US1530848A - Clothes-hanger support for wardrobe trunks - Google Patents

Description

T. J. MOORE CLOTHES HANGER SUPPORT FOR WARDROBE TRUNKS March 24, 192i Filed March 14, 1923 INVENTOR.

A TTORNEY.

Patented Mar. 24, 1925.

. was i THOMAS J. MOORE, PETER-SBURG, VIRGINIA.

To all whom it may concern: Be it known that I, THOMAS J Moonn a citizen of the United States, residing at Petersburg, in the county of Dinwiddie and State of Virginia, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Clothes-Hanger Supports for Wardrobe Trunks, of which the following isaspecitication, reference being had to the accompanying drawings.

This invention relates to clothes-hanger supports,and particularly to such hanger supports as are used in wardrobe trunks.

In wardrobe trunks, one section of the trunk is designed to support garment hang ers at its upper end and these supports for the hangers ordinarily consist of foldable or telescopic brackets attached to the hanger section of the trunk and projecting out therefrom and telescopic to permit the hangers and the clothes to be drawn out so that they may be readily removed from the trunk or to permit the clothes and hangers to be forced toward each other in a compact mass and permit the trunk to be closed.

One of the objects of the present invention is to provide a-telescopic hanger support comprising a rod-like member which is rigidly attached to the trunk and a sleeve teles scopically engaging with the rod and movable inward and outward thereon, this sleeve being so formed at its inner endthat when it is drawn outward it will carry with it the hangers which are supported on the sleeve,

and when the sleeve is forced inward it will ride beneath any hangers which are supported on the rod so that the hangers shallform no impediment to the inward movement of the sleeve but shall ride up over the inner end ofthe sleeve and onto the sleeve, and in particular to so form the inner end of the sleeve that the smallprojection orboss on the sleeve which constitutes the'slight impediment causing the hangers to be withdrawn with the sleeve will not cause any impediment to the riding up of the hangers upon the sleeve.

A further object is to provide means whereby to prevent the sharp or thin end of the sleeve from striking against the bracket supporting the coacting rod and thus prevent this sharp end of the sleeve from being overturned or dulled.

A still further object is to so construct this device that the outer end of the sleeve,

CLOTHES-HANGER SUPPORT FOR WARDROBE TRUNKS.

Applicati onfiled March 14, 1923. seriaino. 625,117.

when the sleeve is forcedfully inward, will be approximately flush with the bracket which supports the sleeve. i j

Other objects have to do with the details of construction and arrangement of parts as will appear more fully hereinafter.

My invention is illustrated in the accompanying drawings, wherein 1- Figure, 1 is a perspective view of the upper portion of a wardrobe trunk, the trunk body being shown in dotted lines, showing my improved clothes hanger structure ap plied thereto,

Figure 2 is a vertical section from front to rear through (meet the telescopic hanger supports and its supporting brackets;

Figure 3 is a section on the line 3 3 of Figure 2; V

Figure 4, is a section on the line t d of Figure 2 and Figure 5 is a section on the line 5&5 of Figure 2, both of these figures showing the position taken by a l-ianger when it arrives at the planes designated 44. and 5-5;

Figure dis a fragmentary rear end elevation of one of the sleeves 1.7;

Figure 7 is zi -fragmentary front elevation of one of the sleeves 17. v a

Referring to these drawings, it will be seen that in Figure 1, I have illustrated one section A of a wardrobe trunk havingthe lid B. These parts may be of any usual or suitable construction. 10 designates a U shaped reinforcing bar which is quite commonly found in wardrobe trunks and which isfriveted or otherwise attached to the side and rear walls of the trunk body A and vwhosev outer ends 11 are inwardly turned.

Rear brackets 12 are mounted upon the rear memberof this U-shaped reinforcing bar and a forward brackets 13 are mounted upon the inwardly turned portionsll. These forward-brackets extend upward, then rearward, andthen again upward, as at 14, and mountedlupon the upper ends of the rear brackets 12 and the forward brackets 13 are a pair of longitudinally extending rods 15 these rods being reduced at their ends and having the reduced ends passed through a rtures in the brackets and then headed, as as 16.

Coa-cting with each rod 15 isa sleeve l'l which is formed preferably of sheet metal and the strip forming the blank being bent into an approximately tubular sleeve adapted to telescopically embrace the'rod 15, the outer edges of the strip forming the sleeve being so formed as to provide longitudinally extending flanges 18 which are approximately parallel to each other and spaced sufliciently apart to accommodate the upper end of the bracket 13. at its forward end by means of a head 19 having a circular portion larger than the cross section of .the sleeve and extending downward over the ends of theflanges 18. The head is formed with lateral flanges 20 and 21 and these lateral flanges are riveted to the flanges 18 by means of the rivet 22. The lower end of the blank from which the head is made is bent inward, as at 28, to fill up the slot or space between the flanges 18 and then is upwardly extended, asat'24, and bears against the rivet 22, as illustrated most clearly in Figure 2. The flanges 18 do not extend the full length of the sleeve but may extend rearward any desired distance and then terminate, and the sleeve is then circularly bent to snugly surround the rod, the two edges of the blank from which the sleeve is made approximating each other.

The sleeve at its rear end, as is illustrated particularly in detail in Figure 6, has its rear'end cut away at the side, as at 25, and the lower portion of the sleeve extends slightly beyond the upper portion, as at 26. The upper portion of the sleeve is bevelled downward and rearward, as at 27, so as to form a relatively sharp edge which will slip beneath the hangers C and the sheet metal of the sleeve is struck out to form a semielliptical rib 28, the two arms of the rib extending rearward and downward on each side of the sleeve at the rear end thereof and terminating at the two ends of the beveled or knife edge portion 27. That portion of the sleeve directly rearward ofthe middle portion of the rib 28 is convexly curved longitudinallyto a slight extent so that the crest of this middle portion and the crests of the ribs 28 will be concentric to a common center. This is illustrated most clearly in Figure l, and thus the wall of the notch c of the hanger Gwill touch the rear end of the sleeve at three points only. As the'sleeve moves rearward. however, and the hanger arrives at a position to ride over the apex of the hump orrib 28, the wall of the notch 0 will ride entirely upon the rib, as illustrated in Figure 5, so that the apexof the notch crwill be above the rib or hump 28 and will readily ride over this rib or hump. If it were not for this peculiar construction of the rib 28, or in other words if the sleeve were simply provided with a circumferential A rib, there would be an iinpediment'to the hanger riding over this rib when the sleeve is forced inward, but with the construction whiclr'I have described the hanger rides up This sleeve is closed the inclined or beveled edge 27 and rides up on the rib without impediment until it passes the apex of thelrib and Ithendrops down on the other side and then'rides upon the tubular portion of the sleeve in the usual manner, Thus in actual practice there is practically no impediment to the free movement ofthe hangers from the rod 15 onto the sleeve 17 upon a rearward movement of the sleeve,bu't upon a forward movement of the sleeve as, for instance, when the sleeves are drawn outward, the hump or rib 28 will cause the hangers to move outward with the sleeves. Inasmuch as the extremity 26 projects rearward beyond the sharpened edge 27, it follows that'this extremity 26 will strike the bracket 12 before the sharpened edge can strike this bracket so that there is no danger of this sharpened edge becoming dulled, mutilated oroverturned. 1 h

The upwardly turned end 24 of the cap or head 22 is also so disposed that the end 26 will strike the bracket 12 before this upwardly turned extre1nity'24'will strike the bracket 13. Thus the head will not be exposed to blows which would tend to detach it or bend it. It will be noted that by bending rearward the upper "portion of the bracket 13 with the head 19 comes practically flushwith or slightly inward of the inwardly turnedends 11 0f the reinforcing bar 10 and do not project out beyond this reinforcing bar so that the upper section of the trunk when closed fits against the ends ofthe reinforcing bar and'is braced thereby, which otherwise would not be thecase. In order to prevent the sleeve 17 from being drawn out too far to an extent which would render the support of the sleeve on the rod 15 inadequate for the proper support of thehangers, I disposed at stop-rivet 29 through'the flanges 18. Where the trunk section A has a relatively shallow depth as, for instance, 11'! steamer wardrobe trunks, the sleeve may be drawn out to a much greater extent than in ordinary wardrobe trunks C.. In other words, if there is a hanger or hangers C resting upon the barsQo and the sleeve ispushed inward, the hanger will ride easilyup over the sharpened edges of the'sleeves and onto the body of the sleeves without the necessity of lifting the hangers by hand and lifting them over the ends of the sleeves as thesleeves are forced inward. On the other hand,when the sleeves are drawn outward, the rlbs '01 humps '28 will equivalent to the section line 4-4 in Figure 2, and then as the sleeve continues its movement rearward. the hanger will be forced forward by the hangers behind it but that the apex of the notch 0 will not descend and strike the apex of the hump 28 but the side edges of the hanger will be supported by the sides of the rib 28 so that the apex of the notch 0 will pass above this hump, as illustrated in Figure 5. y 7

An important advantage, of the rib 28 is that the rib acts to strengthen the rear end of the sleeve. This is necessarv because when the sleeves are drawn out the weight of the clothes thereon is considerable, tend- ,ing to tilt the forward end of the sleeve downward and urge the rear end of the sleeve upward, and it is particularly necessary when the sleeves are extended and a person is pushing the sleeves in, there being a tendency under these circumstances to lift up on the forward end of the sleeve, which tends to bend up the rear end thereof. The rib 28 acts to stiffen, strengthen and reinforce the rear end so that it will resist strain. Furthermore, this is particularly necessary where the side walls of the sleeve are re-entrantly cut away, as at 26, in Fig ure 6.

It will be noted from Figure 2 that the sharp or beveled edge 27 is convexly rounded instead of being angular or re-entrant and this is a small but important feature for the reason that practice has shown me that this convexly rounded edge does not tend to out, chip or otherwise mar the wall of the notch 0 in the hanger C. These hangers are made of veneer and are relatively soft and where the rear edge of the sleeve. is not properly formed the rear edge tends to bite into the wood when the sleeve is forced backward against a. hanger and gradually chip away and roughen the edge of the wood, thus in a short time making it diliicult for the hanger to rise up onto the sleeve when the sleeve is pushed back. It will be noted that in my construction there is a three-point bearing for the hanger, as illustrated particularly in Figure 4, the hanger resting upon the top of the sleeve at the uppermost portion of the bulge part thereof and upon the ribs. This secures a. full support for the hanger with less frictional re sistance and, as before explained, carries the hanger rearward past the rib 28 without this rib forming any obstacle for the passage of the hanger.

I claim 1. In a clothes supporting structure, a hanger sup-porting bar formed of two sections, one of said sections embodying a rod and the other a sleeve havingtelescopic engagement with the rod, the sleeve at its rear end being inwardly cut away at its sides and the upper portion of the rear end of the sleeve being beveled to a thin edge, the sleeve atits rear end having an approximately U- shaped, slightly protuberant rib extending from the beveled edge ofthe sleeve upward and forward, with the apex of the rib disposed above the longitudinal axis of the sleeve, the side portions of the rib acting to lift the hanger and guide it over said protuberance without impediment.

2. In a clothes supporting structure, a hanger supporting bar formed in two sectrons, one of saidsections embodying a rod and the other a sleeve having telescopic engagement with the rod, the sleeve at its rear end being cut away on each side and the upper portion of the rear end of the sleeve between said cut away portions being beveled to athin edge and the rear end of the sleeve having a semi-elliptical rib formed thereon, the ends of the rib merging into the beveled end of the sleeve on each side of the middle thereof and the apex of the rib being coincident with the longitudinal axis of the upper surface of the sleeve. In a clothes supporting structure, a hanger supporting bar formed in two sections, one of said sections embodying a rod and the other a sleeve having telescopic engagement with the rod, the sleeve at its rear end being beveled to a thin edge and the rear end of the sleeve being formed with an approximately, U-shaped reinforcing rib having its apex disposed above the longitudinal axis 'of the sleeve and the arms of the rod intersecting the beveled portion thereof, the ends of the rib being beveled.

4:. In a clothes supporting structure, a hanger supporting bar formed in two sections, one of said sections embodying a rod and the other a sleeve having telescopic engagement with the rodfthe sleeve at its rear end being inwardly cut away at its sides and the upper portion of the rear end of the sleeve being beveled to a thin edge, said upper portion of the sleeve at its rear end having an approximately U-shaped rib extending from the beveled edge of the sleeve upward and forward and thatportion of the sleeve defined by said rib being bulged outward and merging into the beveled edge of the sleeve.

In testimony whereof I hereunto affix my signature.

THOMAS J. Moons.

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