US2633372A - Bookmark - Google Patents

Description

March 31, 1953 J. N. B. wlLsoN BoomARx Filed' Nov. 22, 194s ATTORNEYS Patented Mar. 31, 1953 UNITED STATES PTENT OFFICE BOOKMARK' John N. B. Wilson, Detroit, Mich. Application November 22, 1948, Serial No. 61,429

3 Claims. l

The present invention-relates to bookmarks, and more especially, to a newy and improved bookmark which may be easily and quickly applied to old or to new books, without defacing or damaging the same, or otherwise detracting from the appearance, form or size of the book.

With the ever-increasing popularity of books, literature, and other forms of reading matter in book form, suchv as magazines, pamphlets, catalogs', etc.,l whether for pleasure or relaxation, or for the more serious aspects of educational study, business or professional interests, or the like, there has been a continued and pronounced demand for a simple andpractical means for markingY or otherwise indicating the reading progress in the book or volume being read, or for marking special points of interest or reference therein. AlthoughV many different bookmarks have been proposed or used, few; if any, have been practical or entirely satisfactory, and none has been suiiiciently outstanding to become standard. Some even mutilate or damage the book, and others areY too easily lost or misplaced, or uriduly subject to accidental displacement.

With the foregoing deficiencies in mind, it is the primary object of the present invention to provide a bookmark which is relatively inexpensive, simple and effective, and of great usefulness to book readers, without any tendency to mutilate or damage the book, or to change its normal appearance, size and/or form.

A further object of the invention is to provide a new and improved bookmark which may beY positively attached to any book or volume, whether old or new, in such a manner that it cannot be lost4 or misplaced, and hence. is always quickly available for use,.yet out-of-the-way and wholly concealed when not in use.

Another object of the invention is toprovide a new article of manufacture comprising a bookmark having the form of an elongated, flexible marker member, and an anchor member for movably attaching the elongated marker member to the inner face of the. back of a book or other volume, or to some other appropriate page of the book, said marker andf anchor members` cooperating with each other so as to permit shi-fting ofthe anchorV member from a normal, outof-the-way, concealed position, lying flat against the cover or the page to which it is attached, and wholly within the margins of the same, to a position extended fromv one edge of the book so as to enable the extended end to be folded over anypage of the book according. to the. progress of the reader, or tov mark any desired page for reference purposes.

A stillA further object of the invention is" to provide a bookmark as aforementioned, wherein the marker member' and the anchor member are. so constructed and arranged as to positively limit the retracting and extending. movements, respectively, of the marker member, whereby to prevent the marker member from becoming. 1nadvertently detached from` the book. Y

Other and further objects and advantages of the invention will be hereinafter described and the novel. features thereof defined in the'l ap'- pended claims.

In the drawing:

Figurev 1 is a perspective view showing a bookmark constructed. in accordance with the present invention, as applied to the inner face of the back of a typical book or volume, with the shiftable marker member fully retracted to an outof-the-way position, and wholly lying within the margins of the back of the book so as to be concealed when the book is closed, the back of thebook in this view being' swung to an open position, and portions of the remainderof the book, being broken` away;

Figure 2 is a fragmentary viewin front' elevation of the back of the book, as viewed towards' the inner face thereof, with the bookmarkv applied thereto, and the shiftable part of the bookmark shown in fulllines inv its fully extended position, and in broken lines in its fully retracted position;

Figure 3 is a fragmentary sectional viewJ through the book of Figure 1, showing the shift'- able. marker member extended and folded for'- Wardly over the upper edges of the book. pages; and thence folded downwardly over a. selected page so that the extreme end of the marker member lies flat between two adjacentv pages to' denote the readers progress, or some other reference point, as the case may be;

Figure 4 is a fragmentary sectional View" as taken on the line 4-4 of Figure 1; and

Figure 5 is a detail view of the anchor member in rear elevation, and showing the gummedV ends thereof which serve to enable the same tobe easily and quickly secured to a book.

Like reference characters. designate corresponding parts in the several figures of the drawing.,

wherein I generally denotesA a typical book or volume having a relatively stiff front or co'veir 2 and a corresponding relatively stiff backor cover 3 forming parts of the usual binding for the intermediate pagesv d of the book. The form, shape and size of the book. are not material to" the'.

present invention, nor is it essential that the covers, that is, the front and back, be stiff or relatively stiff, since the invention is similarly applicable to soft or paper bindings of magazines, catalogs, and the like, although the invention will be found to be more particularly useful with books having stiff or relatively stift` covers or bindings. Accordingly, it is to be understood that the term book, as used in this description and in the appended claims, is to be construed in its broad ysense or significance.

According to the present invention, the bookmark is composed of two elements respectively designated 5 and 6, the element 5 constituting an anchor member, and the element G constituting a marker member which is movably or shiftably attached to the book by the anchor member 5,

IIhe anchor member 5 has the form of a relatively flat strip which is preferably reduced in width at its central portion, as indicated at l, and the rear faces of each end portion 8, 8 are gummed or coated with a suitable adhesive as indicated at 9, for the purpose of enabling the anchor member to be quickly and easily attached to the inner face of the back 3 of the book, as more particularly shown in Figures 1 and 2 of the drawing. When so attached, the anchor member extends transversely across the face of the back of the book, and the reduced intermedia-te portion 'I of the anchor member is left free and unattached so as to receive the marker member 6 behind the same, while permitting the marker member E to be freely shiftable in an upward and downward direction as viewed in Figures 1 and 2.

The upper end of the marker member 6 is enlarged, as at I0, by laterally extending the same so as to form a tab or tongue Il at each side thereof, the lower edge of each tab or tongue being downwardly and outwardly inclined, as at I2, and forming a notch I3 at each side of the marker member where the enlarged end It! joins the portion of the marker member below the same. Thus, the upper end of the marker member generally conforms in shape to an arrow head, although this specific shape is not essential to the invention.

The lower end of the marker member 5 is likewise enlarged, as at Ill, and is laterally extended at each side thereof, as indicated at l5, I5, with the upper edges of the extended portions inclining upwardly and outwardly, as at I6, IG, so as to form notches I 'I at the upper side of the enlarged portion I 4, generally corresponding to the notches I3, I3 at the upper end of the marker member. Between the enlarged ends I and lll respectively, the marker member is preferably uniform in width so as to freely slide in an upward and downward direction between the maximum limits of its movement which are respectively shown in broken lines and in full lines in Figure 2 of the drawing. As will be obvious from the drawing and the foregoing description, the marker member 6 may be moved downwardly to the position shown in full lines in Figure l and in broken lines in Figure 2, which position constitutes the normal out-of-the-way or retracted position of the marker member. In s'uch position, the marker member is restrained against further downward movement and is prevented from becoming inadvertently disengaged from the anchor member 5 .by interengagement of the notches i3, I3 with the anchor member 5, as clearly shown in Figure 1. When in this position, the marker member 6 lies wholly within the margins of the back 3 of the book, so that 4 when the back is closed, the marker member is completely concealed.

In order to utilize the marker member 6 for marking the reading progress in the book, the marker member may be drawn upwardly to the position shown in full lines in Figure 2, which constitutes an extended position which is limited by engagement of the notches Il, Il at the bottom of the marker member with the anchor member 5, as clearly shown in Figure 2. In this extended position, accidental or inadvertent detachment of the marker member is positively prevented. When in its extended position, the marker member may be folded forwardly across the upper edges of the pages 4 of the book, and thence downwardly upon any selected page to which the book is open, whereupon, on closing the book, the marker will assume a marking position as exemplied in Figure 3 of the drawing, with the extended end of the marker member 6 held dat between two adjacent pages of the book. Since the binding of the book, including the front 2 and back 3, usually extends slightly above the edges of the book pages, the entire bookmark, including that portion of the marker member 6 which extends over the upper edges of the pages, lies wholly within the extreme outer margins of the book and hence does not detract from the form, size and/or appearance of the book. If placed on a book-shelf with other books in an upright position, the bookmark will be concealed even though the marker member is in use to mark the reading progress or a reference page in the book.

When the reader is ready to resume reading of the book, the book is rst opened to the page over which the extended end of the marker member 6 has previously been folded, whereupon the marker member 6 may be shifted to its retracted position shown in Figure 1, until ready for further use.

Both the marker member 6 and the anchor member 5 may be made of the same material or of different materials, if preferred. Preferably the material should be relatively thin so that when the book mark is applied to a book, it will not materially increase the thickness of the book or distort the shape of the book. At least the marker member 6 should be made of a relatively flexible material. I have found that satisfactory results may be obtained by making both the anchor member 5 and the marker member 6 of paper, such as a relatively heavy and tough paper like Kraft paper. Other suitable materials or combinations thereof may be employed, such as leather, oilcloth, cellophane, Celluloid, plastics, or even thin metal. According to the choice of material, either or both the anchor member and the marker member may be transparent, semi-transparent, or opaque, and if desired, they may be made of different colors, with or without decorative designs. For smoothness of 0peration, and to insure that the marker member 6 will always lie at against the face of the book back, it should have some stiffness, yet should be sufiiciently flexible to freely fold over the place in the book to be marked.

order to apply the bookmark to a book, it 1s simply necessary to place the marker member 6 iiat against the inner face of the back 3 of the book, and then lay the anchor member across the same as shown in Figure 4 so that the opposite ends of the anchor member will become attached to the book by means of the adhesive surfaces 9 which should previously be moistened in the case of gummed surfaces, or which need not be moistened if other suitable substitute adhesives are employed. Instead of applying the bookmark to the back or cover of the book, it may be applied to any suitable page at or near the end of the book, or if preferred, to the inner face of the front 2 or one of the pages at or near the front of the book. Whatever the manner of application may be, the bookmark constitutes an exceedingly simple, inexpensive, yet exceedingly useful article of manufacture.

While the specific details have been herein shown and described, the invention is not confined thereto as changes and alterations may be made without departing from the spirit thereof as defined in the appended claims.

I claim:

1. The combination with a book having front and back covers and pages between said covers, said pages and covers being secured together in face-to-face relation, of a bookmark comprising an elongated, flexible marker strip, and an anchor strip movably attaching said marker strip to an inner face of the book, said anchor strip having means at its opposite ends securing the same to the inner face of the book, with the intermediate portion of the anchor strip spaced from the surface t0 which its ends are secured and overlying the marker strip so as to permit the marker strip to be freely shifted to and from an extended position, and said marker strip being laterally extended at its opposite ends for abutting engagement with the anchor strip for limiting shifting movement of the marker strip in opposite directions, and being normally disposed in a flat condition against the inner face of the book, but being shiftable to a position extended from one edge of the book so as to be foldable over the edges of the book pages and thence between any two adjacent pages.

2. A bookmark as defined in claim 1, wherein the means at the opposite ends of the anchor strip for securing the same to the face of the book has an adhesive surface.

3. The combination with a book having front and back covers and pages between said covers, said pages and covers being secured together in face-to-face relation, of a bookmark comprising an elongated, fiat, flexible marker strip having its opposite ends laterally extended at each side thereof and having that portion thereof between its ends of substantially uniform width, and an anchor strip attached at its opposite ends to an inner face of the book with the anchor strip transversely extended across the marker strip and with an intermediate portion of the anchor strip overlying the marker strip and spaced from the face of the book to which the ends of the anchor strip are attached, said spaced intermediate portion of the anchor strip being of a length slightly greater than the width of the marker strip between its laterally extended ends, but less than the width of the laterally extended ends of the marker strip, said marker strip being shiftable in opposite directions between a position extending from one edge of the book so as to be foldable over the edges of the book pages and thence between any two adjacent pages, and a position within the margins of the book, and said laterally extended ends of said marker strip being selectively engageable with said anchor strip to limit movement of said marker strip in opposite directions to the positions aforesaid.

JOHN N. B. WILSON.

REFERENCES CITED The following references are of record in the file of this patent:

UNITED STATES PATENTS Number Name Date 288,285 Webb Nov. 13, 1883 470,690 Martin Mar. 15, 1892 623,415 McCluskey Apr. 18, 1899 1,862,573 Grosz June 14, 1932 2,202,787 Zumpft May 28, 1940 2,405,374 Singer Aug. 6, 1946 FOREIGN PATENTS Number Country Date 316,823 Great Britain Aue. 8, 1929 379,459 Great Britain Sept. 1, 1932

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