US1070593A - Means for hanging towels. - Google Patents

Description

R. G. FINLEY.

MEANS PoR HANGING TOWELS.

APPLICATION FILED JAN.11, 1912.

Patented Aug. 19, 1913.

INVENTUR .RICHARD G- f'ln-.LEY

COLUMBIA PLANOGRAPH Cu., WASHINGTON, n. c.

UNITED STATES FTENT OFFIOE.

RICHARD G. FINLEY, 0F CLEVELAND, OHIO.

MEANS FOR HANGING TOWELS.

To all whom 15 may concern:

Be it known that I, RICHARD G. FINLEY, citizen of the United States, residing at Cleveland, in the county of Cuyahoga and State of Ohio, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Means for Hanging Towels, of which the following is a specification,

This invention has reference to means for hanging towels, and the invention consists in a towel hanger or support which is adapted to carry or hang one or more flat towels or a single endless roller tow-el, and the hanger is also especially constructed to permit individual use of the towels when more than one is suspended therefrom and embodies locking means as well as to prevent removal of the towels except by authorized persons, all substantially as shown and described and particularly pointed out in the claims.

In the accompanying drawings, Figure l is a perspective view of my new and improved hanger engaged in a suitable bracket support. Fig. 2 shows the said parts with one towel thereon behind the hanger as hereinafter described. Fig. 3 shows an endless or roller towel supported on the hanger. Fig. 4 is a sectional elevation of the immediate hanger mechanism enlarged as compared with the foregoing and broken out at the middle. Fig. 5 is a cross section on line 5 5, looking to the left. Fig. 6 is an elevation of the locking keeper for one end of the hanger, and Fig. 7 is an inside view of the keeper for the other end. Fig. 8 shows the engaging lingers for the towels in open relation, while they are closed in Fig. 5.

The invention as thus shown consists in a convertible towel hanger or device adapted to be used with both flat and roller or endless towels at will and according to local demands or laws.

It is well known that in these days there has come to be a large business done in towel supplies and equipments in factories, work-shops, department and other stores, office buildings and the like, and in some States the laws now prohibit the use of roller towels in all such public or semi-public places, for sanitary reasons. Other States, however, have not yet taken such advanced position and permit the use of roller towels. I have therefore conceived the idea of a convertible towel support or hanger, or one which is especially adapted Specification of Letters Patent.

Application filed January 11, 1912.

Patented Aug. 19,1913.

Serial No. 670,543.

to support either or both kinds of towels as may be required or preferred in any given case. If it be found that roller towels are prohibited the device is employed only for the flat or single-sheet towel, and is adapted to suspend a single towel or one or more( for use successively. That is, as the towel at the front becomes soiled, my device permits it to be shifted to the rear of the other or clean towels, and moreover, all remain secured together so that no unauthorized person may appropriate or carry oli the same, a lock being provided for this purpose.

The accompanying drawings illustrate a simple form of support or bracket b for the immediate hanging or carrying device c for the towels. As to the said bracket, I desire it to be understood that itserves as an illustration of one of possibly many different forms I might adopt rather than an exclusive form with this possible exception, that the said bracket is a reproduction, substantially, of the well known and common form of bracket now employed by the towel supply trade generally for roller towels and which brackets are usually suspend-ed be neat-h a cabinet in which the clean towels and other toilet articles are kept, and my invention is adaptable to these well known brackets for economical means. It follows, of course, that to adapt my invention to this bracket it is only necessary to remove th-e usual roller and aflix my hanger in its place and the change is made. Otherwise, and in equipments which are new throughout, I can employ any other preferred form or style of bracket or supportthough it be radically different from the one shown, such as a cabinet having front or end doors with fixed or movable interiors to expose the towels. Therefore, having a suitable bracket or other support b adapted to receive the immediate towel carryingl device c, and which for convenience of description, is hereinafter referred to as the hanger, and having the said hanger of a length preferably corresponding to the usual roller or the width of the towel, it is to be further observed that the said bracket or support in any event should have a free open space between the hanger and the top or body of the said support to permit the soiled towels to be thrown back over the hanger and out ofthe way to afford access to t-he neXt succeeding towel beneath. This also provides room for placing and removing the hanger,

which is necessary atV every change of towels. More or less space than shown herein may be provided, and in new supports especially designed for this use the space would be less, generally. f

rThe hanger itself is constructed to be detachably locked at its ends in the two struck up sheet metal keepers or bearings 6 and 7 respectively, of substantially cup shape and which in this instance are fastened in place on the depending ends ofv the bracket by single screws S through the center thereof. They might, however, be adapted to be otherwise fixed in place and be within the invention. The cap or keeper 6 has a segmental slot 9 in its face portion only, to receive one end of the hanger, as in Fig. 1, and the other keeper has a segmental slot 10 the full depth in its face and flange portions adapted to rec-eive the other end of the hanger. Each keeper is made in two cupshaped parts sleeved together to provide a rotatable support for the hanger C and also to lock the hanger in place. In the case of keeper 7, flange 5 thereof is cut out approximately the width or cross section of hanger C to admit the end of the hanger, and has a finger projection adapted to rotate the same. When fiange is rotatably shifted .to engage over the end of the hanger it confines and locks the same in place, see Fig.- 5, but when retired as in Fig. 6 Vthe hanger is easily removed.

A small padlock P is shown in Fig. 5 connecting projection h and fixed lip 4 of keeper 7,v and hanger C cannot be removed until this padlock is unlocked by key, which presumably is held only by authorized persons. The said hanger is shown as a composite structure comprising two transversely curved back members 14 and 15, secured together between their ends in any good mechanical way as by lip n, Fig. 4l, and whereby the outer piece or plate serves as a backing for the inner piece and as a rounded support for a roller towel, Fig. 3. Two springrelated steel strips 16 and 17 Vare confined at their outer edges within inwardly turned flanges or edges on the inner back plate 15 and are adapted to snap into open position as in Fig. 8, or into closed position as in Fig. 5, there being conning devices 18 at intervals between the inner portions of said strips adapted to limit their opening movement to aposition more or less as seen in Fig. 8. Each of said strips 16 and 17 carries a semi-circular or equivalently shaped stiff finger 20 near each end adapted to engage and hold towels 22 singly thereon, and eyelets or worked. holes may be formed in the towels at their edges for this purpose. The towels are thus sleeved on the said fingers, which, when closed, form'up-standingv rings adapting the towels to be easily shifted and reversed front to back, thus re- Vtiring the soiled towels and bringing a clean one to the front. 1n the case of a roller towel 23 the same is simply hung over the hanger as it would be over a roller, but han-ger C is first rotated on pivot screws S so that its rounded back 141 is uppermost,

substantially as shown diagrammatically in Fig. o. The said semi-ring shaped fingers, prongs or hooks 2O are disposed opposit-ely to each other in pairs and are adapted not only to match at their points but one finger is pointed and fits in a cavity or socket in the other finger, thereby effectually closing the fingers on each other and locking the towels within. The said fingers are thrown open as in Fig. 8, when the strips 16 and 17 are sprung outward and closed on each other when the said strips are pressed inward as in Fig. 5. The action of said strips is with a spring effect both inward and outward induced by the bow or bend of the spring backing within the edges of which said strips are engaged. The special limiting devices 18 at intervals between said strips prevent opening further than as shown in Fig. 8. Apivoted lift 211 at one end is adapted to be actuated by the thumb and toy spring the said strips outward to open them as, in Fig. 8. They are closed by pressing the fingers 20 together. i

The complete article of manufacture and sale consists primarily in the hanger 0 and its immediate end fastenings or keeper bearings and adapted to be set up in a bralet or its equivalent as a support for the hanger. Usually however the trade receivesthe complete equipment, including all that is necessary to provide the consumer with the device in readiness for use.

A convenient form of hangeris shown but not an exclusive form thereof because 1 may change it more or less in all particulars and yet preserve thek essentials thereof.

Thusy I may use other means than as shown to drip, clamp or hold the towels, With or without per-forating them, and the hanger may be mounted on brackets which are movable in respectto a main support, such as a shallow cabinet. Primarily the device is intended to comprise means to removably secure the ends of single sheet'towelsand may also embody means adapted to carry a roller towel, including means to safe-guard removal of the towels.2 Moreover, the device v.

disposed hooks thereon adapted to meet at their points and confine towels thereon, in combination with means to hold said body and hooks in inverted position comprising end supports for said body adapted to be rotated and means to fasten said supports in either position.

2. A hanger for towels adapted to be bodily inverted and comprising a rigid body having a plain smooth rounded outer side portion adapted to hang roller towels upon and spring pressed hook shaped fingers on the other side adapted to come together at their points, in combination with supports in which the ends of said body are engaged, the said supports being constructed to support the said body With the said fingers above or below according as it is arranged for single or roller towels.

3. A hanger having pairs of gripping hooks for towels adapted to open and close on each other, in combination with rotatable cup-shaped bearings at each end in which said hanger is rotatably engaged, said bear* ings provided with means to lock the same together and thus confine said hanger.

4. A hanger comprising a rigid body segmental in cross section and means thereon to suspend towels, in combination with end bearings supporting said hanger comprising two substantially cup-shaped members rotatable one within the other and having substantially segmental openings into which the ends of said body project, and means to look said cup-shaped members together and thus confine said hanger against rotation.

In testimony whereof I afiX my signature in presence of two witnesses.

RICHARD G. FINLEY.

Vitnesses F. C. MUssUN, E. M. FISHER.

Copies of this patent may be obtained fol` five cents each, by addressing the Commissioner of Patents. Washington, D. C.

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