Reading Stand

My invention relates generally to light-weight, highly portable reading stands that may be placed across a person's body for hands-free reading while lying in bed or lounging in a chair.

Various stands for hands-free reading exist in the art. These, however, are generally cumbersome or of complex construction. By contrast, I have invented a reading stand that folds flat for easy portability, is made from lightweight plastic sheet or other suitable construction material, and has a minimum of constituent elements for ease of operation.

Accordingly, it is an object of my invention to provide a portable, light-weight stand for hands-free reading by a person lying in bed or lounging on a chair.

Another object of my invention is to provide a reading stand as described above which is simple in construction with few constituent parts and thus inexpensive to fabricate.

Other objects and features of my invention will be apparent from the following detailed description when read together with the accompanying drawing in which:

FIG. 1 is a perspective view of a preferred embodiment of a reading stand in accordance with the invention;

FIG. 2 is a sketch showing the stand in place across the body of a person making hands-free use of it as intended by me; and

FIG. 3 is a cross section of a holding pin taken in a plane passing through lines 3--3 of FIG. 1.

Referring now to FIG. 1, there is shown in detail the construction of one embodiment of the reading stand in accordance with my invention. The stand has a main and an auxilliary panel each in the shape of an inverted U constructed from a sheet of plastic, wood, metal or other suitable material.

The main panel has a horizontal cross member 1 separating a pair of vertical members 2 functioning as the front legs of the stand. One leaf of hinges 3 is mounted along the interior edge of the horizontal member of the main panel. The other leaf of hinges 3 is secured to an auxilliary U-shaped panel having a horizontal cross member 4 separating a pair of vertical legs 5. The auxilliary panel or flap is dimensional to fit within and contiguous to the inside perimeter of the main panel. In this fashion, the auxilliary panel is permitted to move so that its legs 5 can be swung to the rear of legs 2 of the main panel.

When legs 5 are so rotated, they are maintained in a fixed acute angular position relative to legs 2 by a stop on hinges 3, a string restraint 15 such as a wire, chain, or such other suitable means as is known to those versed in the art. In this position, the stand will remain stably in place across the lap of a reader.

A table 7 is fastened to cross member 1 by means of hinges 6 constructed to permit table 7 to rotate from a folded position parallel and contiguous to the plane of cross member 1 through an arc of 90.degree. outwardly therefrom.

Each end of table 7 is provided with a series of place channels 8 running parallel to and outwardly from the pivotal axis between table 7 and cross member 1. The channels 8 at each end may be of decreasing length and are interconnected by a common mutually perpendicular access channel 12. Located within the channels at each end of table 7 is a holding pin 9 constrained to move within the channels by washers or nuts, or such other means as is commonly known to those versed in the art, spaced apart from each other a distance to accommodate the thickness of table 7. For example, and as shown in FIG. 3, each holding pin 9 may be fastened in place by a screw 31 and a pair of washers 26 and 27 between which table 7 is sandwiched. The head of screw 31 bears upon bottom washer 27, while the threaded portion is fastened within a tapped hole of holding pin 9 separated from table 7 by top washer 26. In this fashion, each holding pin 9 may be secured in place by tightening it against screw 31 after being located at a position within the channels to accommodate books of varying thicknesses and widths.

FIG. 2 shows the reading stand as used by a person reclining in a bed with a book held in place. The length of legs 5 and 2 is such as to permit a reader comfortably to read from a book placed with its binding resting against the front of cross member 1 and its edge resting on the top of table 7 with pages held open to the desired place by holding pins 9 moved to appropriate positions within channels 8. Additionally, a lamp 40 may be mounted on the stand as shown to provide light as required.

To facilitate the portability of the stand, holes 10 are cut into the cross member 1 with a diameter and at a point designed to accept the passage of dowels 9 therethrough when table 7 is folded up against cross member 1. Additionally, channel 11 is cut near the top of cross member 1 with dimensions sufficient to permit the fingers of a hand to fit therethrough for gripping the stand and transporting it from place to place.

It is to be understood that the above-described arrangements are illustrative of the application of the principals of the invention. Numerous other arrangements may be devised by those skilled in the art without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention.