Abstract:
An organizer serving as a safeguard for electrical cords during charging intervals of electrically-operated consumer products provided by a compartment having internally a strip of uniformly spaced apart female sockets electrically connected to a power company wall socket and externally the consumer products&#39; charging components similarly uniformly spaced apart, wherein the correlation of the uniform spacing maintains the electrical cords in neatly coiled conditions without entanglement with each other within the compartment.

Description:
The present invention relates generally to improvements for electrically operated consumer products, the improvements more particularly contributing to facilitating the preparation of these prods for their intended end use. 
   BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 
   1. Field of the Invention 
   Exemplified perhaps best by hair care appliances, such as hair dryers and hair curlers, is their management using an “Appliance Organizer” as illustrated and described in U.S. Pat. No. 5,917,694 issued to Denny on Jun. 29, 1999, as but one of many such patents. Using to advantage that the appliances are typically used at a common site, such as before a bathroom sink and minor, there is positioned at the site a holder of the appliances which also organizes the electrical cords thereof so there is minimal entanglement. 
   2. Description of the Related Art 
   However, equally popular are such consumer products also electrically operated, as exemplified by digital cameras, cell phones, walkie-talkies, MP3 players and like products, which are battery-powered to promote portability. These category of products lacking a common site of use, correspondingly lack an organizer, not only to obviate electric cord entanglement but to safeguard against hazards during preparation for use. 
   BRIEF SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION 
   Broadly, it is an object of the present invention to overcome the foregoing and other shortcomings of the prior art. 
   More particularly, it is an object to use to advantage an equivalent of a common site of use, namely, a makeshift common site for the charging of the batteries of the noted portable consumer products, and to thereby obtain the same benefits of an “organizer”, all as will be better understood as the description proceeds. 

   
     BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE SEVERAL VIEWS OF THE DRAWINGS 
     The description of the invention which follows, together with the accompanying drawings should not be construed as limiting the invention to the example shown and described, because those skilled in the art to which this invention appertains will be able to devise other forms thereof within the ambit of the appended claims. 
       FIG. 1  is a perspective view, with portions broken away to illustrate internal structural features, of an organizer for electrical cords of electrically-operated consumer products according to the present invention; 
       FIG. 2  is a partial front elevational view of a spaced apart string of female electrical sockets component to the organizer; 
       FIG. 3  is a view similar to FIG.  2  and including electrical cords of electrically-operated consumer products; 
       FIG. 4  is a perspective view of the organizer similar to  FIG. 1  but without the portion thereof broken away in  FIG. 1 ; and 
       FIG. 5  is a partial perspective view illustrating the electrical cords of FIG.  3  and also the electrically-operated consumer products. 
   

   DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION 
   In popular use are electrically operated articles of manufacture, as shown in  FIG. 1 , exemplified by digital cameras, cell phones, walkie-talkies, and like products, individually and collectively designated  10 , which have as an auxiliary component an electric cord  12  typically 3 to 5 feet in length  14  and having a male plug  16  at one end and a charging insert  18  at an opposite end, the latter sized and shaped to be projected into a cooperating sized and shaped socket  20  in the product  10  so that batteries or like electrical components (not shown) of the product  10  are charged with electrical energy preparatory to functioning in the manner intended, as for example, a charged digital camera product  10  to provide photographing service, a charged cell phone product  10  to provide communicating service, and so on. 
   Addressing the chore of charging the products  10  from time to time, as needed, is an article of manufacture of what aptly, going by its function, serves as an organizer illustrated and generally designated  22  in  FIG. 1 , provided in accordance with the present invention to handle the plural electrical cords  12  without entanglement with each other, in proper electrical connection, with a cooperating product  10 , and in a typically unsupervised set aside duration for the charging in a safeguarded environment against injury to children, pets or those otherwise vulnerable by exposure to the electrical connections involved, as well as obviating the hazards of fire of flammable materials. 
   The safe environment of the organizer  22  is provide by an interior compartment  24  bounded by a bottom  26 , a short front wall  28 , a taller rear wall  30 , opposite side walls  32  and  34  of a trapezoidal shape presenting angled edges  36  and  38 , and a top wall  40 , the edges, individually and collectively designated  42 , of the walls bounding an opening  44  into the compartment  24 . Mounted on the rear wall  30  is a horizontally oriented power strip  46  of uniformly spaced apart female electrical sockets, individually and collectively designated  48 , of a type commercially available, as from The Home Depot of 1608 Sunrise Highway, Freeport, N.Y., and including an electrical cord  50  electrically connected at one end to the sockets  48  and at an opposite end to a male plug  52 . 
   In correlation to the uniform spacing of the female sockets  48  is an array of similarly uniformly spaced apart edges bounding shaped openings, individually and collectively designated  54 , in the top wall  40 , so that the correlation produces an alignment of a cooperating opening  54  with a female socket  48  in plural vertical planes successively across the width  56  of the wall  40 , as shown in FIG.  2 . 
   As best seen in  FIG. 3 , the use of the organizer  22  contemplates the threading of the male plug  16  of an electrical cord  12  through a selected opening  54  and the electrical connection of the male plug  16  to a cooperating, or same vertical plane, female plug  48  on the strip  46 . The charging means ends  18  of the electrical cord  12  is then inserted in a force fit in the opening  54 , as noted at  58  and, to this end since the charging means end  18  is usually shaped and of a selected size as supplied by manufacturers thereof, the openings  54  are of a matching shape and size to provide the noted friction fit  58 . The trade practice of sizing and shaping the electric cord charging means end  18  as just noted is best understood from U.S. Pat. No. 6,495,988 for “Combination Charging Mechanism” incorporated herein pursuant to MPEP 2163.07(b) 
   Completing the construction of the organizer  22  is a cover or lid  60  hingedly connected, as at  62 , to the free edge  66  of the top wall  40  so as to partake of opening and closing movements  68  in the compartment opening  44 , as shown in FIG.  4 . When closed, lid  60  is an angled support surface for products  10  held in place against a stop in a strip  70  connected horizontally across the lid  60 , best seen in FIG.  5 . 
   Preparatory to a charging interval, typically at night, with the power strip male plug  52  inserted in a power company line current female wall socket, as seen in  FIG. 5 , one or more products  10  are disposed in place on the closed slanted lid  60  and cooperating cord electrical charging ends  18  removed from the openings  54  and connected to the products  10 , with the lengths  14  of the cords  12  each maintained in a neat coiled and untangled condition from each other in their delimited vertical planes within the storage compartment  24 . The electrical charging ends  18  not in active use remain in their non-use positions in the openings  54  and, as such, pose no more of a danger than an unused wall female socket, while the active female sockets  48  of the power strip  46  are within the safeguard of the compartment  24 . 
   While the organizer herein shown and disclosed in detail is fully capable of attaining the objects are providing the advantages hereinbefore stated, it is to be understood that it is merely illustrative of the presently preferred embodiment of the invention and that no limitations are intended to the detail of the construction or design herein shown other than as defined in the appended claims.