Expanding Book Support: Lazy-Tongs Between Two End Pieces, Locked by a Thumb-Nut (Roseboom, 1901)

"It is placed between two sets of books on a shelf or the like or between a row of books and an upright of the shelf, and the connection B is then expanded, so as to press the end pieces against the upright and the adjacent book, after which the connection is adjustably fixed."

Cut two hardwood end pieces about as tall as your books' lower half (ours), his end pieces A, and sand them. Screw a small butt hinge to the middle of each inner face, his hinge-plates E, with the knuckle upright.

Cut two long levers C and four short levers D of flat bar, round the ends and drill them at the notebook's centres. Drill the long levers at their middles for the bolt. File two washers rough on one face and fix one to each long lever round its centre hole, his corrugated disks H.

Bolt the long levers together at their centres with the rough faces meeting and a wing nut on the bolt, his bolt F and thumb-nut G. Rivet a short lever to each arm end of the long levers, loosely so they turn, and rivet the other ends of each pair to the free leaf of an end piece's hinge. The long levers' ends should bear on the end pieces and keep them upright.

Set it in the gap on the shelf, open it until both end pieces press the books and the shelf's side, and tighten the wing nut. Loosen the nut to close it up and move it.

**Jesse Roseboom** of Cincinnati, US 668,961, dated 26 February 1901, filed 7 August 1900. He claimed "a book-support for use on shelves and the like, comprising end pieces, and the long and short levers interposed between the end pieces; the long levers being pivotally connected together, and the short levers being pivotally connected to the arms of the long levers, and to the end pieces", and the roughened meeting faces with bolt and nut. He gives no sizes; the hardwood, flat bar, hinges as his hinge-plates, rivets and all sizes are ours.