US2288358A - Carrier for necked containers - Google Patents

Description

June 1942- T. H. JENKINS ,288,358

CARRIER FOR NECKED CONTAINERS Filed April 20, 1940 Patented June 30, 1942 UNITED sra'ree ATENT QFFICE 1 Claim.

It is common practice to provide bottles, jars and other glass containers equipped with reduced sections or necks adjacent to the top with suitable handle devices usually comprising a ring-like element surrounding the neck and a bail connected to the ring-like element. The object of the present invention is to produce a novel carrier of this kind composed entirely of wire, which shall be simple and inexpensive in construction, which may be shipped in bulk without danger of becoming entangled, which may be easily applied to the object with which it is to be associated, which will remain secured attached to the object after application thereto, and which shall present no sharp edges or corners that might cause damage or injury to persons or things coming in contact therewith.

The various features of novelty whereby my invention is characterized will hereinafter be pointed out with particularity in the claims; but, for a full understanding of my invention and of its objects and advantages, reference may be had to the following detailed description taken in connection with the accompanying drawing, wherein:

Figure l is a horizontal section through the neck portion of a glass container provided with one of my improved carriers; Fig. 2 is a side view of the upper part of the container, showing the bail or handle in its upright, carrying position; and Fig. 3 is a view of the carrier looking toward the device from a point at the right of Fig. 2, showing only fragments of the ring and bail.

Referring to the drawing, I and 2 represent two pieces of strong, resilient wire bent into approximately semicircular shapes, but flattened somewhat from true semicircles. The wire I has at its ends upturned portions shaped into closed or substantially closed eyes 3 that are parallel to each other and whose planes are at right angles to a line connecting the same. The ends of the wire 2 are bent into elongated, closed loops 4 lying in the plane of the wire. The parts are so proportioned that the eyes 3 can be inserted through the loops 4 from below. The third member of the carrier consists of a wire bail 5 having its ends bent laterally and rearwardly to form open hooks 6. When these hooks are inserted in the eyes 3 after the latter have been brought up through the loops 4, the wires l and 2 form a more or less oval ring the two halves of which cannot become separated from each other until the hooks are disengaged from the eyes. This ring is made of such a size that when it is assembled about the neck A of a container, the ring may contact with the sides of the neck at diametrically opposed points each of which is equally spaced from what may be termed the hinge joints between the two halves of the ring, while the connected ends of the two wires constituting the ring stand at some distance away from the adjacent exterior surfaces of the container neck. The parts are so proportioned that when the carrier is symmetrically disposed upon the container, as it usually will be, neither hook on the bail B can be shifted inwardly far enough to clear the eye within which it is engaged. However, if an instrument is inserted between the neck of the container and the ring at one of the joints in the latter, this part of the ring may be forced away from the neck of the container far enough to permit the corresponding hook to be released. After one hook has been released, the other can be easily withdrawn from the eye with which it is normally engaged.

The container illustrated is one in which the upper part of the neck portion is screw-threaded and which is adapted to be closed by means of a screw top B of thin sheet metal. The plane of the section in Fig. 1 is taken at a level below the screw threads on the container, whereas, as can be seen in Fig. 2, the hooks 6 are disposed in the region of the screw threads, where the diameter of the neck of the container is greatest. Thus, Fig. 2 demonstrates more satisfactorily than does Fig. 1, the feature of normally having the lower ends of the bail so close to the neck of the container that the hooks cannot be withdrawn inwardly until after the ring has been manipulated to provide room at one joint in the ring, by distorting the ring on the opposite side of the container, to allow one of the hooks to be drawn clear of its eye.

It will be seen that when the container is being carried about suspended from its bail, the weight of the container comes mainly upon the middle portion of each of the two half rings, while the ends of the half rings, namely, the hinge connections, are drawn upward. Thus, the ring is caused to exert a clamping action on the container neck, while the parts thereof adjacent to the hinge joints stand clear of the neck and are drawn upwardly so as to bring the hooks even closer to the sides of the neck than they are when the ring is not supporting any weight. In other words, the heavier the contained, the less danger there is that the hooks can he accidentally disengaged from the eyes with which they cooperate.

It will be seen that the eyes and loops on the ends of the wires I and 2, respectively, are closed or at least closed to such an extent that no loop can be hooked into another loop or into an eye, whereas the eyes can do no worse than extend through loops in other wires with which they may happen to register. Consequently, when any one of the three wires is shipped in bulk, all of the pieces remain separated from each other so that no time need be wasted in disentangling them when the parts for a complete carrier are to be assembled.

The eyes 3 are preferably formed at the upper ends of vertical stem sections 7 on the wire I, so that in the use of the device the loops 4 lie below the eyes proper and engage with the wire I in the angle between the stem 7 and the body portion of the wire. Thus, the wire l may be said to have at its ends hooks that extend up through the loops t and have their free ends fashioned into eyes that lie above the loops.

While I have illustrated and described with particularity only a single preferred form my invention, I do not desire to be limited to the exact structural details thus illustrated and described, but intend to cover all forms and arrangements which come within the definitions of my invention constituting the appended claim.

I claim:

The combination with a container having a neck underlying a portion of larger diameter of a carrier comprising two bowed resilient wires embracing said neck from opposite sides, one of said wires having at its ends elongated loops lying in the plane thereof, the other wire having its end sections turned upwardly and formed at their upper ends into eyes lying in planes at right angles to a line extending between the same, said upturned sections extending through said loops and bringing the eyes above the latter and below the top of the container, and a bail having at its ends open hooks entered in said eyes from the inner sides of the latter; the ring-like member produced by the bowed wires being larger than the circumference of said neck and being flattened somewhat to cause said eyes to stand at distances from such portion of the container above the neck that is of larger diameter than the latter that are normally less than the distances that the hooks project through said eyes, and either hook being adapted to be left free to be withdrawn from the corresponding eye upon prying that part of the ring-like member containing the latter eye far enough away from the container.

TAZEWELL H. JENKINS.

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