Combination telephone covers and dispenser for covers
OwnerGerhard A. Secherinventor
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A protective cover that a user may place over the earpiece or the mouthpiece of a telephone receiver to protect the user from unknown and potentially harmful substances which may have been left on the receiver by a previous user. The present invention also contemplates a method for providing such covers for use with public telephones and a coin-operated dispenser which is intended for placement adjacent to public telephones so that people using public telephones may have ready access to a means for sanitary use of the earpieces and mouthpieces of public telephone receivers.
Claims5
A method for providing telephone receiver covers adjacent to public telephones having receiver mouthpieces and earpieces to offer users of said public telephones protection from potentially harmful substances which may be have been placed onto said mouthpieces and said earpieces by prior users, said method comprising the steps of providing a plurality of coins of the proper denomination to dispense as many of said telephone receiver covers as needed, a plurality of packages containing telephone receiver covers, each of said telephone receiver covers having a quantity of flexible material having a size adequate to surround the larger of any of said public telephone mouthpieces and any of said earpieces, said material also having a central portion and a plurality of holes through said central portion for allowing telephone communication through said material, said telephone receiver cover also comprising gathering means for securing said material to each of said mouthpieces and each of said earpieces during use, and also providing a plurality of telephone cover dispensers, each of said telephone cover dispensers having a housing containing at least one storage chute communicating with at least one dispensing chute, at least one coin slot, at least one coin-turning knob, and at least one dispensing wheel;
- placing each of said telephone cover dispenser housings adjacent to one of said public telephones;
- placing a quantity of said packages containing said telephone receiver covers into at least one of said storage chutes;
- determining a required number and type of coins for said user to place into each of said coin slots to cause each of said dispensing wheels to deposit at least one of said packages into one of said dispensing chutes;
- fixing each of said telephone cover dispensers to receive said required number and type of coins for said user to place into each of said coin slots to cause each of said dispensing wheels to deposit at least one of said packages into one of said dispensing chutes;
- placing said required number of coins into said coin slot;
- rotating said coin-turning knob to cause said dispensing wheel to turn and deposit at least one of said packages into one of said dispensing chutes;
- and repeating the steps of placing said required number of coins into said coin slot and rotating said coin-turning knob until said needed number of said packages have been dispensed.
A protection system for use with a telephone receiver having a mouthpiece and an earpiece, the protection system comprising:
- a protective cover formed of a quantity of flexible material which is sized so as to be able to surround either one of the mouthpiece and the earpiece, said material including a central portion with a plurality of holes therethrough for facilitating sound transmission through the material and an outer edge having a quantity of elastic attached thereto for securing said material to either one of said mouthpiece and said earpiece during use of said protective cover, said outer edge being spaced from said central portion so as to form a hollow space into which one of the mouthpiece and earpiece is disposed during use, said cover being circular in shape and further including a plurality of expansion ridges formed on the material between the central portion and the outer edge and spaced from each other circumferentially about the material;
- and
- a protective package enclosing the protective cover, said protective package being rectangular in shape and having a thickness sufficient to accommodate the spacing between the outer edge and the central portion.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.