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This patent application is related to and claims priority from U.S. Provisional Patent Application Ser. No. 60/790,221 filed Apr. 7, 2006.
The present invention relates, in general, to erasers for writing boards and, more particularly, this invention relates to dust-capturing erasers for chalk and dry-marker boards.
Prior to the conception and development of the present invention, typical chalk board erasers and the like would remove the writing from the board, but the particles and dust created thereby would just drop to a ledge or the floor, and some would invariably get on the writer's hands and clothing.
This problem was addressed to some extent by Yeo in U.S. Pat. No. 618,759, wherein a dust collecting chamber was built into a rather conventional rectangular felt eraser. A sliding door allowed for removal of the dust. Collection of the dust relied on the rubbing action of the erasing to force dust between the felt strips into the collection chamber. This would undoubtedly still leave a significant amount of dust on the front face of the eraser.
Bell also addressed dust collection in U.S. Pat. No. 3,163,943 with a rather elaborate mechanical blackboard eraser that moved horizontally back and forth across the entire board on tracks above and below the board. This device would only work on boards equipped with the tracks, and erased everything top to bottom, thus not allowing spot erasing.
Others have disclosed various ways to collect eraser dust using attached motorized vacuum devices, such as in U.S. Patent Application Publication Nos. 2006/0260092, 2005/0015923, and 2003/0033686. Obviously, these are somewhat expensive and noisy approaches to solving this problem.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,347,898 and U.S. Pat. No. 6,932,531 are examples of the numerous patents disclosing board erasing devices on a handle, generally the butt end of a writing instrument. Besides being rather small, these do not address the dust issue.
The present invention provides a writing board eraser consisting of a trough-like main body with two substantially flat end panels, a hollow handle integral and perpendicular to a longitudinal side of the main body, a soft flexible erasing pad covering about half of an oval cylinder surrounding an axel rod connected to a rotating lever, which enables rotating the erasing pad to contact a longitudinal scraping blade attached to the internal concave surface of the trough-like main body thus removing dust which then drops into the hollow handle, which has a threaded distal end with a mating cap for removal of accumulated dust.
It is, therefore, one of the primary objects of the present invention to provide a dust-collecting chalk and dry marker board eraser.
Another object of the present invention is to provide an improved board eraser that is inexpensive to manufacture and convenient to use.
Still another object of the present invention is to provide an improved board eraser that makes is easy to dispose of collected dust without creating a mess in doing so.
In addition to the various objects and advantages of the present invention described with some degree of specificity above it should be obvious that additional objects and advantages of the present invention will become more readily apparent to those persons who are skilled in the relevant art from the following more detailed description of the invention, particularly, when such description is taken in conjunction with the attached drawing figures and with the appended claims.
FIG. 1 is a perspective view of the dust-catching eraser.
FIG. 2 is a horizontal elevation partial cut-away view of the device.
FIG. 3 is a horizontal elevation partial cut-away view of the eraser with an alternative rotating means.
Prior to proceeding to the more detailed description of the present invention, it should be noted that, for the sake of clarity and understanding, identical components which have identical functions have been identified with identical reference numerals throughout the several views illustrated in the drawing figures.
Referring to FIG. 1, the preferred embodiment of the dust-catching board eraser 10 is shown. The elongated trough-like body 12 has attached, near and perpendicular to its center point, an integral hollow handle 14. At the front face of the device is a curved erasing pad 18 covering at least half of a rotatable oval cylinder surrounding axel rod 30. The axel rod 30 extends slightly through marginally larger holes in end plates 32. The butt end of handle 14 is threaded and cap 28 is removable to empty out accumulated dust. Lever 20 is tightly attached to one end of axel rod 30.
FIG. 2 provides an elevation end view of the device. The curved body 12 has an interior longitudinal scraping blade 26, and an integral hollow handle 14. The writing board is erased by the movement of the wiping head 18 against the writing board by the user. When the user wishes to clear an excessive buildup of dust on erasing pad 18, the lever 20, which is tightly attached to axel rod 30, is flexed slightly outward to clear short tab 36. The axel 30 and cylinder 16 with attached erasing pad 18 is rotated about 180 counterclockwise. As the erasing pad 18 rubs against scraper blade 26, chalk or dry marker dust is dislodged and drops down into hollow handle 14. The cylinder 16 is then rotated clockwise back into position and locked in place by sliding lever 20 over short tab 36 and stopping at taller tab 34 on end panel 32. Periodically, accumulated dust is emptied out of handle 14 by removing cap 28.
FIG. 3 illustrates, in this partial cut-away horizontal elevation view, an alternative means for rotating the cylinder 16 and erasing pad 18. The lever 27 is attached firmly to the axel rod 30 near its mid point. At the distal end of lever 27, a push rod 22 is attached with a pivot pin 29. The push rod 22 extends midway down inside hollow handle 14 and connects with slide switch 24, which is partly exposed on the outside of handle 14. To conduct the cleaning cycle, the slide switch 24 is pushed up a groove in handle 14 thereby rotating cylinder 16 and forcing dust off as erasing pad 18 passes over scraper blade 26. The slide switch is then forced back down to return the erasing pad 18 to the front-facing position.
While a presently preferred and an alternative embodiment of the present invention have been described in sufficient detail above to enable a person skilled in the relevant art to make and use the same, it should be obvious that various other adaptations and modifications can be envisioned by those persons skilled in such art without departing from either the spirit of the invention or the scope of the appended claims.