US2470320A - Electrical connection device - Google Patents

Description

May 17, 1949;. H E PAGE 2,470,320?

ELECTRICAL CONNECTION DEVICE Filed Jan. 4l5, 1945 2 SheeS-Shee't l May 17, 1949. H. E.A PAGE 2,470,320

ELECTRICAL CONNECTION DEVICE Filed Jan. 13, 194s 2 sheets-sheet 2 a f//MJ/ H) 6b? .5'6 67 jg; C/ E? 564 515' V57 57 g Patented Mayv 17,A 1949 ELECTRICAL CONNECTIDN DEVICE Herbert E. Page, Alhambra, Calif.

Application January 13, 1945, Serial No. 572.687

This invention has to do with means for connecting into wall or door-sockets, electrical wires leading to utilities such as lamps and the like.

Such electrical utilities as, for instance, floor lamps, are usually supplied with electric current through a cable or cord connected into a iloor or Wall plug and inasmuch as it is usually necessary or desirable to move such a lamp about the room in the course of house cleaning or for other special purposes, the practice has been to utilize an electrical cord or cable which is considerably longer than the length normally required. It is a well-known and long-existing objection to such excessively long cords that the excess must lay exposed on the floor of the room, proving not only.

unsightly but a hazard.

It is an object of the present invention to overcome this objectionable feature and to provide a simple, inexpensive connection or plug element which incorporates a cord retainer to protect and conceal the excess cord in position for use when desired, my receptacle being extremely simple to apply and serving not only the purposes before described but also protecting the plug element from exposure.

While my invention, in its broader aspects as defined by the appended claim, is capable of being embodied in various physical forms, I shall now describe in detail specific embodiments thereof, for which purpose I shall refer to the accompanying drawings, in which:

Fig. 1 is a front view;

Fig. 2 is a section on line 2--2 of Fig. 1;

Fig. 3 is a section on line 3-3 of Fig. 2;

Fig. 4 is a sectional view of a variational form of device; y

Fig. 5 is an end view of Fig. 4;

Fig. 6 is a back view of a further variational form of connection device.

Fig. 7 is a section taken on line 1--1 of Fig. 6;

Fig. 8 is a perspective of the device of Figs. 6 and 7; and

Fig. 9 is a back view of another modification of my invention.

Referring now to the drawings and particularly to Figs. 1, 2 and 3, I show my connection device as comprising a rectangular, box-like body 5 having a back wall 6 adapted to rest ush against the wall or floor of a room, and converging side walls 1 providing a front opening 8 closed by a cover plate 9. The cover plate has side and end flanges I which frictionally iit into the opening 8.

The body is preferably made of a non-conductive plastic and the back wall 5 has a portion Ba of relatively thin section through which I pro- 1 Claim. (Cl. 173--361) vide a pair o! holes I5 to pass the contact prongs i6 of a vconventional electric plug element 20.

The purpose of the relatively thin wall portion 8a is to enable the prongs of the plug to pass therethrough and to properly engage in the conventional wall socket, not shown, in a manner not only to form the contact with the wall socket but also to rmly secure the body 5 in position against/1 the wall. To force the prongs I6 into a socket, the cover 8 may be removed and the ngers of the users hand inserted through opening 8 to press in the plug element 20. The excess length of the electric cord 25 connected into the plug 20 is preierably coiled within the receptacle as shown at 26, the free end of the cord then passing out of the receptacle through an opening 28 which intersects the openings 8 to enable the entire cord assembly, including the plug 20, to be inserted without disconnecting the cord from the plug.

All but the length of cable currently required to reach from the wall socket to the lamp is included in the coil 26. cord is desired it may be readily pulled from the receptacle and re-inserted when no longer needed. In Figs. 4 and 5 I show a variational form of device which is used substantially as before described, but has a somewhat modied form of construction. Here the base 30 is merely a flat, non-conductive plate having the portion 8l of relatively thin section provided with holes 32 to pass the prongs of a plug element such as before described, and having end ilanges 3l which present lips 35 engaging in complementary slots in a cover member 31, the latter having an opening 38 to pass the free end of the cord, not shown.

To insert the prongs of a plug element (not shown) into a socket, the cover 31 is removed so that nger pressure may be applied to the plug.

To facilitate coiling of the excess length of cord within the receptacle, I may provide a pair of spaced hangers 40, which may be formed integral with Wall 30, in the case of Figs. 4 and 5, or in-` tegral with wall 6 in the case of Figs, 1, 2 and 3.

The device ofFigs. 6, rI and 8 comprises a body 50 open at its back except for an integral cross member 5i and a removable partial back wall 55, the latter wall being somewhat wedge-shaped in plan, having its side edges fitting in grooves 58 provided in the converging side walls 51 of the body. To insert the wall 55, it is rst placed between the side walls in the medial wider portion of the body and then pushed towards the right end along the grooves 56.

The wall 55, which is of non-conductive material, has secured thereto by screws 88 a pair o! When a longer length of contact elements 8l terminating at their free ends in parallel prongs Sla adapted to be inserted in a wall or iloor socket. The ends or the two wires Il -constituting the electrical cord B8 are connected to the respective contact elements Il by the screws 89 and pass into the body through a hole 61 provided through wall 55. The excess length 55a of the cord is coiled in the receptacle provided by the body 50 and its free end passes outwardly through an end Arecess 68, so that when it is desired to use the excess length it may be fed outwardly of the body through said recess and may be fed Yback into the body through said recess when 'the need of using the excess lengthA ceases.

In the modication of Fig. 9 I show a body 1.0

having a front wall 1l and side walls 12 which conwith the side walls and has secured thereto by` screws 16 a pair of contact elements 11 which terminste in the parallel prongs or contact portions 11a for insertion into a wall or oor socket in the manner before described.- In this form of device two separate electrical cords, not shown, may be connected to the contact elements 11 through the holes 18 and the respective cords may pass outwardly of the body through the respective ends of recesses 13, 1l, while the excess length in each cord may be coiled in the receptacle provided by the body.

I claim: t

In an electric wire connector device, an elongated casing open at its bottom and having a wire passing opening in an end, a base of shorter length than the casing mounted in closing relation to a. portion of said open bottom at one end, plug means carried by the base and projecting therefrom for insertion in a plug receptacle member, means for connecting the plug means to a wire in the casing, and means for supporting a coil of excess wire in the casing comprising a cross piece fixed at its respective ends to opposite sides of the casing at a point between the base and the oppositeend of the casingfsaid cross piece being narrow enough in relation to the open bottom end of the casing to permit access to the casing through the bottom thereof for the purpose of inserting said coil.

HERBERT E. PAGE. y

REFERENCES errno The following references are of record in the ille of this patent:

UNITED STATES PATENTS Number Name Date 982,6514 Wellman Jan. 24, 1911 1,518,795 Jones Dec. 9, 1924 1,977,347 Namet Oct'. 16, 1934 2,007,699 Wiebking July 9, 1935 2,118,731 Knott May 24, 1938 2,163,412 Schneider June 20, 1939 2,167,541 Young July 25, 1939 2,224,547

Ludwig Dec. 10, 1940

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