US2544410A - Magazine and blade combination - Google Patents

Description

March 6, 1951 H. YOUNG MAGAZINE AND BLADE COMBINATION Filed June 6, 1947 IN VEN TOR.

Patented Mar. 6, 1951 UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE MAGAZINE AND BLADE COMBINATION Louis H. Young, Auburndale, Mass., assignor to Gillette Safety Razor Company, Boston, Mass., a corporation of Delaware Application June 6, 1947, Serial No. 752,908

3 Claims. i

This invention relates to devices for dispensing sharp-edged blades such as safety razor blades and consists in the novel combination of a magazine having exit or delivery openings at opposite ends with a stack of blades having direction indicia displayed in view of the user.

It has been found that the fine cutting edge of a safety razor blade is so delicate in its structure that it is likely to be easily damaged by any chance contact occurring before actual use of the blade. It is desirable, therefore, that the manufacturer, who produces the fine cutting edge of the blade, should also package and securely protect the blades as they are finished so that they may arrive unimpaired in the users hands.

One of the most satisfactory ways in which safety razor blades are packaged by the manufacturer for distribution is in a dispensing magazine which requires the blades to be delivered or ejected alternately from its opposite ends, for example by arranging the blades in alternately staggered relation. In such a magazine adjacent blades are already partially separated by a space equal to the thickness of a blade. In dealing with blades as thin as .004 to .007 inch, this partial separation which may be effected in the packaging operation is especially desirable. Since, however, the uppermost blade in the stack can be ejected by movement in only one direction from the magazine, it is a matter of considerable convenience to the user that he should be informed by readily seen indicia as to which direction the current blade should be moved in order to discharge it from the magazine. The object of the present invention is to solve this problem and this I have achieved by a novel combination of magazine and blades. I

Going more into detail, the magazine comprises an enclosure for a stack of blades and is provided with blade-delivery or exit openings at its opposite ends. It is also provided internally with blade-locating means which maintain the stack of blades with their sharp edges out of contact with the walls of the magazine, being so constructed and arranged as to permit the outermost or uppermost blade of the stack to be displaced by the user toward one or the other of the exit openings, as the case may be. The magazine is further provided with anopening or window exposing the uppermost or outermost blade of the stack and through which the user may reach that blade to displace it by tractional contact.

In combination with such a magazine, I employ a stack of slotted blades, each having an arrow or other direction indicia thereon and these blades are so assembled by the manufacturer that the arrows point alternately in opposite directions and are exposed to view through the opening of the magazine. 'The direction indicia therefore indicate which direction each successive blade must be moved for its proper delivery from the magazine.

These and other features of the invention will be best understood and appreciated from the following description of a preferred embodiment thereof, selected for purposes of illustration and shown in the accompanying drawings in which:

Fig. 1 is a view in perspective of the complete device on an enlarged scale;

Fig. 2 is a view in longitudinal section on a still larger scale;

Fig.3 is a plan View showing a blade as partly removed from the magazine; and V Fig. 4 is a view in perspective of a dispensing magazine of somewhat different construction.

An important feature of the blade containing and dispensing device herein shown is that it may be constructed at such moderate cost that the manufacturer can afford to supply it merely as an item of blade packing to be discarded by the user when it has served its purpose.

The illustrated device comprises a rectangular base l0 having parallel longitudinal walls or flanges I I and !2 at its opposite edges and spaced upstanding studs l3 and i4 located in its median axis and separated by an open space. The base I0 may be molded of any suitable synthetic resin such as Vinylite, Lucite or the like. As herein shown, the studs l3 and M are attached to the base ill by dowels but it will be understood that as a general thing these studs will be molded as an integral part of the base. They are long and narrow in contour, located an equal distance within the ends of the base In and have rounded inner vertical faces.

Attached to the base It} is a metallic cover l5. This extends across the middle of the bottom of the base It], being held in place by shoulders it in the bottom of the base. The cover or clip extends upwardly across the outer walls of the ribs H and I2 of the base and then inwardly in the form of opposed wide U-shaped flanges l1 and I8. In the illustrated embodiment of the invention the cover I5 is formed of spring metal and its flanges l1 and I8 tend always to spring downwardly toward the inner face of the base In. The two cut-out portions of the flanges ll and I8 provide an opening of substantial area located at the center of the device as a whole.

The device is shown as containing a stack of ten longitudinally slotted blades 20 of a well known commercial type, that is to say, thin double-edged blades having a notch in each corner which notches together define unsharpened elongated end portions closing each end of the blade. Each blade is also provided with an elongated median slot of substantially the same length as the sharp edges of the blade and provided with spaced enlargements designed to fit the blade-locating projections of razors in which the blades are to be used. The blade slots are of such width as to fit freely over the studs I3 and I4 and when empaled on these studs the blades are held positively with their sharpened edges out of contact with the walls I I and I2 of the base. The studs I3 and I I are so spaced that the blades 28 may be located in staggered relation thereon, with alternate blades impaled on difierent studs and each blade free to move longitudinally a distance equal to the length of its slot minus the length of the stud upon which it is impaled. As shown in Fig. 1, the uppermost blade 28 is impaled upon the right-hand stud I3 with its solid end portion in contact with the outer wall of the stud and the other end portion of the blade 25 is located in substantial contact with the inner vertical face of the stud I4. That blade therefore is free to move toward the right until its solid left-hand end brings up against the stud I3. Similarly the second blade in the stack is impaled upon the stud It; with its inner end in contact with the inner vertical wall of the stud I3, and that blade is free to move longitudinally toward the left.

Each blade as finished is provided on its flat face with direction indicia, herein shown as a pair of single-headed arrows 2| although if desired a single arrow only may be employed. The arrows are placed upon the blade in such a position as to be freely exposed to view through the opening in the cover I5. In the illustrated combination the arrows are located wholly in onehalf of the blade face, in parallel relation and with their heads pointing to that end of the blade which is most remote. The points of the arrowheads terminate slightly short of the median transverse axis of the blade.

In assembling the illustrated device for distribution, the blade manufacturer may supply the blades 20 to the base in the staggered relation above explained by automatic machinery or by any means which will adequately safeguard the sharp edges of the blades. The cover I5 is then placed and attached to the base and by its spring action holds the blades of the stack securely in the position shown, that is to say with the opposite ends of the blades substantially flush with the ends of the base ID and with their sharpened edges, as already noted, safely clearing the ribs II and I2. It will be noted that the flanges I! and I8 of the cover are so spaced 'as to permit the cover as a whole to be slipped into its position past one or other of the studs I3 and I4.

The completely loaded blade-containing and dispensing device is shown in Fig. 1 as ready to be wrapped for distribution. When it reaches the user, he has only to engage the uppermost blade 26 with his thumb, as shown in Fig. 3, in the area of the blade exposed by the cut-out openings in the flanges I I and I8 of the cover, and to work the blade by traction longitudinally toward the right in the direction indicated by the arrows 2I and in opposition to the yielding resistance of the cover. In Fig. 3 the uppermost blade 20 is shown as displaced longitudinally to the limit of its movement, that is to say, the left-hand end of its slot has been moved into engagement with the inner wall of the right-hand stud I3. It will be noted that the'contour of the end edges of the combined flanges I! and I8 of the cover corresponds generally to the end contour of the blade. Accordingly, when the blade 20 is moved endwise to the position shown in Fig. 3, its inner end passes substantially out from beneath the flanges of the cover. It is thus freed and may be conveniently grasped by the user and conveyed directly to the razor.

The blade 20' in the stack which now becomes uppermost is however impaled upon the stud I4 and is free for movement toward the left instead of toward the right end of the device. Accordingly when the user desires to remove this second blade, he proceeds as before, engaging the middle portion of the blade with his thumb and advancing it endwise out from beneath the flan es of the cover but in the opposite direction from that in which the previous blade has been moved, unless the device has meanwhile been reversed end for end, but always in the direction indicated by the arrows 2|.

The flanges I1 and I8 of the cover follow down the blade stack as it is reduced in height by the removal of successive blades. The flanges have suiiicient range of yielding movement to retain a single blade in position or to maintain a stack of five or ten or more blades in position. In each instance therefore the blade which is uppermost in the stack or the last remainingblade of the stack is yieldingly held in the position in which it is initially placed in the device, being at the same time free for frictional movement in one direction or the other from beneath the cover.

In Fig. 4 is shown a'dispensing magazine of the same general character as that above described but having its cover extended to form a more complete enclosure for the blade stack. In this instance thebase 22 and cover 23 are substantially co-extensive in outline and define between them a substantially rectangular enclosure tapering upwardly and downwardly at both ends. An exit slot is provided in both ends of the magazine, one slot 24 being shown in Fig. 4. The cover is also provided with-an oval opening or window 25 through which the uppermost blade 20 of the stack may be reached by the user. This blade is provided with a pair of arrows 2| indicating that it is to be displaced toward the right, and it will be understood that the next lower blade in the stack is provided with arrows directed toward the left indicating that the blade should be delivered through the exit slot 24.

Having thus disclosed my invention and described in detail illustrative embodiments thereof, I claim as new and desire to secure 'by Let-- ters Patent:

1. A blade dispensing magazine comprising an enclosure having a stack of bare blades therein, the enclosure having oppositely disposed exit openings through which the blades are dispensed alternately in opposite directions, a blade 10- cating stud associated with each exit opening and having the space between said studs unobstructed at least in the exit path of the uppermost blade, said blades being assembled in staggered overlapping relation on alternate studs only, a top having an opening positioned beblades of the stack toward opposite exit openings,

the indicia of each blade being successively exposed to view through said blade-exposing and finger-admitting opening as the blades are dispensed from the stack, each stud operating to prevent exit of a blade in the direction contrary to that shown by its exposed indicia.

2. A blade dispensing magazine as set forth in claim 1 wherein said unidirectional indicia are exposed to view through said blade-exposing and finger-admitting opening in a position substantially coinciding with the initial area of fingerof the blade.

to -blade contact as the blades are dispensed from the stack.

'3. A blade dispensing magazine as set forth in" claim 1 wherein said unidirectional indicia are arrows and wherein said arrows terminate approximately at the median transverse axis LOUIS H. YOUNG.

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

UNITED STATES PATENTS Number Name Date 1,791,586 Todd Feb. 10, 1931 1,834,284 Kylberg Dec. 1, 1931 11 896,380 Weber Feb. 7, 1933 1,909,919 Testi May 16, 1933 1,950,863 Raguin Mar. 13, 1934 2,344,961 Benjamin Mar. 28, 1944 2,362,504 Shnitzler Nov. 14, 1944 2,392,433 -Testi Jan. 8, 1946

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