GB2353212A

GB2353212A - Partial cover for rotary clothes line

Info

Publication number: GB2353212A
Application number: GB0020467A
Authority: GB
Inventors: Michael Stibbards
Original assignee: Individual
Current assignee: Individual
Priority date: 1999-08-19
Filing date: 2000-08-19
Publication date: 2001-02-21
Also published as: GB0020467D0; GB9919521D0

Abstract

A partial cover 30 for a rotary clothes line 1 comprises a waterproof sheet 31 with at least three connectors 49 allowing cover 30 to be connected to two adjacent arms 5 and the central upright 3 of line 1. Cover 30 may be removably attached by pegs 51 to the outermost clothes line elements 17 between arms 5 and it preferably has portions (35, 37, fig. 3) which hang over outermost element 17 and the ends of arms 5. Cover 30 is preferably a flexible triangular plastic sheet 31 which can be folded and stored on one of arms 5. Cover 30 is preferably attached to line 1 by an elasticated loop 49 which is threaded though eyelet (41, 43, 45, fig. 3) and secured on an arm 5 or upright 3 of line 1. A plurality of eyelets (47, 53, fig. 6) forming a line extending inwards may be provided in each corner of cover 30 so that its tension may be adjusted.

Description

1 2353212 1 Cover for Rotary Clothes Line 2 3 The present invention

relates to the protection of 4 clothes from the elements, in particular rain, whilst 5 the clothes are attached to a rotary clothes line 6 assembly. 7 8 Rotary clothes line assemblies are well known as 9 such. In general they consist of a vertical pole, 10 which has at least three frame arms extending 11 radially from the vertical pole, either horizontally 12 or at an angle to the vertical, each arm having a 13 series of holes disposed along the length of each of 14 the frame arms to support the clothes line. 15 16 Fig. 1 shows a typical rotary clothes line assembly. 17 In this case, there are three frame arms 5 extending 18 radially from the vertical central pole 3. The 2 1 outermost length of clothes line 17 connects between 2 the frame arms to define a triangular section 14 3 between each pair of adjacent frame arms. Successive 4 lengths of clothes line 15 connect the rotary arms at 5 points along the lengths of the arms and are 6 progressively shorter as the rotary arms meet the 7 vertical central pole 3. 9 In use, clothes are attached to the clothes line and 10 the rotary clothes line assembly rotates with the 11 wind. 12 13 A common problem associated with drying clothes 14 outdoors is changeable weather. Rain showers may 15 cause the clothes to become wet and can also make 16 them dirty. In addition, excessive sun can cause 17 clothing to fade. 18 19 A number of prior proposals have addressed this 20 problem. However, these concentrate on covering over 21 the entire rotary clothes line assembly in the manner 22 of a tent, as in GB 2220561 and FR 2513671. 23 24 In accordance with the present invention there is 25 provided a cover for a rotary clothes line assembly, 26 the cover comprising a sheet of waterproof material 27 having a plurality of connector means arranged on the 28 waterproof material whereby the waterproof material 29 is connectable to a first frame arm of the rotary 30 clothes line assembly by at least one of said 31 connector means, to a second frame arm of the rotary 3 1 clothes line assembly adjacent to the first frame arm 2 by at least one other of said connector means and to 3 a point on an upright member of the rotary clothes 4 line assembly by at least one other of said connector 5 means. 6 7 Preferably the sheet of waterproof material is also 8 removably attachable to at least one clothes line 9 element of the rotary clothes line assembly which 10 extends between the first frame arm and the second 11 frame arm thereof. 12 13 Preferably, the sheet of waterproof material is 14 removably attachable to an outermost clothes line is element of the rotary clothes line. 16 17 Preferably, the sheet of waterproof material is 18 flexible such that it can be stored on the rotary 19 clothes line assembly by detaching the sheet of 20 waterproof material from one of said first and second 21 frame arms, folding or rolling up the sheet of 22 waterproof material and by connecting the sheet of 23 waterproof material to the other of said first and 24 second frame arms of the rotary clothes line 25 assembly. 26 27 Preferably, the connector means each comprises an 28 eyelet formed in the fabric of the sheet of 29 waterproof material having a loop of elasticated 30 material attached thereto, the loop of elasticated 31 material being adapted to fit around the first frame 4 1 arm, the second frame arm or the point on the upright 2 member. 3 4 Preferably the sheet of waterproof material contains 5 a plurality of eyelets in each corner thereof 6 arranged in a line from the edge of the sheet of 7 waterproof material towards the centre thereof. 8 9 Preferably, the sheet of waterproof material is sized 10 such that a portion thereof hangs over the outermost 11 clothes line element. 12 13 Preferably, the sheet of waterproof material is sized 14 to hang over at least one of the first and second is frame arm of the clothes line assembly. 16 17 Preferably, the sheet of waterproof material is made 18 of plastic. 19 20 The invention will now be described by way of example 21 only with reference to the accompanying drawings of 22 which: 23 24 Fig.1 is a perspective view of a rotary clothes line 25 assembly; 26 27 Fig 2.is a perspective view of a rotary clothes line 28 fitted with a cover in accordance with the present 29 invention; 30 31 Fig. 3 is a plan view of a rotary clothes line cover in accordance with the present invention, 2 3 Fig. 4 is a detailed view of the corner of a rotary 4 clothes line cover in accordance with the present invention showing its attachment to a frame arm of a 6 rotary clothes line assembly; 7 8 Fig 5a and Fig 5b are perspective views of a rotary 9 clothes line with a cover in accordance with the present invention with a cover in accordance with the 11 present invention folded in half (Fig 5a) and in a 12 storage position (Fig 5b); 13 14 Fig.6 is a plan view of a rotary clothes line assembly cover with additional eyelet connectors, 16 17 Fig. 7 is a perspective view of an alternative type 18 of rotary clothes line assembly fitted with a cover 19 for the rotary clothes line assembly in accordance with the present invention; and 21 22 Fig.8a and Fig. 8b show a plan view of waterproof 23 sheets used in embodiments of the present invention.

24 Fig 1 shows a rotary clothes line assembly 1 as is 26 commonly used for drying clothes, erected for use.

---27 The assembly 1 consists of a vertical central pole 3 28 fixed in the ground 4 by means of a socket 2.

29 Typically, the vertical central pole 3 is removably located in the socket 2 so that the assembly 1 may by 31 removed.

6 2 The pole has a cylindrical sleeve 9 to which is 3 attached three frame arms 5. The sleeve 9 is 4 designed to be slidable up and down the pole 3. 5 Frame arm supports 7 are connected between the pole 3 6 and the frame arms 5 as shown. The frame arm supports 7 7 are fixed at a point 11 below the top of the pole 3 8 and pivot vertically about this point. Each of the 9 arms 5 has a number of holes 15, 16 along its length 10. (in this case five holes each, equally spaced along 11 the length of the arms). A length of clothes line 13 12 is threaded through the holes on each arm at the 13 corresponding distance from the sleeve 9. Therefore 14 an outmost length of clothes line 17 is arranged by 15 feeding the clothes line through the outermost holes 16 16. The three arms define three similar triangular 17 sections 14 between adjacent pairs of the arms 5. 18 19 In use the sleeve 9 is secured in position as shown 20 so that the arms 5 and clothes line are spread out 21 from the pole 3. The arms 5 are free to rotate about 22 the axis of the pole 3, either by rotation of the 23 complete assembly in the socket 2 or by rotation of 24 the sleeve and arms about the pole. The assembly can 25 be folded when not in use by allowing the sleeve to 26 slide down the pole 3, thereby folding the arms 5 up 27 towards the vertical. In addition, the entire 28 assembly can be removed from the socket 2 for 29 storage. 30 31 Fig 2 shows a rotary clothes line assembly 1 as shown 7 1 in Fig 1 fitted with a cover 30 in accordance with 2 the present invention, connected between two of the 3 frame arms 5. The cover 30 is made from a plastic 4 sheet 31 which has been selected for is durability 5 and waterproof properties. It will be appreciated 6 that other suitable materials could be used. 7 a Arrow 27 indicates the wind direction. The presence 9 of a single cover.30 over a single section 14 of the 10 clothes line assembly 1 causes the assembly to rotate 11 into the position shown in Fig. 2 with the cover 30 12 away from the wind. A similar effect is obtained if 13 two of the three sections 14 are covered. The use of 14 covers on all three sections 14 of the rotary clothes is line assembly 1, could cause the wind to tend to lift 16 the entire assembly 1 out of the socket 2. 17 18 Fig 3 and Fig 4 show the cover 30 in detail. 19 20 The cover 30 is substantially triangular in shape, as 21 is each of the sections 14 of the rotary clothes line 22 assembly 1. In other types of rotary clothes line 23 assembly, where the sections are differently shaped, 24 the cover can be shaped accordingly. Edges 35 of the 25 cover 30 are located along the length of two adjacent 26 frame arms 15 and edge 37 is located along the length 27 of the outermost clothes line 17 (Figs 1 and 2). 28 29 The edges 35 and 37 are shaped to overlap the frame 30 arms 15 and the clothes line 17 respectively. In 31 this example the edges 35 overlap the frame arms 15 8 1 by approximately 100 mm and the edge 37 overlaps the 2 outermost clothes line 17 by approximately 200 mm. 3 These overlaps are shown in Fig. 8a, showing a plan 4 view of the waterproof sheet, by reference numerals 5 90 and 92 respectively. 6 7 The cover has three corner attachments, 41, 43 and 45 8 all of which are formed by holes in the cover 9 containing eyelets 47 to lessen wear and tear. All of the eyelets have elasticated loops 49 through them 11 to enable the cover to be attached to the frame arms 12 15 and the vertical pole 3. 13 14 Corner attachment 41 is attached to the vertical pole is by removing the rotary clothes line assembly from its 16 socket 2 and placing the elasticated loop 49 around 17 the pole 3. The pole can then be replaced into the 18 socket and the elasticated loop 48 moved up the 19 vertical pole 3 to just below the sleeve 9. 20 21 The corner attachments 43 and 45 are each fitted over 22 an adjacent frame arm 5. The elasticated loops are 23 prevented from falling towards the centre of the arm 24 by the outermost clothes line 17. 25 26 Pegs 51 may be used to attach the cover to the ---27- outermost clothes line between the adjacent frame 28 arms 5. In this way, the cover is prevented from 29 billowing in the wind. 30 31 The cover 30 is attached to a section 14 of a rotary 9 1 clothes line assembly 1 by firstly fitting the corner 2 attachment 41 to the vertical pole 3 by lifting the 3 vertical pole 3 out of the socket and fitting the 4 elasticated loop 49 around the pole as described. 5 once in position below the sleeve 9, the cover is fed 6 through the space 20 between the innermost clothes 7 line 18 and the sleeve 9 and the cover 30 is spread 8 out across the top of the section 14. The corner 9 attachments 43 and 45 are connected to the ends of 10 the frame arms 5 by placing the elasticated loop 49 11 of one corner attachment 43 over one of the frame 12 arms and the elasticated loop 49 of corner attachment 13 45 over the other adjacent frame arm and the outer 14 edge 37 is pegged to the outermost clothes line 17. is 16 When not in use, one of the corner attachments 43 or 17 45 is removed from the end of its frame arm 5 and the 18 pegs are removed from the outer clothes line 17. 19 This allows the cover to be folded in half towards 20 the corner attachment (in this case 45) which is 21 still connected to the other frame arm 5 (Fig SA). 22 The cover can then be rolled up or folded towards the 23 other frame arm and removably attached to the arm by 24 fitting the elasticated loop 49 of corner attachment 25 43 over the frame arm 5 to which corner attachment 45 26 is attached. The cover can be further secured by 27 attaching it to the frame arm 5 with pegs or the 28 like. 29 30 Fig 6 shows a second embodiment of a cover 60 in 31 accordance with the present invention in which three 1 additional eyelets 53 are arranged radially inwards 2 from each of the corner eyelets 47. The elasticated 3 loops 49 can be connected to any of the eyelets 47 4 and 53 and therefore the connection between the cover 5 60 and the frame arms 5 can be moved closer to the 6 centre of the cover. This feature is useful if the 7 cover needs to be fitted more tightly across the 8 surface of a section 14, if the material of the cover 9 60 has to be fitted to a smaller rotary clothes line assembly or if the material of the cover has 11 stretched. 12 13 Fig 7 shows an alternative type of rotary clothes 14 line assembly 70 having a vertical pole 71 and frame is arms 73b, in which the pole extends above the 16 outermost ends of the frame arms 73b and support arms 17 73a extend downwardly and outwardly from the top of 18 the pole 71 to the outer ends of the frame arms 73b. 19 Clothes line lengths 86 and 88 extend between adjacent pairs of frame arms 73b as before. 21 22 In this case the cover 79 is may be attached to the 23 clothes line assembly in the same manner as before 24 or, alternatively, may have one corner connected to the top of the pole 71 above the frame arms 73b, as 26 shown. As before, the cover 79 consists of a plastic 27 sheet containing eyelets 47 in close proximity to 28 each of the three corners of the cover 79. Through 29 each of the eyelets is threaded a piece of material 30 forming an elasticated loop 49. The eyelets 47 and 31 elasticated loops 49 together forming corner 11 1 attachments. The cover 79 is first attached to the 2 vertical pole 71 and the cover is spread out over 3 adjacent support arms 73a and connected to corners 85 4 and 83 by means of elasticated loops 49. The cover contains overlap sections 91, 93 and 95 which hang 6 over the outermost clothes line 85 and the support 7 arms 73a respectively.

8 9 The overlap sections 93 and 95 can be shaped to cover the triangular space 97 defined by the frame arm 73 11 and the vertical pole 71 and can be connected to the 12 sections 73a and 73b by pegs or other connectors. The 13 shape of a cover of this type is shown in Fig. 8b, 14 the overlaps being denoted by reference numerals 94 is and 96.

16 17 Alternatively, separate covers can be fitted to these 18 triangular spaces 97. This feature is designed to 19 prevent wind and rain blowing through the sides and onto clothes hanging on the lines.

21 22 The present invention has a number of advantages with 23 respect to the prior art:

24 it can cheaply and easily be made to measure for 26 a specific rotary clothes line assembly; 27 28 the use of a number of eyelets at different 29 distances from the corners allow the width of the cover to be adjusted allowing use where the material 31 of the cover has stretched or shrunk; 12 1 2 its connectors can stretch to allow the cover to 3 move to allow gusts of wind to escape from under the 4 cover; 6 it is designed for use on less than the total 7 number of sections of the rotary clothes line 8 assembly so that, instead of lifting the rotary 9 clothes line assembly, the wind can esc 1 ape by rotating the assembly; 11 12 it can fold away easily for storage on a frame 13 arm of the rotary clothes line assembly; 14 is it can fit underneath the sock cover used when 16 the assembly is folded up; and 17 18 it is designed to fit tightly across a section 19 so that the rain will simply run off the cover.

21 Improvements and modifications may be made without 22 deviating from the scope of the invention.

23 13

Claims

1 CLAIMS

2 3 1. A cover for a rotary clothes line assembly, the 4 cover comprising a sheet of waterproof material having a plurality of connector means arranged on the 6 waterproof material whereby the waterproof material 7 is connectable to a first frame arm of the rotary 8 clothes line assembly by at least one of said 9 connector means, to a second frame arm of the rotary clothes line assembly adjacent to the first frame arm 11 by at least one other of said connector means and to 12 a point on an upright member of the rotary clothes 13 line assembly by at least one other of said connector 14 means.

16

2. A cover for a rotary clothes line assembly, as 17 claimed in Claim 1, wherein the sheet of waterproof 18 material is also removably attachable to at least one 19 clothes line element of the rotary clothes line assembly which extends between the first frame arm 21 and the second frame arm thereof.

22 23

3. A cover for a rotary clothes line assembly, as 24 claimed in Claim 2, in which the sheet of waterproof material is removably attachable to an outermost 26 clothes line element of the rotary clothes line.

27 28

4. A cover for a rotary clothes line assembly, as 29 claimed in any preceding Claim, wherein the sheet of waterproof material is flexible such that it can be 31 stored on the rotary clothes line assembly by 14 1 detaching the sheet of waterproof material from one 2 of said first and second frame arms, folding or 3 rolling up the sheet of waterproof material and by 4 connecting the sheet of waterproof material to the other of said first and second frame arms of the 6 rotary clothes line assembly.

7 8

5. A cover for a rotary clothes line assembly, as 9 claimed in any preceding Claim, in which the connector means each comprises an eyelet formed in 11 the fabric of the sheet of waterproof material having 12 a loop of elasticated material attached thereto, the 13 loop of elasticated material being adapted to fit 14 around the first frame arm, the second frame arm or is the point on the upright member.

16 17

6. A cover for a rotary clothes line assembly, as 18 claimed in any preceding Claim, in which the sheet of 19 waterproof material contains a plurality of eyelets in each corner thereof arranged in a line from the 21 edge of the sheet of waterproof material towards the 22 centre thereof.

23 24

7. A cover for a rotary clothes line assembly, as claimed in any preceding Claim, in which the sheet of 26 waterproof material is sized such that a portion 27 thereof hangs over the outermost clothes line 28 element.

29

8. A cover for a rotary clothes line assembly, as 31 claimed in any preceding Claim, in which the sheet of is 1 waterproof material is sized to hang over at least 2 one of the first and second frame arm of the clothes 3 line assembly. 4

9. A cover for a rotary clothes line assembly as 6 claimed in any preceding Claim, in which the sheet of 7 waterproof material is made of plastic.

8 9

10. A cover for a rotary clothes line assembly as hereinbefore described with reference to the 11 accompanying drawings.