Patent ID: 8881630

Claim:
A dispenser for dispensing a selectable amount of material from an amount of stored material, comprising: (a) a housing having a material track and a material storage area; (b) a material-advancement mechanism disposed within said housing, said material-advancement mechanism including a dispensing roller having a toothed inner surface, a pawl wheel having a pawl operatively engaged with said toothed inner surface, a pinion wheel drivingly engaged with said pawl wheel, and a rack plate drivingly engaged with said pinion wheel; (c) a material-cutting mechanism disposed within said housing; and (d) an actuator movably disposed with respect to said housing and having a first end operatively engaged with said material-advancement mechanism and an opposing second end operatively engaged with said material-cutting mechanism and spring-biased to a stand-by position via at least a first spring, said actuator being selectively movable to a material-advancement position, thereby engaging said material-advancement mechanism, and selectively movable to a material-cutting position, thereby engaging said material-cutting mechanism.