Portable Book Light

This invention relates to a portable book-light and more particularly to such a light which can be readily supported by the pages or cover of a book and is of such light weight that it will not add appreciably to the weight of the book. The light itself can be adjustable to almost any position to suit the reader and the manner in which the book is to be held.

Book-lights of various type are, of course, known in the prior art. Some of these lights, of standard size, are adapted to be clamped or otherwise supported by a stand or by the headrest of a bed. While some can be clamped to a book, they generally add such size and weight to the latter that they become tiring to the reader.

It is, therefore, an object of this invention to provide a simple portable, readily attachable lightweight book-light which avoids the disadvantages of prior art structures.

Another object of this invention is to provide a book-light having the advantages above mentioned which incorporate a readily available switch on the base of the book-light.

An additional object of the invention is to provide a book-light in which the lamp thereof is not only shaded from the eyes of the reader, but can be turned circularly and vertically to provide a combination of motions which permit the reader to adjust the direction of the light so that light may fall upon the book in an optimum manner despite changes in position of either the book or the reader or both.

The above and other objects and advantages of the invention will become apparent from the description which follows, read with reference to the attached drawings in which

FIG. 1 is a fanciful drawing showing the manner in which the book-light of the present invention is intended to be used.

FIG. 2 is a top plan view of the book-light;

FIG. 3 is a side view of the bottom of the book-light shown in FIG. 2;

FIG. 4 is an enlarged vertical cross-sectional view of the book-light taken along the line 4--4 of FIG. 2;

FIG. 5 is a vertical cross-sectional view taken along the line 5--5 of FIG. 4; and

FIG. 6 is a vertical cross-sectional view through the base of the book-light taken along the line 6--6 of FIG. 4.

As will be apparent from a study of FIGS. 2 and 3, the essential elements of the book-light comprise a base member consisting of a capsule 2 from which projects upwardly a tubular arm 4 for supporting lamp 6 in a manner to be described hereinafter, and means for attaching capsule 2 bearing lamp 6 to a book, magazine or the like comprising a clamp formed of an upper two-armed member 8 rigidly attached, preferably as an integral piece with capsule 2 and a lower somewhat tongue-shaped plate 10 fitting within member 8 and flexibly attached at one end to capsule 2. More specifically, member 8 has arms 12 and 12' integrally attached at one end to capsule 2 and preferably but not necessarily connected together at their other end by arcuate portion 14. This is a rigid construction which may be molded as one piece of appropriate plastic with the capsule. Plate 10, on the other hand, is flexibly attached to the capsule at 16 and is formed with a raised bow portion 18 which in its normal position may extend slightly above member 8 as more clearly shown in FIG. 3. The dimensions of member 8 and plate 10 are such that they provide a sufficient gripping surface to clamp between them a number of pages or the cover of a book or other document so that the book-light in essence becomes self-supporting upon the object to which light is to be directed.

Tubular arm 4 extends upwardly from capsule 2, being mounted for transverse rotation in a transverse slot at one end of the top thereof. As shown in FIGS. 4 and 6, the means for rotatably supporting the lower end of tubular arm 4 preferably consists of a support 22 in the form of an inverted T, the arms 24 and 24' of which are cylindrically formed and whose upright stem 26 is force fit within the tubular arm. The bearing for cylindrical arms 24 and 24' is formed by internal downwardly extending integral projections 28 and 28' within capsule 2 and upwardly extending projections 30 and 30' from a base plate 32 attached to the capsule on either side of the bearing by screws 34 and 34'. It will be noted that the threaded openings for these screws are of somewhat greater depth than the length of the said screws. This permits the screws to be tightened (or loosened) in an adjustable manner to vary pressure on arms 24, 24' through projections 30, 30'. This is possible because base plate 32 is thin and sufficiently flexible. Accordingly, this arrangement is such that sufficient pressure may be placed upon the bearing so that arm 4 can be moved at will, but will always remain at any desired angular position.

Lamp 6 is attached to the top of tubular arm 4 in a manner to permit both circular and vertical movement relative to capsule 2. As shown in FIGS. 4 and 5, this is effected first of all by a small supporting member 36 having a downwardly extending tubular extension 38 fitting over a preferably smaller end 40 of tubular arm 4. The parts are so dimensioned that being formed of suitable plastic, member 36 is attached to arm 4 with a force fit which at the same time permits member 36 to fully rotate on top of the arm.

A bracket-shaped piece 42 is provided with a pair of arms 44 and 44' pivotally attached as by threaded screw 46 to supporting member 36. Bracket piece 42 has an integral right-angled hollow extension 48 which is enlarged at its outer end to form a cylinder 50 in which a lamp socket 52 (and attendant connector pieces) both of any conventional form, are mounted. The outer end of cylinder 50 is open to permit insertion of light bulb 54 and is formed with a slightly smaller diameter, as at 56, so that a shade 58 of generally cylindrical shape having an inner diameter equal to said smaller diameter and an outer diameter preferably equal to the outer diameter of cylinder 50 may be force fit thereover. Shade 58 will be provided with an opening 60 at one side. Since shade 58 can be rotated on cylinder 50, the opening 60 permits the reader to rotate the shade and direct light from bulb 54 in any desired direction.

Control of the light can be effected by means such as a simple slide switch 62 mounted within capsule 2, whose movement is controlled by slide-actuating means 64 on the upper side of the capsule as shown in FIG. 6. Wiring for the book-light can be provided by cord 66 entering through an opening in, for example, the base plate 30 of capsule 2, and being suitably connected to the switch 62. From the switch it will pass upwardly through tubular arm 4 where it emerges at the upper end through member 36 and thence through hollow extension 48 into cylinder 50 where it is attached to socket 52.

A book-light made in the manner above described can be formed substantially entirely of lightweight plastic so that the weight of the entire book-light, including the light bulb, can be kept at about 1.5 ounces. Obviously such light weight permits the attachment of the book-light to a hand-held book, etc. without adding any appreciable tiring weight thereto.

In order to maintain low weight portability and size, the lamp bulb is preferably a low voltage light fed from a power supply such as a small portable battery which may be supplied with the book-light or from a regular voltage main through a transformer. The invention, however, is not intended to be limited in this respect.

It will be appreciated that the invention above described fulfills the objectives and embodies the advantages over prior art structures as previously set forth above. The invention is not intended, however, to be limited to the specific details described and illustrated since changes apparent to those skilled in this art are contemplated. It is to be pointed out, moreover, that while the book-light described when used for its intended purpose is preferably small in size and formed of lightweight molded plastic, certain features thereof may well be applicable to portable lights of larger size and greater weight. Accordingly, the scope of this invention is limited only by the claims which follow: