MAGNETICALLY-BIASED CIGAR/CIGARETTE HOLDER

Description

FIELD OF INVENTION

The present invention pertains to the general field of lever-based magnetically-biased clip devices, and more particularly to such devices as are adapted to holding cigars and/or cigarettes.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

Cigar and cigarette smokers often have the need to lay their smoke aside when engaged in activities requiring the use of both hands. The problem is two-fold, in terms of avoiding burns to surfaces on which the cigar/cigarette is placed, as well as trying to keep it lit and avoid damaging it. Conventional spring-biased clips are inadequate to this task, because all springs obey Hooke's Law, whereby the spring force decreases only linearly as the clip closes on the cigar/cigarette. Consequently, the fully-closed spring clip force tends to crush or tear the fragile cigar/cigarette wrapper.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

In contrast to spring-biased cigar/cigarette clips, the magnetically-biased clip device has two repelling magnetic poles aligned in its rear lever arm and base rear. The resulting repulsive magnetic force biases the front lever arm of the clip toward a closed position in relation to the base front of the clip, thereby fully enclosing a median slot between them, which firmly holds the cigar/cigarette without crushing or tearing it. Since the biasing repulsive magnetic force decreases as the inverse-square of the distance between the repelling magnetic poles—as compared to the linear force decrease for spring-loaded clips—the holding force on the cigar/cigarette is much less damaging.

The foregoing summarizes the general design features of the present invention. In the following sections, specific embodiments of the present invention will be described in some detail. These specific embodiments are intended to demonstrate the feasibility of implementing the present invention in accordance with the general design features discussed above. Therefore, the detailed descriptions of these embodiments are offered for illustrative and exemplary purposes only, and they are not intended to limit the scope either of the foregoing summary description or of the claims which follow.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 is a perspective view of the preferred embodiment of the present invention; and

FIG. 2 is a longitudinal cross-section view of the preferred embodiment of the present invention, along the line A-A′ in FIG. 1.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT

The present invention is a clip used for holding a cigar or a cigarette. The preferred embodiment of the clip is shown in two drawings: FIG. 1 is a perspective view, and FIG. 2 is a longitudinal cross section.

The clip 10 comprises a lever 11, a base 12, a pivot 13 between the lever 11 and the base 12, and three magnets 14, 15 and 16. The lever 11 comprises a front lever arm 17, ahead of the pivot 13, and a rear lever arm 18, behind the pivot 13, and the base 12 comprises a base front 19, ahead of the pivot 13, and a base rear 20, behind the pivot 13.

The first magnet 14 is located in the underside of the rear lever arm 18, and it aligns with the second magnet 15 on the underside of the base rear 20. The polarities of the first and second magnets 14 15 are arranged so that these two magnets repel each other. In other words, their respective north poles are facing each other, or their respective south poles are facing each other.

The third magnet 16 is in the underside of the base front 19, and it functions, in combination with the second magnet 15 on the underside of the base rear 20, in order to magnetically attach the clip to a metallic surface, such as the arm of a lawn chair or the side of a golf bag or cart.

The midsection of the front lever arm 17 forms an upward transverse arch 21, which aligns with a downward transverse arch 22 in the midsection of the base front 19, so as to form a median slot 23 configured to hold a cigar. The proximal ends of the front lever arm 17 and the base front 19 have aligned longitudinal grooves 24, which together form a longitudinal forward channel 25 configured to hold a cigarette.

In the operation of this device, the rear lever arm 18 is depressed so as to widen the median slot 23 enough to insert a cigar, and so as to open the forward channel 25 enough to insert a cigarette. When the rear lever arm 18 is released, the repelling magnetic force of the first and second magnets 14 15 causes the median slot 23 and the forward channel 25 to narrow, thereby exerting a retaining force on the cigar or cigarette. Moreover, the magnetically induced convergence of the upward transverse arch 21 and the downward transverse arch 22 has the effect of causing the cigar to self-align if it's inserted obliquely into the median slot 23.

The cigar clips known in the prior art utilize the spring force of the pivot to retain the cigar in place. But, according to Hooke's Law, the spring force decreases only linearly as the clip closes on the cigar, such that the fully-closed force tends to damage the cigar. In the present invention 10, on the other hand, the repelling magnetic force between the first and second magnets 14 15 follows the inverse square law, so that the closure of the clip 10 to one-half its full opening reduces the retaining force on the cigar to one-quarter of its fully-opened force, rather than one-half in the case of a spring-action clip. Therefore, the reduced magnetic closure force on the cigar enables the present invention 10 to avoid the damage to the retained cigar which is inherent in the existing spring-loaded designs. Moreover, the inverse square force relationship, by scaling to the diameter of the cigar, enables a proportionately larger retaining force to be applied to bigger and heavier cigars having larger diameters.

Although the preferred embodiment of the present invention has been disclosed for illustrative purposes, those skilled in the art will appreciate that many additions, modifications and substitutions are possible, without departing from the scope and spirit of the present invention as defined by the accompanying claims.