US2142227A - Firecracker package - Google Patents

Description

Jan. 3, 1939. R. B. WHITESIDE 3,

FIRECRACKER PACKAGE Filed March 51, 1937 2 Sheets-Sheet 1 Ara array, 22. wi s z'de Jan. 3, 1939. R. B. WHITESIDE FIRE RACKER PACKAGE Filed March 351, 1937 Y 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 Patented Jan. 3, 193

UNITED ST'T ICE 2 Claims.

This invention is a firecracker package combination.

An object of the invention is to provide a package of loose or free firecrackers in which the crackers are packed in parallel rows in a common plane with the crackers arranged transversely in their rows and preferably with their fuses all disposed at the inner ends of the crackers, that is, fuse ends in juxtaposition, all of the crackers being entirely unattached in any manner in the pack. Thus the loose crackers may be handled one at a time without any unbraiding or breaking of other fastening means sometimes provided to fix the arranged crackers in the pack.

5 By arrangement of the crackers with their fuses in juxtaposition the whole pack may be fired at once if so desired.

A further object is to provide a container or box structure preferably of one piece of material 20 for confining the crackers in their row plane against dislodgement and to provide for ready access to the fuses for purpose of igniting the pack as a whole.

Also, an object is to provide a package con- 25 taining a match-headed, slow burning, fuse lighting element or stick serving to stiffen the package, and provide a closure incorporating a match strike.

The invention consists of certain advance- 30 ments in this art as set forth in the ensuing disclosure and having, with the above, additional objects and advantages as hereinafter developed, and whose construction, combination and details of means, and the method and the manner of 35 operation will be made manifest in the description of the annexed, illustrative embodiment; it being understood that modifications, variations and adaptations may be resorted to within the scope, principle and spirit of the invention as it w is more directly claimed in the appendage.

Figure 1 is a perspective of a partially closed, preferred form of the package. Figure 2 is a perspective of the frontal or window side of the sealed pack. Figure 3 is an edge and back perspective thereof. Figure 4 is a sectional elevation of the match stick. Figure 5 shows the scheme of laying the loose fuses in between the rows of crackers.

Figure 6 is a plan of a strip blank, Figure 7 is a perspective of a partly folded box, and Figure 8 is a perspective of a packed and sealed package of a modified form of the invention.

Figs. 1 to 3 inclusive, show a package in which two rows 2 and 3 of crackers C are laid in a plane with their fuses 4 all disposed at the inner ends of the crackers; these being laid transversely in their respective rows.

The fuses t are all laid parallel in one direction toward one end of the rows of crackers and toward a narrow slit 5 provided in one of the 5 four side walls 6 of a shallow container or envelope, Fig. 3. The fuses of the endmost crackers are bent to line along the wall 6 in which the slit 5 is provided at a position such that by inserting a fingernail the user may slightly tear 10 open the Wall to pull out a portion of a near fuse to be lighted for firing the whole pack at one time by reason of running of the fire along the fuses at the center of the pack at the inner ends of the rows of crackers.

The envelope E is formed of a single piece of paper in blank having a frontal panel IU of frame form providing a window II. The four sides of the panel in are foldably joined by the respective, four walls 6, which have a width determined by the number of layers of rows of crackers to be packed. The sides or walls 6 stand upright as to the window panel I0.

A narrow flap I3 along one wall 6 is adapted to be folded inward over the laid crackers. Opposite to the flap I3 is a parallel, full size cover leaf I4 the outer face of which provides for direct imprint of a label on face L, Fig. 3.

The walls 6 which are transverse to the cover leaf 14 have infolding, reinforcing flaps l5 preferably as wide as their basal walls 6 and long enough to well overlap each other, Fig. 1, whereby to form with the leaf l4, triple plies of the paper stock to stiffen the envelope and keep the rows of crackers in plane.

When the package is made up as in Fig. 1, it is only necessary to apply paste to narrow zones abc along the cover leaf l4 and stick this down on the adjacent margins of the flaps l5 and flap I3.

The package includes, if desired, a stiff, slow burning stick or element I! laid between contiguous fuse-ends of the rows 2 and 3 of crackers. The stick is preferably made of a piece of perfumed, rolled, slow-burning paper to form an empty tube the centric hole [8 of which provides an airway to aid combustion. To further the purpose of an all-inone firecracker package the tubular stick I! is provided with a matchhead l9 having a stem 20 set in one end of the tube in suitable manner, though the combustible head may be otherwise produced on the stick.

The envelope has at a suitable location, as on a wall 6 remote from the cracker fuses, an abrasive match strike 2|. Thus the stick I! may be extracted from the pack and lighted by rasping its head l9 on the strike 2|. As soon as the stick glows the user may proceed to open the package for extracting individual crackers or ignite the near fuse at slit 5.

The container or envelope E may be of any desired material and if the window be in the form of an opening if desired it may be covered with a transparent sheet Il The window Il may be formed in the panel as by impregnating the stock with an oily substance, in well known manner.

In Figs. 6 to 8 is shown a box structure including a blank having a narrow backbone strip 25 and along opposite sides is a pair of equal, short flaps 26-21, at one end, next to longer, opposite equal flaps 28-29 separated from flaps 26-2'| by slits 30 which extend to the center strip 25. Next to and out free of the flaps 28-29 are opposite short flaps 3 |-32 of the same length as flaps 25-41, and at the opposite end of the strip 25 are opposite flaps 33-34 out free of the near ends of flaps 3I-32 and being as long as flaps 28-29.

Weakened or perforated lines 35 along the strip 25 provide for accurate, ready bending of the flaps into a channel or box forming position, Figs. 7 and 8. Bending the strip 25 to form a rectangular frame, Fig. '7, brings the infolded flaps 2B283l-33 into co-planar, bottom forming relation with overlapping end zones which are pasted in an obvious manner and thus form an open window W.

Rows of firecrackers C are now laid along the I! is packed between adjacent or inner ends of the crackers. The short flaps 21 and 32 are folded in and down on the contents and the longer, parallel top flaps 29-34 are folded down and pasted where they overlap the lower flaps 21-32; thus forming a top window W, Fig. 8.

The window openings WW are covered by a transparent sheet 36 which may encase the whole pack as shown in Fig. 8. The exposed surfaces of the several flaps of this pack provide effective display area for suitable printed matter.

The fuses of the crackers in the box of Fig. 8 are loosely laid along the inner edges of the opposed rows, of crackers, 2 and 3 and contiguous fuses 4 are clustered along the tearing aperture 3! to enable lighting off the full pack if desired.

Zones 38 of adhesive on the inside face of panel 10, Fig. 5, provide for attachment directly to the cover itself, if desired, of the crackers C.

What is claimed is:

1. A firecracker-package having an unstable envelope of pliant, tearable material such as used for wrapping firecrackers, a fiat assembly of firecrackers packed therein, and an elongate, barlike device of non-metallic material stiffer than the envelope and of a length not greater than that of the walls of the envelope to which it is parallel and which reinforces or stabilizes the package in directions transverse to the length of said device; said device being of such cross-sectional shape as not to overlap the periphery of contiguous ends of firecrackers.

2. A firecracker package as in claim 1, and in which the stabilizing device is wholly unattached in the package.

ROBERT B. WHITESIDE.

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