GB2097365A

GB2097365A - Page turner

Info

Publication number: GB2097365A
Application number: GB8113105A
Authority: GB
Original assignee: Individual
Current assignee: Individual
Priority date: 1981-04-28
Filing date: 1981-04-28
Publication date: 1982-11-03
Also published as: GB2097365B

Abstract

A page turner comprising an elongate handle (18) and a page gripper (19) for gripping, e.g. frictionally, the surface of a page to be turned, the page gripper being secured to or fabricated integrally with the elongate handle and arranged to project transversely of the longitudinal axis of the elongate handle. Fingers (16), (17), may be flipped underneath the turning page. <IMAGE>

Description

SPECIFICATION Page turner This invention relates to page turners.

A page turner is a tool for turning the pages of a book, newspaper, or magazine, whereby the need to touch pages with the hand or fingers is obviated.

Although in most cases page turning by hand is quite convenient, there are occasions when use of the hand or fingers is to say the least undesirable.

For example some motor mechanics, such as DIY enthusiasts who have constantly to refer to a workshop manual when working on a car, are faced with the inevitable transference of grease etc. from the fingers to the book, when they turn a page, which apart from dirtying the page can also obscure the print or the diagrams, and housewives who need to refer to a cookery book whilst trying out new dishes, are faced with the chore of having to clean the fingers each time they refer to the cookery book whilst preparing food if the book is not to become soiled.

The use of a page turner would obviate the aforementioned problems.

According to the present invention a page turner comprises an elongate handle and a page gripper for gripping the surface of a page to be turned, the page gripper being secured to or fabricated integrally with the elongate handle and arranged to project transversely of the longitudinal axis of the elongate handle.

A page gripper may according to one embodiment of the invention be disposed at the end of the page turner remote from the handle so that when the page turner is held at the handle end, the page gripper may be placed on a page to be turned without the hand or fingers needing to come into contact with the page, and manipulated so that the page to be turned is curled up with respect to a page beneath, whereby with some further movement of the page turner, the page can be turned completely over.

Although page turners fabricated in accordance with the foregoing embodiment of the invention are generally satisfactory, care must be exercised each time a page is turned to avoid permanently creasing the paper and thus it will be appreciated that to effect rapid page turning without producing a permanent crease can present a problem.

According to an alternative embodiment of the invention, the page turner additionally comprises a turning finger arranged so that the page gripper is positioned between it and the handle, whereby after having used the page gripper to separate a page to be turned from the page beneath, the turning finger can be introduced between the pages thus separated and used to complete the page turning operation.

Thus it will be appreciated that utilising a page turner fabricated in accordance with this alternative embodiment of the invention rapid page turning is facilitated without the risk of permanently creasing the pages, since substantial page curling, preparatory to turning is no longer required.

The turning finger may be formed integrally with the handle.

The turning finger may converge or diverge towards its end thereof remote from the handle.

The turning finger may be lipped to provide a generally shovel like end.

Two turning fingers may be provided in generally V shaped configuration.

Two turning fingers may be provided in generally T shaped configuration.

The handle may be cranked or bent.

The page gripper may comprise a friction pad.

The page gripper may be a moulded page gripper.

The page gripper may be fabricated of a synthetic rubber material.

The page gripper may be cup shaped, domed, conical or cylindrical.

The page gripper may be resilient and formed so that it is lockingly received in a complementary hole in the handle after the fashion of a grommet.

The page gripper may be screwed or glued to the handle.

Some embodiments of the invention will now be described by way of example with reference to the accompanying drawings in which: Figure 1 a is a side view of a page turner; Figure 1 b is a plan view of the page turner shown in Figure 1 a; Figure 1 c is a side view of a page gripper for use in the page turner of Figure 1 a; Figure 2a is a side view of a page turner having a part conical page gripper; Figure 2b is a plan view of the page turner shown in Figure 2a; Figure 3a is a side view of a page turner having a cranked handle; Figure 3b is a plan view of the page turner shown in Figure 3a; Figure 4a is a generally perspective view of a book and a page turner showing the position in which the page turner is used; Figure 4b is a plan view of the book and page turner shown in Figure 4a; Figure 5a is a side view of a page turner having a turning finger;; Figure 5b is a plan view of the page turner shown in Figure 5a; Figure 6a is a side view of a page turner having a pair of turning fingers of V shaped configuration; Figure 6b is a plan view of the page turner shown in Figure 6a; Figure 7a is a side view of a page turner having a cranked handle and a shovel like turning finger; Figure 7b is a sectional view of the turning finger shown in 7a; Figure 7c is a plan view of the page turner shown in Figure 7a; Figure 8a is a side view of a page turner having a cranked handle and a generally T shaped page turner; Figure 8b is a plan view of the page turner shown in Figure 8a; Figure 8c is a sectional view of the turning finger shown in Figure 8a; Figure 9a is a front view of a book and page turner;; Figure 9b is a view of the book and page turner shown in Figure 9a when the turning finger is introduced between the pages thus separated; Figure 1 Oa is a front view of a book and page turner having two turning fingers; and Figure 1 Ob is a view of the book and page turner shown in Figure 1 Oa when the turning fingers are introduced between the pages thus separated.

Referring now to Figures 1 a, 1 b and Ic a page turner comprises a handle 1, which is bent at a point 2, and which has a hole 3a formed in an end 3 thereof for receiving a page gripper 4. The page gripper 4, is shown most clearly in Figure 1 c, and is provided with a circumferential groove or slot 5, which is complementary with the hole 3a formed in the end 3 of the handle 1. Thus it will be appreciated that the page gripper which is preferably fabricated of moulded synthetic rubber, will fit into the hole 3a and be retained therein. In use, the page turner is held by its handle 1. The page gripper is then placed on a page to be turned at a position close to its lower end and then moved towards the centre of the page along the surface of the page and in firm contact with the page.This action causes the edge of the page to move towards the centre of the book, of which the page is a part, along the surface of the page beneath. As the page turner is moved, the page commences to curl upwards and as the page turner is moved still further toward the centre of the book, the page turner is gradually lifted off whilst at the same time generally pushing the page by means of the page gripper to the other side of the book of which it forms a part whereby it is turned over.

The position of a page 1 a of a book 11 relative to a page turner 12 is shown in Figure 4a and Figure 4b.

Various modifications may be made to the arrangement shown in Figure 1, and for example as shown in Figures 2a and 2b, a page turner may be provided with a straight handle 6 and a generally conical page gripper 7 which is secured to the handle by means of a nut and bolt 8.

Referring now to Figures 3a and 2b, an alternative embodiment is shown comprising a cranked handle 9 to one end of which is secured by means of adhesive a small rectangular pad 10 of sheet or moulded rubber which serves as a page gripper.

Although the embodiments so far described are generally satisfactory it will be appreciated that care must be exercised if pages are not to be permanently creased during a page turning operation, and in order to reduce the possibility of creasing a page, an alternative construction, as shown in Figures 5a and 5b may be used, comprising a turning finger 13. The finger 1 3 is an extension of a cranked handle 14, a page gripper 1 5 being positioned between the turning finger 13 and the cranked handle 14. The page gripper 1 5 is fitted to the handle 14 in a similar manner to the manner in which the page gripper 4 is fitted to the handle 1 shown in Figure 1 a.Thus the page gripper 1 5 includes a groove to facilitate fixing after the fashion of a grommet. In use of the page turner as shown in Figures 5a and 5b, the page gripper 1 5 is used initially to slightly curl a page to be turned with respect to the page beneath. The turning finger is then introduced between the pages to complete the turning operation.

The relative positions of a page turner 31 and a book 32 when carrying out this operation are shown in Figure 9a and Figure 9b, the page turner 31 having a page gripper 33.

Various alternative forms of this embodiment of the invention are possible and as shown in Figures 6a and 6b, two turning fingers of generally V shaped configuration may be provided extending to define a handle 18, a cup like page gripper 1 9 being positioned at the root of the V shaped fingers 1 6, 1 7, between the fingers and the handle 1 8. Thus the finger 1 7 might most conveniently be used initially to lift pages to be turned to the right and the finger 16 might most conveniently be used initially to lift pages to be turned to the left, both fingers being used to turn each page.The fingers 1 6 and 1 7 can be used as stated because it is envisaged the page turner with the fingers should be rotated through 1 800 before or while inserting the turning finger underneath the lifted page. The manner of operation is illustrated in Figure 1 0a and Figure 1 Ob, in which the pages of a book 20 are to be turned with a page turner 21.

An alternative design of page turner is shown in Figures 7a, 7b and 7c. The page turner comprises a cranked or bent handle 22, which extends to define a generally shovel like turning finger 23, the cross section of which is shown in Figure 7b.

Positioned between the turning finger 23 and the handle 22 is a generally cylindrical moulded synthetic rubber page gripper 24, which has formed integrally therewith a press poppet part 25, which is forced through a hole 26 in the handle 22 so as to fit after the fashion of a grommet.

Another embodiment of the invention is shown in Figures 8a, 8b and 8c. The page turner comprises a generally T shaped pair of turning fingers 27, 28 which are formed on the end of a handle 29, a moulded synthetic rubber page gripper 30 being positioned between them. The page gripper 30 is formed so as to fit grommet fashion in the handle 29. As shown in Figure 8c the ends of the turning fingers 27 and 28 are tapered to permit of easy page separation.

Various modifications may be made to the foregoing embodiments without departing from the scope of the invention and for example the page gripper may be made from any suitable friction material such as a plastics material or natural rubber.

Although the turning finger is most conveniently integral with the handle it may be a part secured to the handle and used to support the gripper.

The operating procedures for page turners given above are examples only, and a user can formulate his own way of using the instrument if he wishes.

If the page that needs to be turned over appears to be stuck to the page immediately underneath, a brisk to and fro movement or rotational movement of the paper gripper on the page usually releases the binding force between the two pages. This can be done irrespective of which of the foregoing examples of page turner is used. Sometimes there is still a possibility that such movement of the page gripper on the page may fail to release the two sheets. In such a case, the turning finger can be utilised to separate the two sheets by inserting the tip of the turning finger between the two pages along the edge and carefully lifting or levering the top page; for which purpose the end of the arms may be tapered as shown in Figures 5 and 8. This is a facility which the page turners described in Figures 1 to 4 above cannot offer a user.

The shape of the handles shown are for example only, and may conveniently be used if the handle is to be made out of a sheet metal. A vast member of shapes are possible depending on how the handle is made and what material is used.

Thus, for example, the handle can be moulded out of a plastics material, and similarly a large number of shapes for the page gripper are possible.

Apart from the uses already mentioned, the page turner can be of use in workshops, colleges, laboratories, hospitals etc. where people have to refer to text books, reference manuals etc. while having to handle items containing grease, oils, liquids, or chemicals etc. In view of this fact, it is advisable that the materials selected to make the page turner are capable of withstanding or resisting the presence of such items, such for example as grease or oil, or alternatively adequate protection should be given against such items.

Claims

1. A page turner comprising an elongate handle and a page gripper for gripping the surface of a page to be turned, the page gripper being secured to or fabricated integrally with the elongate handle and arranged to project transversely of the longitudinal axis of the elongate handle.

2. A page turner according to claim 1 in which a page gripper is disposed at the end of the page turner remote from the handle so that when the page turner is held at the handle end, the page gripper may be placed on a page to be turned without the hand or fingers needing to come into contact with the page, and manipulated so that the page to be turned is curled up with respect to a page beneath, whereby with some further movement of the page turner, the page can be turned completely over.

3. A page turner according to claim 2 in which the page turner additionally comprises a turning finger arranged so that the page gripper is positioned between it and the handle, whereby after having used the page gripper to separate a page to be turned from the page beneath, the turning finger can be introduced between the pages thus separated and used to complete the page turning operation.

4. A page turner according to claim 3 in which the turning finger is formed integrally with the handle.

5. A page turner according to claim 3 or claim 4 in which the turning finger converges or diverges towards its end thereof remote from the handle.

6. A page turner according to any one of claims 3 to 5 in which the turning finger is clipped to provide a generally shovel like end.

7. A page turner according to claim 3 in which there are two turning fingers, the two turning fingers being provided in generally V-shaped configuration.

8. A page turner according to claim 3 in which there are two turning fingers, the two turning fingers being provided in generally T-shaped configuration.

9. A page turner according to any one of the preceding claims in which the handle is cranked or bent.

10. A page turner according to any one of the preceding claims in which the page gripper comprises a friction pad.

1 A page turner according to any one of the preceding claims in which the page gripper is a moulded page gripper.

12. A page turner according to any one of the preceding claims in which the page gripper is fabricated of a synthetic rubber material.

1 3. A page turner according to any one of the preceding claims in which the page gripper is cup shaped, domed, conical or cylindrical.

14. A page turner according to any one of the preceding claims in which the page gripper is resilient and is formed so that it is lockingly received in a complementary hole in the handle after the fashion of a grommet.

15. A page turner according to any one of claims 1 to 1 3 in which the page gripper is screwed or glued to the handle.

1 6. A page turner substantially as herein described with reference to the accompanying drawings.