Battery terminal post protector

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE SHOWN EMBODIMENT Referring particularly to the drawing, there is shown a battery operated device in the form of a flashlight 10 which is to be operated electrically by switch 12.
The switch 12 is mounted on the exterior surface of a housing 14.
The housing 14 is hollow including an interior battery compartment 16.
Within the battery comapartment 16 is mounted a plurality of batteries 18 located in an in-line manner.
Each battery 18 includes an anode in the form of a battery terminal post 20.
The battery terminal post 20 is mounted on the front face 22 of its respective battery 18.
Each battery has a back face 24.
The back face 24 of the last in line of the batteries 18 abuts against a spring 26.
The spring 26 is fixedly mounted onto the wall of the compartment 16.
It is to be noted that a terminal post 20 of a battery 18 abuts against the back face 24 of the next succeeding battery 18.
In this manner, an electrically series connection is established which will activate the flashlight 10.
If the flashlight 10 is dropped, as is shown in FIG.
3, the spring 26 will become compressed and each of the battery terminal posts 20 will disconnect from the back face 24 of its next succeeding in line battery 18.
The spring 26 will then re-expand to its initial position with such force that it is common that one or more of the battery terminal posts 20 will crack by being slammed hard into the back face 24 of the battery in which it is in contact with.
As a result, the electrical connection is now broken which requires that that damaged battery 18 is to be discovered and replaced.
In order to prevent this damage from incurring, there is utilized the protector 28 of this invention.
The protector 28 is formed of a body 30 in the form of a disc.
The body 30 has a central opening 32.
The back face of the body 30 includes a layer of adhesive 34.
This adhesive is protected by a release paper 36 prior to usage of the protector 28.
Prior to installation of the battery 18 within the battery compartment 16, the release paper 36 is removed from the protector 28 and the body 30 of the disc is located about the terminal post 20 of a battery 18 with post 20 located within central opening 32