US1488256A - Curtain fixture - Google Patents

Description

mm}, 25 19m.

7 C. W. KIRSCH CURTAIN FIXTURE Filed Nov. 23. 192? atented Man: 25, 1924.

CHARLES w. mason, or srtraers, nncnrean'.

CURTAIN FIXTURE.

Application filed November 23, 1922. Serial No. 802,904.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, CHARLES 'W. KmscH, a citizen of the United States, residing at Sturgis, in the county of St.- Joseph and State of Michigan, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Curtain Fixtures, of which the following is a specification.

This invention relates to improvements in curtain fixtures and more particularly that t pe' of curtain fixture which includes a relatlvely flat, hollow rod of substantially C- shaped cross section," and brackets for securing the same demountably to a window casin or the like.

he present invention relates more particularly to the means for attaching the rod per se to the wall and has for its object to provide an attaching means whereby the rod is not only securely .supported in normal position but whereby it is very firmly held in that position while at the same time it may be very easily and quickly released or detached from the supporting bracket or brackets. 4

A further object of the invention is to provide attaching means as aforesaid which are so constructed as to permit one end of a curtain rod of any desired length to be first.

attached to one of its supportin brackets and to be thereby firmly supporte in a substantially horizontal position preparatory to.

attaching the other end thereof to its supporting bracket, this being particularly desirable where the window casings are of extraordinary width and the supporting brackets accordingly widely separated from each other so that it is almost impossible for the person using and attempting to attach and detach such rods from their brackets, to

readily attach both ends of the rod simultaneously to, the brackets.

The preferred embodiment of the present invention is illustrated in the accompanying drawings wherein: I

Figure 1 is a perspective view of a rod and brackets constructed in accordance with the invention, the same being shown as mounted upon a window casing which is shown in fragmentary view; one end of the rod being detached from its bracket.

Fig. 2 is a perspective view of one of the end members of the rod of the type particularly illustrated in Fig.1, the middle portion of the rod being adapted to be telescopically engaged with companion members such as is shown in this figure.

Fig. 3 is a detail transverse seetim taken on the line 33 of Fig. 1, the parts being shown in their various positions in part by dotted lines.

Fig. 4 is a detail transverse section on the line 4-4 of Fig. 3, the bracket being shown 1n front elevat1on.

Referring now to said drawings, it ill b seen that the bracket for supportin the curtam rod comprises a wall plate 1, w 'ch may be of an sultable shape such as the oblong shown, rom the middle of which a fin-like pro ection 2 extends outwardly, the latter having a curved or rounded lower front corner 3 and bemg equipped on its upper edge with a grojection 4 having a front rounded face an a rear vertical face, the latter extending from about midway between the front and rear ends or edges of said project1on. The said projection 44, in conjunction with the main or body portion of the fin-like flange 2, ma be said to constitute a hook. The rod which, in the instance illustrated, consists of a middle portion 5 and two substantially L-shaped end portions 6, all of which are preferably C-shaped in cross section and present a flat outer or front wall, is adapted to be attached to the brackets by means of perforations 7 in the upper flanges of the end or arms of the members 6 which are disposed substantially perpendicularly to the middle portion of the rod, it bein preferable to provide a erforation 7 in hot the upper and lower anges contiguous to the ends of said arms so as to render the rod reversible with respect to the brackets. Each of the perforations 7 is spaced from the end of the arm or flange in which it is cut a distance substantially equal to the distance of the vertical face of the hook or projection 4 from the front face of the wall plate 1, said perforation being of a width and length sufficient to receive said projection 4. The depth of the arm of the rod containing said perforations 7 is slightly less than the depth of the main portion of the fin or flange 2 exclusively of the projection 4 so that, in practice, said open end of the arm of the rod is required to be forced upon the fin or flange 2 b effecting a slight expansion of said open en portion in an obvious manner.

Thus, as is shown in dotted lines in Fig. 3., it is necessary, when attaching the rod to its brackets, to first dispose the arms thereof at about the incline shown in dotted .of the plate 1, thereby maintaining lines in said figure and thereafter turn the same upon the rear face of the projection 4 as a pivot or fulcrum whereby the outermost portion of the inner face of the lower flange of said arm will be caused to ride upon and be expanded by the curved lower front edge 3 of the fin or flange 2, a portion of the lower face of the latterbeing preferably flat so that the expansion of the flanges of the rod' will be slightly reduced and, in fact, so that they will be brought back to substantially their normal position when said arms have reached the horizontal position shown in full line in Fig. 3.

It will be observed that when the said arms are engaged with the brackets, as shown in full lines in Fig. 3, a downward pull on the outer end ortio'n of the arm, or upon the middle portlon 5 ofv the rod, will 'efl'ect a tension u on the projection 4, will cause the lower e ge ortion of the end of the arm or arms to ear against the fags sai arms firmly or ri 'dly in the horizontal position shown an permitting of no sagging whatsoever. The arm of the corner portions 6 of the rod which are engaged with the brackets, are thus so accurately fitted in their abutment against the front face of the plate 1 as to make it appear as though they were a part of said plate.

It will be appreciated that in most instances curtain rods are disposed at the tops of window casings and that the user thereof is generally obliged to employ a chair or ladder in mounting and demountin same for purposes of removing and replaclng the curtains or draperies suspended from the rod and that such user, when standing on such supports, is not very safe. Very great ease of attachment and detachment of the rod from its brackets is therefore very advantageous, while at the same time a very firm engagement of the rod with the brackets is very desirable. Such firm attachment should, for the sake of safety, be accom plished with great ease and, likewise, de-

tachment of the rod from the brackets.

It will be noted that in the construction as shown the rod is first loosely engaged with the brackets and the pivotal movement necto bring it from its upwardly inclin to its horizontal position, is accomplished by a downward pull, either upon the outer end portion of a corner of the rod, or upon the middle portion 5 thereof,

the leverage being easily sufiicient to over-.

come the resistance offered to expansion of the flanges in riding over the rounded lower front corner portion 3 of the fin or flange 2.

It .will be further observed that this ull being substantially vertical instead 0 a force exerted horizontally, is not apt to throw the user off balance when-standing on a ladder or other similar relatively unaccustomed support. On the other hand, when the window casings are of relatively great A width, the user of the rod may set a ladder or other support adjacent one side of the casing and attach one of the arms of the rod to the bracket, bringing it to the horizontal position shown .in F 1g. 3, without at the same time engaging the other end of the rod with its companion bracket. The snug fit will support the rod in a substantially horizontal position without any great amount of sag 'ng, the latter depending, of course, upon t e weight of the curtains or draperies, the tendency being for the weight eral y speaking, no permanent distortion will take place because of the flexibility of the metal of which the rod is best adapted to be made. The user ma then set the ladder, or the like, adjacent-t e other side of the window casing and then'efiectattachment of the other arm of the rod to its companion bracket, and can enerally accomplish this without causing t e first attached arm to leave its horizontal position owing to the flexibility of. the metal and the very slight torsional strain necessary to brin the second arm to the position shown 1n dotted lines inFig. 3 preparatory to bringing it back to its horizontal position.

A further advantage resulting from the firm attachment aforesaid is that, at times, it may happen that a child will give a sudden jerk on the curtain or drapery or suddenly release the same after a downward pull thereon with the result that the middle portion of the rod will be somewhat flexed, and in suddenly springing back to its normalposition it is possible that, in the absence of a very snug fit between the rod and its brackets, the said rod may spring upwardly to an extent to cause one or both ends thereof to become detached from the bracket, whereas a snug fit, such as is herein illustrated and described, will prevent such action. r.

While I have shown the preferred embodiment of the invention n the accompanying drawings, it will be obvious, of course, that such embodiment is capable of out eparting from the invention as defined in the appended claims.

I claim as my invention:

1. A curtain fixture comprising a hollow rod open at its ends, and a pair of supporting brackets adapted to be mounted on a window casing, the middle portion of said rod extending substantially perpendicularl to the end portions thereof and said end portions adapted to extend substantially orizontally outwardly from said brackets, the latter including elements adapted to project into the ends of the rod, said rod and said elements including inter-engagin formations for preventing movement 0 said end-portions of said rod 'away from said brac ets in any direction except upwardly and permitting a limited pivotal movement of the end-portions of the rod relatively to the brackets without effecting disengagement of the rod from the brackets, whereby said rod may be initially engaged with said brackets by disposing the end-portions of said rod at an upward incline relatively to said brackets and subsequently swung to horizontal position, said elements includin means adapted to yieldably engage the sai end-portions of the rod as the latter are swung to horizontal position for resisting upward swing of said end-portions preparatory to eflectmg disengagement of said rod from said brackets.

2. A curtain fixture including a rod having end-portions adapted to extend substantially horizontally outwardly from a window casing or the like, and a pair of brackets for supporting said rod, the latter and the extreme ends of said rod including inter-engaging formations for efli'ecting attachment of the rod tothe brackets at points above the middle of the ends of said rod for preventing disengaging movement of said rod relatively to said brackets in any direction exce t one and further including parts on said rackets below the level of said inter-engaging formations against which the ends of said rod abut when the said end-portions thereof V extend substantially horizontally and coacting with said inter en aging formations to rigidly su port said end-portions of said rod in sai position,

said inter-engaging formations permitting and requiring pivotal movement of said endportions of sald rod upwardly from horizontal position preparatory to effecting disengagement or inter-engagement of sai formations, and inter-engaging means on the rod and brackets dis osed below the said formations for yielda ly resisting swing of said end-portions of said rod to and from said horizontal position while said formations are inter-engaged, whereby said endportions are firmly held in said horizontal position while permitting said rod and change and variation to some extent withbrackets to be readily dissociated and associated when desired.

3. A curtain fixture comprising a rod hav ing a middle portion adapted to extend substantially parallel with a window casin or the like, and two end ortions exten ing substantially per endicu arly to said middle portion, said en -portions hollow and open at their free ends, a pair of supporting brackets ada ted to be secured to the window-casing, t e saidbrackets and free ends of the rod equipped with inter-engaging formations disposed at substantially the highest point in each for effecting attachment of the rod with said brackets, the lat ter presenting parts below the level of said formations against which the free ends of the rod abut and coact with said formations to support said end-portions of said rod in horizontal position, said rod and brackets equipped v with yielding inter-engaging means below said formations coacting to firmly hold the end-portions of the rod against free movement relatively to the bracket in any direction and permitting engagement of one free end of the rod with one of said brackets while the other free end remains disengaged from its bracket and supporting the middle portion of the rod in substantially horizontal position preparatory to eifectmg engagement of said other free end with its bracket.

4. A curtain fixture comprising a flat rod of substantially C-shaped cross-section and having arms extending substantially perpendicularly to its main or middle ortion, the latter adapted to be horizontal y disposed substantially parallel with the plane of a window casing, there being perforations in the outermost portions of the flan es of said rods contiguous to the free ends 0 the arms thereof, a pair of brackets for supporting said ro'dcomprising wall plates adapted to be secured to the window casing, ro ections on said wall plates including hooks adapted to engage in the perforations in the u per flan es of the rod and parts adapte to iel ably enga e in the channels of the ower flan es 0 the rod at the free ends of said arms or resistin free movement of the rod relatively to saidfiirackets, the free ends of said arms adapted to abut against the wall-portions and edge-portions of said projeetions ofvsaid flanges equipped with inter-engaging f0 mations for preventing movement of the rod outwardly from the brackets when the said rod is horizontally disposed, said rod adaptedto be tilted at an upward incline relatively to the brackets for effecting initial inter-engagement of said formations as said rod is forcibly swung downwardly to horizontal position to cause the lowermost edge-portions of the said projections to engage the inner surface of the lowermost wall-portions of .the rod.

6. A curtain fixture comprising a pair of supports adapted to be fixed to a window casing or the like, each thereof includin a flange equipped at substantially the meeting point of its front and top edges with an upwardly extending flprojection, the lower front corner of said ange being cut away, a eurtain'rod having parallel hollow arms presenting opposed flexible top and bottom wall portions separated from each other a distance less than the height of said flange,

* there being perforations in the upper wall portions adjacent the ends of said arms to receive said projections, said rod adapted to be engaged with said flanges by primarily tilting said arms and effecting engagement of said projections in said perforations and then bringing said arms to a horizontal position, the edges of the lower wall portions being primarily in contact with said cut away portions of said flanges and being rod presenting opposed flexl flexed as forcible entry of the flanges into the ends of said arms is effected as the latter are moved to horizontal osition, where-. by a clamp-like engagement between the rod and said supports 1s effected,

7. A curtain fixture com rising a hollow 'ble wall portions adapted to be engaged at their extremities with supporting devices, and supporting de vices adapted to be mounted on a window easing or the like, said supporting devices and one of said flexible wall portions of said rod equipped with inter-engaging formations for preventing movement of the rod away from said devices while permitting a limited swinging movement of the rod from a horizontal position to an upward incline and vice versa, there being a cam element associated with the said formations of each of said wall portions of said red as the latter isswung from its upward incline to horizontal position and coacting with said formations to hold said rod firmly and yieldably engaged with 'said supports.

8. A. curtain fixture comprising a hollow rod of substantially C-shaped cross-section, the opposed flanges thereof being flexible, a supporting device for said rod comprisin a wall fixture presenting a hook, there being a perforation in the upper flange of the rod' to receive said hook, said wall fixture further presenting a cam surfaced portion below the hook against. a part of which the end of the lower flan e of the rod is adapted to abut when sai hook is engaged in said perforation for normally holding'said rod to extend at an upward .incline relatively to said wall fixture said flexed and obtain a firm yielding hold onsaid wall fixtures.

CHARLES W. KIRSCH.

65 support for engaging and flexing the other

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