Dispensers are known for sheets from a stack of flexible sheet material of the type described above. U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,416,392 and 4,796,781 describe such dispensers, each of which include means for positioning a top surface of the stack along a surface of the dispenser with an end portion of the uppermost sheet in the stack projecting through a central opening through that surface so that the uppermost sheet on the stack can be manually withdrawn through the opening and will carry with it the end portion of the sheet beneath it in the stack which then projects through the opening in a position that it too may be withdrawn. In the dispenser described in U.S. Pat. No. 4,416,392 that means is a spring on the side of the stack opposite its top surface, and in the dispenser described in U.S. Pat. No. 4,796,781 that means is a weighted portion of the dispenser providing the central opening that is movable relative to a base portion of the dispenser on which the stack is supported. While both of these dispensers are useful and efficient for dispensing sheet from such a stack, each is either more complex or expensive than may be desired for certain applications.
USPTO Backgrounds
USPTO Backgrounds