US2477223A

US2477223A - Paper towel

Info

Publication number: US2477223A
Application number: US3032A
Authority: US
Inventors: Wilfred H West
Original assignee: Individual
Current assignee: Individual
Priority date: 1948-01-19
Filing date: 1948-01-19
Publication date: 1949-07-26
Anticipated expiration: 1966-07-26

Description

July 26, 1949.

W. H. WEST PAPER TOWEL Filed Jan. 19, 1948 Patented July 26, 1949 UNITED STATES PAPER TOWEL.

Wilfred H; West, Oakland, cam.

Application January 19, 1948, Serial No. 9,63%:

5. Claims. 1.

invention; relates. in); paper towels in. the form of. individual sheets, especially designed. t be dispensed from cabinets. particularly the. sort usually foundinpublic. washrooms. A. cabinet tor this. purpose andtbepresent: paper towel. are, shown inmyco-pending application, SerialNumber '7.51 ,0.6.8; filed May. 28, 19%. and: entitled Towel dispensing; cabinet. This application. is. a continuation in part of the identified app c tion..

In. paper towel dispensing: structures. the.- arrangement. is. usually suchas. to.- supply towels which. previously haverbeen interleaved or interfolded so-that the. wl-thdrawaloi. one towel starts the withdrawal of succeeding. towels. In the-interest of. economy, not. only in. the dispensing of towels, but also in. recharging. the dispenser and in. towel manufacture, I. provide. a. towel which is. not. intertoldedor interleaved with the adiacentltowel, but. rather is. merely. folded upon it.-- self. and is; placed; next. to. the. accompanying towel.v Thegeneral shape and. characteristics, of

my new towel are such as to der it usable n present. dispensers. as. well. as in. the... special dispenser shown. in my co-pending-.. application.

It. is. anobj'ect of; my invention. toprovide a paper. towel. especially. desi ned tor use intowel dispensing, cabinets... not: only or the customary kind;,but likewisetofithe kind shown in my pending application.

A further objector: the invention is to pr vide a paper towel in which economy of dispensingand economy of servicing areimproved;

Another object of the invention is to-provide a paper llQW611ilT-Whifihlih& towel; tends to remain in the cabinet unless forceably withdrawn therefrom by a user.

Another" object oft-hc invention is to provide a towel whichmaintains' itsshape. so that more towelscan be installed in. a given in t.

Another object of the invention is to. provide a paper towel having improved; characteristics but which is readily manufactured by present machinery and is readily interchangeable with present paper towels.

Another object of the invention is in general to improve paper towels.

Other objects tog-ether with the foregoing are attained in the forms of paper towel described in the accompanying description and illustrated in the accompanying drawings, in which Figure 1 is a plan of an unfolded paper towel constructed in accordance with my invention.

Figure 2 is an isometric perspective disclosing the towel of Figure 1 in folded condition.

Figure 3 is a plan of a modified form of towel constructed in accordance with my invention and in unfolded condition.

Figure 4 is a cross section on a transverse vertical plane through the lower portion of a standare towel. dispensing: cabin t. the: tcmarv'towelstherein- Fi ure. 5 is: across sectiononza transrerseho l ontal p ane through astandard; towel cabin t showing Stanfield-towels; disposed ther ins sure; 6 a cross-section one a ve tical trans. Verses p ne: showi g: standard: fiQW-EL cabinet: in a mann r similar t Fig-urn hh ltiwl hmyinrproved papertowelsithereint Fleu '1 is a: onia-trans erse ontal p ane the showing in figure 5- but disclosing. a: standard cabinet. con ain n towels in accordance with my invention.

While the paper. towel; invention-issueptible: to embodiment in numerous: dif e nt forms. dependins. on various; incidental candl tions, it; is enerally embodledaashownherein to include a sheetofpapen haying sideedgeszthat are gen rally parallelancllen 'e sessthatare par: allel toeach other. but that with respect to; the side edges... The... towel 18* designed b folded: upon itseli inoppnsite directlons o pro= vide a rectangular-central portion an a air of. trapezoidal end portions; In addition the. end. p rt ons are provided. with scor s ex endin across. the. sheet. to. weaken. portions hereot in. order that they may readily. tall, b g-gravity. from. the, remaining. partos that-owel The entral. section of. the fnlfleiii tQWfil i5 miidiii p i three thicknessesof material; the. three: thickne s 89- time being; generally an. acute. angled/T para lelw gram in contours-grammes..

As illustrated especially iii-Figures 4. and 5;.the customary: towel; cabinet '5: ludes a ox of a. suitable shape. andsi-zeto contain a plura ity il interfolded towels or. a piiiralitii or separate, folded'towel's. The bottomiszconinrisedioia pair ofintllrnfid flanges Tand.Bil dvinganentrahectaneular. open ng. 35 throushthe. lo ermost fold H of a tow l lZ'm-ay" p lposed' p n the l er to el lZ is: a pluralit iiiofiaddr tionaL. s m lar towels. c nfined" the walls of the cabinet. Usua ly. thetowelsare' ic icl'ed such a way as to provide a central section it (Figure 5) generally rectangular in outline, the ends of the towels being cut off to form edges 15 and I! perpendicular to the side walls of the towel. In the pile of towels there is a central section made up of three thicknesses of material per towel and two side sections 0! only two thicknesses of material per towel.

The weight of the bundle of towels is concentrated in the central section which is normally of considerably lesser width than the opening 9. Thus, normally, the towels sa as shown in Figure 4, and make it easy for a user not only to withdraw the lowermost towel l2 by means of the flap I l but permits him readily to remove additional towels at once by grasping the depending portion I 8 of the towel packet. This does not result in an economical use of the towels, since they are too readily available. Furthermore, since the towels tend to sag into a curved configuration, as shown in. Figure 4, not as many towels can be installed at any one time within the cabinet 5 and this makes more frequent servicing necessary.

In accordance with my invention, I provide a paper towel comprised of a sheet 2| (Figure 1) of paper towel stock which has parallel side edges 22 and 23. The sheet is divided into a central portion 2a of generally rectangular contour, defined not only by the

side walls

22 and 23, but also by

fold lines

26 and 21 which may be simply locations or may actually be scored or marked on the towelitself. Adjacent the central portion 2t, I provide a pair of end portions 28 and 2e, respectively. In contradistinction to usual practice,

the'nd sections

28 and 29 are not rectangular but rather are trapezoidal, being bounded, in addition to the boundaries formed by the sides 22 and Zitand by the fold lines 26 and 27, byedges 3| and 32 established by cuts from a lengthy roll of paper towel material. The edges 2: and 32 although parallel to each other, are not per pe ndicular to the side edges 22 and 23 but rather slant with respect thereto at a substantial angle;

In addition, the sheet is formedwith score lines 33 and 355 in one form of the invention extending parallel to the end edges 3| and 32 to provide end tabs 3% and 31 of non-rectangular or acute angle parallelogram contour. In the modification shown in Figure 3, the general outline of the towel is identical with that shown in Figure 1 but the score lines 38 and 39 are disposed transversely on the sheet and in parallelism with the fold lines 26 and Z1, inorder to' provide trapezoidal end portionsti and 42.

After the sheet has been fabricated, as shown in Figures 1 and 3, it is folded upon itself at the reverse fold lines 26 and 2'! into a folded towel having a central section 24 which on one side is overlain by an end portion 28 and on the other side is underlain by 'an end portion 29. The result is a bias or slanting central section comprised of three thicknesses of material and trapezoidal side portions comprised of two thicknesses of material. Yet since the

end portions

28 and 29 terminate on slanting edges, they provide in plan, as shown in Figure 7, a relatively stiff supporting section which does not sag between the side edges of the opening 9 but rather extends approximately diagonally across the opening 9. Extending nearer to'the edges of the opening, the central section is stiffer, precludes sagging, and provides a generally flat support for the superposed towels. Thus, a full com- W Number plement of towels can be disposed in the cabinet at each servicing and, more important, the towel pack does not bulge, making it difficult for a user to extract more than one towel at a time. That is, when installed in the cabinet, towels with the slanting central sections extend sufficiently far across the normal opening to provide a relatively stiff beam support so that the towels remain substantially flat within the cabinet. Still, the score lines 33 and 34 or 38 and 39 weaken the material of the towel sufficiently to permit a flap 42 to depend for ready withdrawal of the towel.

I claim:

1. A paper towel comprising a sheet of paper having parallel side edges and parallel end edges slanted with respect to said side edges, having reverse folds perpendicular to said side edges, and having transverse scores adjacent said end edges.

2. A paper towel comprising a sheet of paper having parallel side edges and parallel end edges slanted with respect to said side edges, having reverse folds perpendicular to said side edges, and having transverse scores adjacent and parallel to said end edges.

3. A paper towel comprising a sheet of paper having parallel side edges and parallel end edges slanted with respect to said side edges, having reverse folds perpendicular to said side edges, and having transverse scores adjacent to and perpendicular to said side edges.

4. A paper towel comprising a paper sheet having parallel side edges and parallel end edges slanted with respect tosaid side edges and folded upon itself to provide a rectangular central portion and two trapezoidal portions on opposite sides of said central portion, the trapezoidal portions being of lesser width than said central portion. Y

5. A paper towel comprising a paper sheet having parallel side edges and parallel end edges slanted with respect to said side edges and folded upon itself to provide a rectangular outline and a slanted transverse portion of three thicknesses.

WILFRED I-I. WEST.

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

UNITED STATES PATENTS Name Date Palmer .Mar. 20, 192B FOREIGN PATENTS Country Date Great Britain July 13, 1896 France Mar. 8, 1943 Number