Patent ID: 7634874

Claim:
A collapsible structural member, the combination of: a pair of adjacent modules, each of said modules including an elongated body with a head at one end and a substantially peripheral skirt forming a substantially peripherally closed socket at the other end having an interior surface contoured to substantially matingly receive an exterior surface of a head portion of the head of an adjacent module, a substantially radially outwardly facing first frictional locking surface formed by the exterior surface of each of said head portions, a substantially radially inwardly facing second frictional locking surface formed by the interior surface of said substantially peripheral skirts of each of said sockets and being complementary to said first frictional locking surfaces of said head portions, a passage formed by said body members extending longitudinally from said heads to said sockets; and a cable member in said passage of each of said modules and being anchored to one of said modules and being operative upon the application of tension to said cables at the adjacent one of said modules to bring the head portion of said locking surfaces of one module into frictional locking engagement with the second locking surface of the adjacent one of said modules to form a rigid but collapsible structure; wherein said head portions each have a pair of spaced stop elements and said skirt forms a complementary pair of spaced stop receiving recesses engagable with said stop elements to determine the relative angular position of adjacent modules to each other.