GB1466505A - Clothes-drying or airing apparatus - Google Patents

Abstract

1466505 Drying or airing clothes BACON LIU 18 Sept 1975 38413/75 Heading A4U [Also in Division G3] A clothes drying or airing apparatus comprises a ceiling or wall-mounted member 1 carrying a member 2 having spaced bifurcated brackets 221, 231 slidably supporting a clothes-supporting member 4 for movement between the extended position shown to project out of a building housing the apparatus and a retracted position within the building. A moisture-sensing means 8 may be provided, see also Figs. 8 and 9 (not shown), for operating an electric motor 7 to automatically move the member 4 via a pinion and rack drive to either of its positions depending on whether or not the member 8 senses rain, see also Fig. 4 (not shown), or the member 4 may be moved only manually by a handle 5. Cushioned end stoppers 43, 44 are provided and plates 42 on the member 4 co-operate with a part 31 on the member 1 to prevent inadvertent rotation of the member 2 when the member 4 is in its extended position. The member 2 is rotatable on the member 1 to selected positions in which it is releasably retained by a spring-urged ball indexing member 211 engaging holes in the part 3 of the member 1, see also Fig. 2 (not shown). The motor control circuit for automatic movement of the clothes-supporting member 4 in dependence upon whether or not it is raining comprises the moisture sensing means 8 which operates a transistor Q to activate or deactivate a relay R so as to operate relay contacts Ra, Rb to rotate the motor 7 in the correct direction. Limit switches 9, 10 on the member 2 are operated by actuators (11, 12) at the ends of the member 4, (Fig. 4), to stop the motor when the member 4 has reached its end positions of movement, and a warming device H is operated when the associated contact Ra is closed on detection of rain by the sensing means 8 which is disposed in the open, the device H being used to dry the sensing means 8 quickly when the rain stops. The sensing means 8 comprises a printed circuit having two conductive regions separated by insulation which is bridged by rain. Although the circuit may as shown incorporate a full-wave rectifier a half-wave rectifier may be used instead, and the relay R may be replaced by an electronic switch, e.g. a flip-flop, and the transistor Q may be replaced by a vacuum tube or F.E.T. The circuit may include I.C. components.