BACKGROUND TO THE INVENTION Books and papers, in particular, although not necessarily exclusively, in the case of students, are often carried in luggage in the form of flexible bags such as rucksacks and more recently in wheeled trolley luggage, which conform roughly to the configuration of travel bags termed"cabin luggage".

In either case, the rucksacks or wheeled trolley luggage usually do not have partitions built into them which are appropriate to the transporting and storing of books and papers in files therein and, accordingly, considerable damage and disorganisation can result from the transporting of such articles in these items of luggage.

On the other hand, to custom build partitions into such items of luggage would be unduly expensive.

OBJECT OF THE INVENTION It is, accordingly, the object of this invention to provide a partition accessory which can be reasonably easily mass produced and which can be incorporated, either temporarily or permanently, in an article of luggage lacking in suitable partitions.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION In accordance with this invention there is provided a partition accessory for an item of luggage, the partition accessory comprising a series of at least similarly dimensioned protective panels inter-connected along at least three sides by flexible gusset means, with the fourth side constituting an access opening, the protective panels being at least semi-rigid in nature and defining between them, with the gusset means, a series of storage compartments of basically concertina configuration.

Further features of the invention provide for an outer panel to have a pocket formed on the outside thereof; for one or more gussets to have elongate pockets attached thereto for receiving, for example, pens and pencils; for a bottom gusset optionally to have a secret pocket formed on the outside (underside) thereof; and for one outer panel to have apertures formed therein through which a retaining strap or the like can be threaded.

A still further feature of the invention provides for at least one compartment to be provided with a slide fastener for releasably closing the open edge thereof.

The invention also provides an item of luggage receiving, in releasable manner, a partition accessory as defined above.

Further features of this aspect of the invention provide for the article of luggage to be a wheeled trolley luggage and for the partition accessory to be releasably attached to the interior of the item of wheeled luggage by means of customarily fitted retaining straps normally associated with the item of luggage.

In order that the invention may be more fully understood one embodiment thereof as well as a number of different applications will now be described with reference to the accompanying drawings.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS In the drawings:- FIG. 1 is a perspective view of a partition accessory according to the invention; FIG. 2 is an underneath perspective view thereof from the opposite side; FIG. 3 illustrates the application of the invention to a rucksack; and FIG. 4 illustrates application of the invention to wheeled trolley luggage.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION WITH REFERENCE TO THE DRAWINGS In the embodiment of the invention illustrated in Fig. 1 a partition accessory comprises a series of five semi-rigid protective panels (1) all of the same rectangular size and shape and inter-connected by flexible gussets (2) along the two opposite vertical edges (3) and the bottom edges (4) to form four compartments having a concertina configuration with regard to expansion and contraction in size.

The panels are made of a plastics sheet materai which is commonly used for partitions and even for the outer walls of semi-rigid luggage and is adequately rigid to protect books or the like stored in the compartments.

The one outer panel has a pocket (5) formed on the outside thereof and elongate pockets (6) for pens, pencils and the like can be attached to one or other gussets extending up the side edges of the panels.

The opposite or other outer panel (illustrated in Fig. 2) has a series of elongate apertures in the form of slots (7) cut therein whereof two spaced slots extend vertically and two horizontally. The slots are located generally in the central region of the panel and serve the purpose of receiving elastic or other straps passing therethrough which can be used to attach or hold captive the partition accessory to an article of luggage in the manner that will be described hereinafter.

A"secret"pocket (8) could be attached to a gusset in the bottom of the partition accessory.

Referring now to Fig. 3, there is shown in dotted lines (9) the outline of a rucksack which can be used to receive the partition accessory, generally indicated by numeral (10), with the open tops to the compartments directed upwardly. This type of combination is an important feature of the invention. It will be understood that the semi-rigid panels of the partition accessory render what would otherwise have been a totally unprotected interior to a rucksack very well suited to be used to transport books without their becoming damaged to any substantial extent.

Similarly, as illustrated in Fig. 4, the partition accessory (10) can be installed in an otherwise uncompartmented interior of an item of wheeled luggage (11) of substantially the shape and size of aircraft cabin luggage. The wheels (12) and extensible handle (13) serve to render a load of books more easily transported manually than in the case of the rucksack illustrated in Fig. 3.

In this embodiment of the invention the wheeled trolley luggage has a pair of elastic straps (14) in the bottom thereof, usually used to retain clothing or the like in position in the interior of the article of luggage.

In this case they are threaded through the slots (7) in the one outer panel of the partition accessory and this serves to maintain, or at least locate to some extent, the partition accessory within the interior of the item of luggage.

It will be understood that numerous variations may be made to the embodiment of the invention described above without departing from the scope hereof. Also, whilst it is one intention of the invention to provide the accessory per se it is another intention of the invention to provide the combination of an accessory as described above in combination with an item of luggage such as a rucksack or wheeled trolley luggage.