Book end with saving-box

Abstract

A book end with a saving-box includes two upright hollow bodies, which are positioned with two planar inner sides thereof facing toward each other to define a space between them for holding at least one book therein. Each of the two upright hollow bodies defines a coin collecting space, and is provided at a predetermined position with a coin slot communicating with the coin collecting space. Each of the two upright hollow bodies has a size-expanded lower portion and has a bottom board connected to a lower end thereof, and can therefore stand stably without the risk of tilting over.

Description

FIELD OF THE INVENTION

The present invention relates to a book end, and more particularly to a book end with a saving-box adapted to collect coins and hold books.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

With the rapid development of information industry, people could obtain the knowledge of every branch from many other new approaches other than published books. However, the functions and values of the published books are hard to replace. This is because books containing various texts and pictures are not only tools for people to accumulate the knowledge of different fields, but also important mental food for people's spiritual life. Books play a very important role in helping children to develop good personality.

However, when viewing from the angle of real life, books are heavy and occupy a lot of space to store them. It has become a new issue as how to ideally utilize the very limited space to manage the educationally meaningful books.

Most of the currently available devices for storing or holding books are in the form of book cabinets, book shelves, and bookends. Since the bookends are more flexible in use and occupy relatively small space, they are most widely accepted among the consumers.

The conventional bookends have poor stability and tend to tilt over, and are therefore not suitable for areas frequently threatened by earthquakes.

FIG. 1 shows a pair of conventional bookends 1, which includes two L-shaped bookends 1a, 1b, each of which has an upright part 11a, 11b and a horizontal bottom part 12a, 12b. The bookends 1a, 1b have unstable center of gravity and tend to tilt over when they are in use.

Moreover, the conventional bookends 1a, 1b have monotonous appearance and fail to match with esthetic interior of a room. The monotonous bookends 1a, 1b also fail to attract children who are more interested in various shaped toys and novel articles, and almost have not the possibility of drawing children's attention to the books held between the bookends.

It is also known that most children envy other people's progress in learning and good living conditions, while they do not have correct concept about learning and saving. In other words, children seldom or never know that knowledge and wealth are accumulated little by little.

It is therefore desirable to develop bookends that are not only structurally stable and safe for use, but also have beautiful and attractive designs to provide multiple functions, such as serving as saving-box and interior ornament with educational meaning.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

A primary object of the present invention is to provide a unique book holding device that is different from the conventional bookends and has good stability for use safely.

Another object of the present invention is to provide a saving-box also functioning like bookends, which helps to remind people in daily life that knowledge and wealth are accumulated little by little.

A further object of the present invention is to provide a book end that presents three-dimensional and lovely animal designs to also serve as an ornament.

To achieve the above and other objects, the book end according to the present invention includes two upright hollow bodies, each of which has a planar inner side and a shaped outer side to define a coin collecting space between the inner and the outer side. The upright hollow body has a size-expanded lower portion and has a bottom board connected to and horizontally extended from a lower end thereof, allowing the upright hollow body to stand stably without the risk of easily tilting over.

The upright hollow body is also provided with a coin slot communicating with the coin collecting space, and a key-controlled openable cover for removing saved coins from the coin collecting space.

When the two upright hollow bodies having the horizontal bottom boards are positioned with the planar inner sides facing toward each other, a book-holding space is formed between the two upright hollow bodies for holding books.

The book end of the present invention has unique structure and attractive appearance, allowing it to also function like stable bookends for orderly holding books on a horizontal surface.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The present invention will be apparent to those skilled in the art by reading the following description of a best mode of the operation of the method, with reference to the attached drawings, in which:

FIG. 1 is a perspective view of a pair of conventional bookends;

FIG. 2 is a perspective view of a book end with a saving-box according to a preferred embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 3 is an elevational view of a planar inner side of an upright hollow body of the saving-box of FIG. 2;

FIG. 4 is a sectional view taken along line 4-4 of FIG. 2; and

FIG. 5 is a perspective view showing the book end of the present invention is used to hold a plurality of books between two upright hollow bodies of the book end.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS

Please refer to FIG. 2 that is a perspective view of a book end 2 according to a preferred embodiment of the present invention. As shown, the book end 2 includes two upright hollow bodies 2a, 2b and two lying bottom boards 2c, 2d.

The upright hollow body 2a includes a planar inner side 21 and a shaped outer side 22 to define a coin collecting space 23 between the inner and the outer side 21, 22. A coin slot 24 is provided on the shaped outer side 22 at a predetermined position corresponding to and communicating with the coin collecting space 23. Similarly, the upright hollow body 2b includes a planar inner side 21′ and a shaped outer side 22′ to define a coin collecting space 23′ between the inner and the outer side 21′, 22′. A coin slot 24′ is provided on the shaped outer side 22′ at a predetermined position corresponding to and communicating with the coin collecting space 23′, as can be clearly seen from FIG. 4, which is a sectional view taken along line 4-4 of FIG. 2.

The two shaped outer sides 22, 22′ may present, for example, a three-dimensional animal design.

A coin inserted into the coin slot 24 or 24′ would fall into the coin collecting space 23 or 23′ and be saved therein.

It is noted the upright hollow bodies 2a, 2b all have a size-expanded lower portion, and can therefore more stably stand on a horizontal surface without the risk of tilting over due to a high center of gravity.

Please refer to FIG. 3 that is an elevational view of the planar inner side 21 of the upright hollow body 2a. As shown, an openable cover 25 is formed on the planar inner side 21 at the lower portion of the upright hollow body 2a, and a key-controlled lock 26 is provided on the cover 25 at a predetermined position. The cover 25 may be pivotally connected at an edge to the planar inner side 21, or slidably mounted to the planar inner side 21.

In the illustrated preferred embodiment, the cover 25 is pivotally connected to the planar inner side 21. The lock 26 may be a cylinder lock embedded in the cover 25, or a padlock externally hung on the cover 25. In the illustrated preferred embodiment, the lock 26 is a padlock. A user may use a correct key to open the lock 26 and the cover 25 to collect or remove the coins from the saving-box. Since the planar inner side 21′ has the same structure as the planar inner side 21, it is not repeatedly described.

The lying bottom boards 2c, 2d may be pivotally connected at an end to a lower end of the upright hollow bodies 2a, 2b, respectively, so that the two lying bottom boards 2c, 2d may be folded to or extended from the upright hollow bodies 2a, 2b depending on actual need. The lying bottom boards 2c, 2d may be further provided with at least one slot each for a partition board to insert thereinto.

Please refer to FIG. 5 that shows the book end 2 of the present invention is used as bookends to hold a plurality of books between the two upright hollow bodies 2a, 2b. When the book end 2 is used to hold books, the two upright hollow bodies 2a, 2b are positioned with the two planar inner sides 21, 21′ facing toward one another, and the two lying bottom boards 2c, 2d fully extended from the two upright hollow bodies 2a, 2b, respectively, to direct toward each other, so that a book-holding space is formed between the two upright hollow bodies 2a, 2b for holding a plurality of books 3.

With the size-expanded lower portions of the two upright hollow bodies 2a, 2b, the bookends provided by the book end 2 of the present invention are more stable than the conventional bookends 1 shown in FIG. 1.

While the invention has been described in connection with what is presently considered to the most practical and preferred embodiments, it is to be understood that the invention is not to be limited to the disclosed embodiments, but on the contrary, is intended to cover various modifications and equivalent arrangement included within the spirit and scope of the appended claims.

Claims

1. A book end, comprising:

two upright hollow bodies, each of which having a planar inner side and a shaped outer side;

a coin collecting space defined between said planar inner side and said shaped outer side of each of said two upright hollow bodies;

a coin slot provided on said shaped outer side of each of said two upright hollow bodies at a predetermined position communicating with said coin collecting space; and

a lying bottom board connected at an end to a lower end of each of said two upright hollow bodies to extend perpendicular to and beyond said planar inner side;

whereby when said two upright hollow bodies are positioned with said two planar inner sides facing toward one another, and said two lying bottom boards directing toward each other, a book-holding space is formed between said two upright hollow bodies for holding at least one book.

2. The book end as claimed in claim 1, wherein said shaped outer side of each of said two upright hollow bodies presents a three-dimensional animal design.

3. The book end as claimed in claim 1, wherein said planar inner side of each of said two upright hollow bodies is provided at a predetermined position with an openable cover.

4. The book end as claimed in claim 1, wherein said lying bottom board is pivotally connected to the lower end of said planar inner side of said upright hollow body.