Cords, lines and tubular conveyances often get knotted unless time- consuming, distractive and sometimes laborious effort is spent to prevent knotting. There are means to prevent knotting of some types of cord, line or tubular conveyances, but none are known that position a thin elongate spring colinearly to a cord, line or tubular conveyance in a manner taught by this invention.

Examples of different but related knot-control means are described in the following patent documents. Japanese Patent Number 64-33812, issued to Shigematsu on February 3,1989, described four conductive wires juxtaposed adjacently to a plurality of spiral springs arranged in a rectangular shape in a core. U. S. Patent Number 4,816,618, issued to Bongianni on March 28,1989, described inner conductors in a dielectric matrix of a coaxial cable. U. S. Patent Number 4,629,827, issued to Baxter on December 16,1986, described cable having a jacket with tensile reinforcement by successive lengths of tape. U. S.

Patent Number 4,487,641, issued to Bohannon, Jr., et al. on December 11,1984, described method and apparatus for a laminate shield on a light-guide fiber cable.

U. S. Patent Number 4,357,500, issued to Nilsen on November 2,1982, is limited to an elongate member positioned in a portion of a telephone handset cord. Australian Patent Number 108,667, issued to Simon on March 22,1938, described a flexible conductor of electricity. U. S. Patent Number 2,998,028, issued to Rohde on August 29,1961, described a flexible hose or tube with one or more resilient members in its walls. U. S. Patent Number 2,619,125, issued

to Eickmeyer, et al. on November 25,1952, is limited to a gasoline-pump hose with a coiled leaf spring on the outside of a portion of the hose.

Problems with tangling and knotting of various types of cords, lines and tubular conveyances continue to exist.

Summary of The Invention In light of these problems, objects of patentable novelty and utility taught by this invention are to provide a non-knotting line which: Prevents flexible cords, lines and tubular conveyances having fixed or stretchable lengths from knotting or tangling; and Can be produced as an add-on accessory or as parts of original equipment.

This invention accomplishes these and other objectives with a non-knotting line having at least one thin spring positioned colinearly with a flexible member, such as a cord, a line or a tubular conveyance. The at least one thin spring can be a plurality of thin springs in line with ends overlapped to allow juxtaposed positioning for variation of length of the thin spring. Colinear positioning of the at least one thin spring can include inside of a spiral of a coiled cord or line, inside of a tubular conveyance and outside of other cords, lines and tubular conveyances. Pluralities of thin springs with ends overlapped can have a separate contraction spring such as a rubberlike tube or coil spring around them or beside them to assist contraction of combined spring length in unison with contraction and expansion of length of a cord, line or tubular conveyance that is resilient linearly. The at least one thin spring can have a rectangular or an arcuate cross section. Straight or coiled material memory can be structured into the at least one thin spring.

The above and other objects, features and advantages of the present invention should become even more readily apparent to those skilled in the art upon a reading of the following detailed description in conjunction with the drawings wherein there is shown and described illustrative embodiments of the invention.

Brief Description of Drawings This invention is described by appended claims in relation to description of a preferred embodiment with reference to the following drawings which are described briefly as follows: FIG. 1 is a partially cutaway side view of a spiraled multiple-line cord having at least one thin spring shown from an edge proximate a center of the cord; FIG. 2 is a partially cutaway side view of a spiraled three-line electrical cord having at least one thin spring shown from a side; FIG. 3 is a partially cutaway side view of tubular conveyance having at least one thin spring shown from an edge; FIG. 4 is an end view of the FIG. 3 illustration; FIG. 5 is an end view of a three-line electrical cord with nested lines and having at least one thin spring embedded in a side; FIG. 6 is a side view of a portion of the cord shown in FIG. 5; FIG. 7 is an end view of a flat three-line electrical cord with side-by-side lines and having at least one thin spring embedded in a side; FIG. 8 is a side view of a portion of the cord shown in FIG. 7; FIG. 9 is an end view of a spiraled single-line cord like a telephone handset line and having at least one thin spring positioned internally;

FIG. 10 is an end view of a spiraled three-line cord like a heavy-duty extension line and having at least one thin spring positioned internally; FIG. 11 is a side view of the at least one thin spring that is segmented with a plurality of leaf springs having ends that are overlapped; FIG. 12 is an edge view of the FIG. 11 illustration; FIG. 13 is an end view of the FIG. 11 illustration; FIG. 14 is the FIG. 12 illustration in a shortened mode; FIG. 15 is the FIG. 11 illustration inside of a coil type of contraction spring; FIG. 16 is the FIG. 11 illustration inside of a partially cutaway side view of a rubberlike tubular contraction spring; FIG. 17 is an end view of a thin spring with an arcuate cross section; FIG. 18 is a side view of the FIG. 17 illustration; FIG. 19 is an end view of an arcuate thin spring in a single-line coil; FIG. 20 is an end view of an arcuate thin spring in a three-line coil; FIG. 21 is an end view of a round cord with an arcuate thin spring; FIG. 22 is an end view of the FIG. 16 illustration inside of a single-line coil; FIG. 23 is an end view of the FIG. 15 illustration inside of a three-line coil; and FIG. 24 is a side view of a thin spring having material memory of bend- control spring tension that is circumferential.

Description of Preferred Embodiment Terms used to describe features of this invention are listed below with numbering in the order of their initial use with reference to the drawings. These

terms and numbers assigned to them designate the same features wherever used throughout this description.

1. Thin spring 11. Leaf spring 2. Spiraled multiple-line electrical 12. First end cord 13. Second end 3. Spiraled three-line electrical 14. Slide fasteners cord 15. T arms 4. Male plug 16. Coil spring 5. Female plug 17. Rubberlike tube 6. Tubular conveyance 18. Arcuate thin spring 7. Nested multiple-line cord 19. Round line cord 8. Side-by-side multiple-line cord 20. Helical form 9. Spiraled single-line cord 10. Segmented spring member Reference is made first to FIGS. 1-2 of the drawings. At least one thin spring 1 has colinear engagement by inside positioning in a flexible material such as a spiraled multiple-line electrical cord 2. As depicted in FIG. 2, the flexible material can be a spiraled three-line electrical cord 3 with an appropriate male plug 4 and female plug 5. The thin spring 1 can bend in response to normal pressure towards sides depicted in FIG. 2 but not towards edges depicted in FIG.

1.

Referring to FIGS. 3-4, the flexible material can be a tubular conveyance 6 such as a hose in which the thin spring 1 is positioned to prevent edge-ward bending of the thin spring 1.

Referring to FIGS. 5-10, the thin spring 1 can be embedded in a wall of a nested multiple-line cord 7 as shown in FIGS. 5-6, embedded in a wall of a side-by-side multiple-line cord 8 as shown in FIGS. 7-8, positioned inside of spiraled single-line cord 9 as shown in FIG. 9, or positioned inside of a spiraled three-line electrical cord 3 as shown in FIGS. 2 and 10. Non-edge-wards bending of the thin spring 1 prevents knotting.

Referring to FIGS. 1-14, flexible material intended for prevention of knotting with this invention can have either a fixed length or a variable length.

Generally, spiraled three-line electrical cord 3, tubular conveyances 6, nested multiple-line cord 7 and side-by-side multiple-line cord 8 have fixed lengths.

Spiraled single-line cord 9, such as telephone handset cords and some extension cords, however, have flexible lengths. Knot-prevention of cords with flexible lengths requires special consideration because of generally fast and low-attention conditions of use.

Knot prevention for cords, lines and tubular conveyances with flexible lengths is provided with a segmented spring member 10 with a plurality of leaf springs 11 having ends that are overlapped for variable length intermediate a first end 12 and a second end 13. Overlapped ends of the leaf springs 11 are attached to adjacent leaf springs 11 with slide fasteners 14 to allow sliding of the plurality of leaf springs 11 to juxtaposed positioning of portions of the leaf springs 11.

The slide fasteners 14 can be clasps within which the leaf springs 11 slide to T arms 15 that can not pass through the clasps.

Referring to FIGS. 15-16 and 22-23, the segmented spring members 10 can be spring-tensioned to closed or to open mode with a contraction-pressure spring such as a coil spring 16 shown in FIG. 15 or a rubberlike tube 17 shown in FIG. 16 for use in a helix of flexible material having variable length. The helix can be a spiraled single-cord line 9 depicted in FIGS. 9 and 22 or an extension cord such as a spiraled three-line electrical cord 3 shown in FIG. 23 that is resilient.

Referring to FIGS. 17-21, an arcuate thin spring 18 is optional to a thin spring 1 that is described in relation to FIGS. 1-16. The arcuate thin spring 18 can be positioned in a spiraled single-line cord 9 or in a spiraled multiple-line

electrical cord 2 such as a spiraled three-line electrical cord 3. Particularly appropriate for an arcuate thin spring 18 is positioning on an outside periphery of a round line cord 19 as depicted in FIG. 21.

Referring to FIG. 24, the thin spring 1 can have material memory of bend- control tension that is circumferential for a helical form 20 or other circumferential form of whatever cord, line or tubular conveyance with which a thin spring 1,10 or 18 is used.

A new and useful non-knotting line having been described, all such foreseeable modifications, adaptations, substitutions of equivalents, mathematical possibilities of combinations of parts, pluralities of parts, applications and forms thereof as described by the following claims and not precluded by prior art are included in this invention.