear edge of the top wall 13 with the hook portion of 
each lug extending in under the corresponding tab 18 on the rear wall. 
Similar lugs 21 project downwardly from the side edges of the top wall to 
hook in under the tabs 19 on the side walls. The forward end portions 22 
of the side walls 15 are somewhat higher than the remaining portions of 
these walls to provide rearwardly facing shoulders 23 (FIG. 3), the front 
wall 16 being the same height as these portions, and the top wall 13 is 
shorter than the bottom wall 14 and its length is such that the front edge 
24 abuts the shoulders 23 when the receptacle 12 is assembled. With the 
top wall stopping short of and spaced from the front wall 16, these two 
walls cooperate to define an opening 25 (FIG. 2) through which the sheets 
10 may be inserted into and removed from the receptacle. To assemble the 
receptacle, the front edge 24 of the top wall 13 is abutted against the 
shoulders 23 and then the top wall is pressed down against the upper edges 
of the side walls 15 and the rear wall 17, the lugs 20 and 21 resiliently 
yielding to pass over their respective tabs 18 and 19 and then snapping in 
under the tabs to hold the top wall in place. If desired, the receptacle 
may be molded with downwardly projecting legs 26 at the corner of the 
receptacle. 
The present invention contemplates the provision of a novel means for 
simply and easily removing a single sheet 10 from the top of the stack 11 
through the opening 25 in the receptacle 12 with only one hand being 
required to effect such removal. In general, this means comprises an 
elongated lever 27 resiliently mounted on the receptacle with a free end 
28 normally disposed above said opening 25 but being movable into the 
opening and with a pad 29 of adhesive material carried on the underside of 
the free end of the lever. Thus, to remove the top sheet of the stack 11 
from the receptacle, the free end of the lever is manually pressed down 
into the opening until the pad 29 is pressed against the top sheet. Then, 
when the lever is released, it springs back to its normal position with 
its free end above the opening and, because the top sheet adheres to the 
adhesive pad, an end portion of this sheet is lifted through the opening 
where it is readily grasped to remove the sheet from the receptacle. 
In the present instance, the lever 27 itself is resilient and is molded as 
a unitary piece from a resilient plastic material such as delrin. One end 
portion 30 of the lever is secured to the top wall 13 of the receptacle 
near the rear thereof and, in the natural or normal condition of the 
lever, the remaining portion 31 extends upwardly and forwardly with the 
free end 28 disposed above the opening 25. To permit easy entry of the 
free end into the opening, the top wall 13 preferably is formed with an 
elongated centrally located slot 32 (FIG. 3) which underlies the lever 
portion 31 and which extends from the front edge 24 of the top wall to a 
point adjacent the rear of that wall. Spanning the rear end portion of the 
slot are two spaced ribs 33 and 34 and, forwardly of the ribs, the slot 
may flare somewhat as illustrated in FIG. 3. 
To secure the lever 27 to the top wall 13, the rear end portion 30 of the 
lever comprises two flat vertically spaced legs 35 and 36 which straddle 
the ribs 33 and 34. The normal spacing between the legs is slightly less 
than the thickness of the ribs so that the legs firmly engage the ribs and 
a downwardly projecting finger 37 formed on the upper leg 35 abuts the 
back of the forward rib 33 to prevent the lever from sliding forward off 
the ribs. The lower leg 36 engages the underside of both ribs and the end 
of the upper leg 35 projects under a lip 38 (FIG. 2) on the top wall to 
prevent the rear portion 30 of the lever from tilting. Thus, when the free 
end 28 of the lever is depressed, the lever portion 31 resiliently bends 
downwardly through the slot 32 and the free end enters the opening 25, the 
lever returning to its normal position (FIG. 1) when the free end is 
released. 
Herein, the free end 28 of the lever 27 includes a downwardly projecting 
part 39 which is enlarged as indicated at 40 and the pad 29 is carried on 
the underside of the enlargement. Preferably, the pad is made of a pliable 
sticky material such as butyl rubber which is molded to the shape of the 
enlargement 40 and is pressed against the latter to stick in place. The 
free end 28 also may include a finger piece 41 projecting above the lever 
and having a serrated upper surface 42. 
With the foregoing arrangement, a stack 11 of sheets 10 is inserted into 
the receptacle 12 through the opening 25 and then, when it is desired to 
remove the top sheet, the lever 27 is depressed by manually pushing down 
on the finger piece 41 as shown in FIG. 2. This moves the pad 29 down 
through the opening 25 and into engagement with the top sheet. The latter 
sticks to the pad so that, when the finger piece is released, the lever 
springs back to its normal position and the pad carries the end portion of 
the top sheet up through the opening 25 as illustrated in FIG. 1. At that 
time, the top sheet may easily be grasped and removed from both the pad 
and the receptacle. 
The dispenser may conveniently be carried on the wrist of the user by means 
of an elastic wrist band 43 (FIG. 1). For this purpose, each side wall 15 
includes two hooks 44 and 45 molded integrally with the wall. The forward 
hook 44 extends outwardly and then rearwardly from its wall while the rear 
hook 45 projects outwardly and rearwardly and the two hooks are spaced 
apart longitudinally to permit the band to be inserted between each pair 
of hooks. The band then is slipped onto the user's wrist with the 
dispenser on top of the wrist. The lower edges of the front and rear walls 
16 and 17 are arcuately concave as indicated at 46 to accommodate 
generally the contour of the wrist. If it is preferred not to carry the 
dispenser on the wrist, pads (not shown) of adhesive material such as 
butyl rubber may be placed on the undersides of the legs 26 so that the 
dispenser may be placed on a flat surface and used without slipping.