Card and Bulletin Displayer Mounting on Wall or Door

Many structures have been invented for displaying cards and bulletins. One such is described here, adaptable to many uses. For simplicity, this presentation visualizes the display of a large number of seasonal greeting cards especially Christmas cards, in the home or office, but it is understood that no limitation to a particular kind of display matter is being made.

To be helpful, a device for this purpose ought to accommodate upwards of 100 Christmas cards of diverse shapes and sizes and should take up little room in use and in storage. Setting up should not be troublesome; and the individual cards should be mountable rectilinearly quickly and easily, with little or no damage, in a way so that they can be opened out and read while remaining attached. Adaptations for the home, employing multi-pocketed cabinets patterned after those for retailer's displays have the disadvantages of taking up considerable space and being heavy and cumbersome, because of construction with a separate pocket for each card. A device fastening on a wall or door would require almost no space, and it would not tumble over like a free-standing model, for instance one intended to resemble a Christmas tree. A stretched cloth screen forms the base for some models, but may have the disadvantage of being free-standing. Pinning of the cards almost requires a third hand in the back. Pins, whether straight, or curved near the tip, split the paper, allowing the cards to tilt untidily, and the parts of the pins showing are unsightly.

If a series of broad stout tapes could be stretch side-by-side vertically about 7 inches apart, close off a wall of the home or office, they could form a practical base for the stapling on of greeting cards by means of an ordinary home desk model stapler. The objects of the present invention are to overcome the stated disadvantages of previous models, providing saving of space, negligible damage to cards and supporting tapes, versatility in accommodating various sizes and shapes of cards, ease of mounting in neat horizontal alignment, and resuseability.

Operation of the card and bulletin displayer is as follows. The two crossbars or slats which support and stretch the tapes are easily mounted on vertical wood surfaces, and can be remounted in succeeding years. Expansion bolts may be used on plaster and concrete walls. The mounts may be left up year after year and the slats removed seasonally. With the slats in position, the tapes are looped over the top slat and secured by threading through slides (or buckles). Below, each tape is passed through another slide or buckle and looped around the middle of a double hook member in the nature of a bent rod to which a member is attached bearing a slot arranged to received and guide the tape as it passes down and back around the midportion of the double hook. The tape is adjusted long enough that the double hook just clears the lower slat. Rubber bands are slipped over the hooks, brought down behind the slat, then forward and up, to be hooked on a second time. Then the tape is readjusted shorter until it is held tense by the stretched rubber bands. In one embodiment, the double hook member has a slotted angle section member screwed at two points to its middle, arranged to adjustably clamp and hold the tape at a selected length. In this embodiment a slide is not required below. Each tape is so held by the double hook member and rubber bands below that it is stretched out in a plane paralleling the plane of the wall, with room between tape and wall for insertion of the lower jaw of a stapler. Temporary distortion is allowed for, so that the cards may be positioned and attached with ease, and by one person; and the cards may be tucked behind one another at their edges if desired. Cards fashioned folded over at the top may be overlapped to save space and look their neatest. Five tapes separated 61/2 to 7 inches apart will accommodate 75 full-size and over-size cards, or 100 cards of assorted sizes. The top loop of a tape and the rubber bands at the bottom end may be moved along the slats to vary the distance between the tapes. Cards with top folds may be arrayed on the first, third, and fifth tapes, and narrower, side-folded cards may be fastened on the second and fourth tapes. Mounting on a wide door is possible; or double mounting, back-to-back, in a doorway. The tapes may be mounted horizontally, whereupon they may conveniently hold many closely set side-folded cards. Instead of being all stretched between two long slats, the tapes may each be mounted on the wall or door independently.

The accompanying drawing helps clarify the description of my invention.

FIG. 1 is a front view of the whole card and bulletin displayer.

FIG. 2 is a cross-sectional view of a mounting for the upper or lower crossbar going on a plane vertical wall or door.

FIG. 3 is a detailed front view of a device for fastening a tape to the lower crossbar.

FIG. 4 is an end view of another device for fastening a tape to the lower crossbar.

As shown in FIG. 1, a number of webbing straps or tapes 1 are stretched vertically by having their looped ends 2 attached to an upper horizontally crossbar 3 and their lower ends pulled down toward a lower horizontal crossbar 4 by a pair of elastic bands 5 each, transmitting the pull by way of a rigid medial elongation of a double hook member 6 attached to each tape. The double hook with its tape guide and the elastic bands comprise the linkage means of the invention. The upper crossbar is suspended by two flat hooks 7 fitting picture molding 8 and bolted to the back of the crossbar; or it may be bolted to two flat plates which are screwed to the molding. The lower crossbar is fastened on the front side of two flat plates 9 by bolts 10, and these plates are fastened to the baseboard 11 by wood screws 12. The tapes stand off the wall far enough to admit the lower jaw of a stapler held in the hand, and one card 13 after another is fastened on.

FIG. 2 shows in cross-section a mount for fastening the crossbars to a plane vertical wall 14, employing short lengths of Z-section extrusion 15.

In FIG. 3, rod 16 is bent in the form of a double hook. Elastic bands, one for each hook, slung around the lower crossbar, provide downward pull, keeping the tape 1 in one plane yet supplying give to make stapling of the greeting cards easy. Guide 17 keeps the tape aligned over the lower crossbar by having a narrow slot 18 along its horizontal portion 19, affording just room enough for the tape to pass down and back up through it as the tape loops around the mid-portion 20 of the double hook.

The double hook device shown in end view in FIG. 4 can be adjustably fastened along tape 21 at a selected height above the lower slat. Angle section length 22 has a slot 23 which guides and aligns tape 21 and furthermore has two threaded holes by means of which two screws 24 draw it tightly against the double hook member 25, gripping the intervening tape.

The present invention, of course, may be carried out in other specific ways than those herein set forth without departing from the spirit and essential characteristics of the invention. The present embodiments are, therefore, to be considered in all respects as illustrative and not restrictive, and all changes coming within the meaning and equivalency range are intended to be embraced herein.