Portable reel for power lines

Claim 1

A portable device for storing a short electrical cord and a longer electrical cord, which is constructed and operable to have one or the other of the cords connected to a fixed source of electrical energy and the other to be connected to a remote device requiring electrical energization, the device comprising a frame having a base, spaced end walls extending upwardly from the base, and a handle connecting the upper parts of the end walls, a fixed hollow shaft extending from a first one of the end walls of the frame toward the second end wall, a rotatable shaft extending from the second end wall toward the first end wall with its end adjacent the first end wall being rotatably journaled in the interior of the fixed hollow shaft, a crank connected to the end of the rotatable shaft externally of the second end wall, a fixed cylindrical support mounted on the external side of the first end wall, a cylindrical reel surrounding and concentric with the two shafts and overlapping both shafts, the reel being connected at its one end to the rotatable shaft and at its other end being rotatably mounted on the fixed shaft, a plurality of annular slip rings mounted in spaced axial relation on the fixed shaft, a plurality of brushes mounted on the reel internally thereof and having parts in sliding engagement with the slip rings, a short electrical cord mounted in wound relation on the fixed support, and having within it a plurality of electrical conductors each of which is connected through the hollow shaft to one of the slip rings, and a longer cord wound on the reel and also having within it a plurality of electrical conductors each of which is connected through the reel to one of the brushes.