AN IMPROVED PORTABLE HOLDER OR CASE FOR BOOKS AND OTHER ARTICLES CHIEFLY DESIGNED FOR SCHOOL PURPOSES
Year: 1880

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by William Robert Lake at the Office of
the Commissioners of Patents on the 7th April 1880. A communication
from abroad by Wilhelm Eppler, of Herrstein, Germany.
WILLIAM ROBERT LAKE, of the Firm of Haseltine, Lake, & Co., Patent Agents,
Southampton Buildings, London. "AN IMPROVED PORTABLE HOLDER OR CASE FOR
BOOKS AND OTHER ARTICLES CHIEFLY DESIGNED FOR SCHOOL PURPOSES." [A
communication from abroad by Wilhelm Eppler, of Herrstein, Germany.]
This Invention relates to an improved apparatus or device for holding in the
smallest possible space, and in a convenient form or inanner for being carried,
books and other articles required by scholars at school. It is chiefly designed to
provide means whereby children may be able to arrange their books and other
requisites in a convenient and compact manner for carrying the same to and from
school.
In carrying the said Invention into practice I provide a box designed to receive
sewing or similar materials, which box is furnished with four or more strings or
cords. Above this box there is a flat board or piece which forms the cover for the
box, and is held by the strings, the latter passing through holes in the box and in
the board. There is another board or flat piece arranged above the first named
board, and two uprights are attached to the upper board. A handle is fitted in the
said uprights, and is arranged so that it can turn in the latter and be fixed or
fastened between them by means of a thumb-nut.
The strings or cords pass through.corresponding holes or slits in the upper board,
also through holes in the uprights and are fastened to the handle, and according to
the direction in which the latter is turned the strings will be either wound on or
off the same.
Between the uprights I arrange a box for receiving pens, pen-holders, pencils,
and like articles; it is made of sheet iron and is fixed to the lower part of the
uprights. At the end of one of the latter there is an opening, which can be closed
by a slide, and the said articles are placed in the box or removed therefrom through
this opening.
In order to provide for carrying rolls of paper or the like readily, strings or
cords are fixed to the uprights, by means of which cords the rolls can be easily
fixed by tying.
An ordinary slate can be suspended underneath the box first mentioned by
means of spring-hooks which are attached to the strings. These hooks hook into

page_text: suitable eyes provided on the wooden frame of the slate. I provide the latter with
corners made of india-rubber or some other elastic material to prevent noise when
putting the slate down.
A ruler with dovetailed or bevelled edges is pushed into a corresponding opening
in the upper board, and projects slightly at both ends so that it may be easily
withdrawn.
In using this improved apparatus or holder the box first mentioned is filled or
supplied with sewing-materials, and the board or lid is placed upon it; then the
books required for the day are pushed in between this board and the upper board,
and the former is pressed towards the latter by turning the handle. After having
inserted the necessary writing-requisites into the upper box or case the handle is
-fixed by tightening the thumb-nut, and thus all the books and other articles are
held together in a convenient and portable form. The thumb-nut may be grooved
on its front side or provided with a roughened surface for sharpening the lead or
slate pencils.
The lower board may be used for trimming paper on.