Extendable and retractable telephone cord apparatus
OwnerJay E. Chen, Joe C. Adriano +1inventors
InventorsJay E. Chen, Joe C. Adriano, Yu-Jen Hsu
Life of this patent
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Abstract
Telephone cord apparatus providing a wall mounted device from which a telephone cord may be extended and/or retracted. The cord is mounted on a reel which is engaged by a spring, biasing the reel toward a retracted position. A catch and release mechanism maintains the cord in an extended position until retraction is desired. The catch and release mechanism is manually engageable from the mounting plate to release the reel, allowing the spring to automatically retract and wind the cord upon the reel and into the housing.
Claims8
Extendable and retractable telephone cord apparatus for mounting in a wall comprising:
- a mounting plate adapted for attachment to said wall and having an aperture therein;
- a reel housing attached to said mounting plate for projection through said wall, said housing providing a recess comprising a flat inner surface of said housing;
- a cord reel including a central drum mounted within said housing recess for rotation about a central axis which is perpendicular to said flat inner surface;
- a telephone cord of multiple wires wound around said central drum of said reel and a free end of which extends through said mounting plate aperture for attachment to a telephone plug, said telephone cord being extendable and retractable upon rotation of said reel, each of said multiple wires of said telephone cord at the opposite end thereof extending through one of numerous slots provided in an outer cylindrical wall of said central drum into a recess thereof for electrical connection with electrically conducting pins which extend through an inner portion of said drum into a recessed cavity thereof on the opposite side of said cord reel to provide corresponding discrete electrical contacts disposed at preselected radial intervals around said recessed cavity of said central drum of said reel and exposed on the side of said reel which is opposite said flat inner surface of said housing;
- a cover plate attached to said reel housing having a flat inner surface which with said flat inner surface of said reel housing defines an enclosure in which said cord reel is confined for said rotation about said axis;
- and
- a fixed hub carried by said cover plate for engagement with said drum cavity having multiple concentrically disposed contact rings thereon, each one of which slidingly engages a corresponding one of said discrete electrical contacts of said central drum, each of said contact rings being connected to a wire which when connected to a telephone transmission line provides telephone communication through said extendable and contractible telephone cord to a telephone which may be connected to said telephone plug.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.