Container suitable for holding a stack of photographic sheets

Claim 1

A container suitable for holding in generally flat condition a stack of photographic sheets of generally equal size, said container comprising four side walls and a bottom wall for receiving a stack of said sheets, spring means for biasing said stack of sheets away from said bottom wall, stack retaining means for retaining the stack within said side walls against the action of said spring means, said retaining means projecting inwardly from the edges of said side walls over and in contact with only the side margins of said sheets, leaving the remainder of the sheet area accessible for photographic exposure to a light image, an opposite two of said side walls having matching portions thereof free of said stack retaining means to leave corresponding opposed sections of said sheet margins unretained, whereby the application of buckling forces to said front sheet in its own plane causes that portion of said sheet having the unretained margins to buckle upwardly from the sheet plane preparatory to removal of the thus-buckled sheet from said stack, and sheet-buckle detent means projecting below the plane of said top sheet a distance at least equal to about the thickness of one of said sheets at points on said two opposite side walls spaced substantially a common distance from a common side wall, whereby said top sheet after having undergone buckling is prevented by abutment of an edge from returning to said original flat condition in the container.