US2399128A - Shoe tree - Google Patents

Description

April 23, 1946. I

R. c. MAGEE SHOE TREE Filed June 6, 1945 INVENTOR A540 6. w

ah ATTORNEYJ' Patented Apr. 23, 1946 UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE 2,399,128 SHOE TREE Robert C. Magee, Dayton, Ohio I Application June 6, 1945, Serial No. 597,855

4 Claims.

The general object of the present improvements is to provide a shoe-tree which, if desired, may be conveniently attached to a wall or other fixed support and when so attached, as well as when held in the hand, may be readily inserted into a shoe and manipulated to apply a stretching force thereto. The improvements have been designed both with a view to supporting and holding shoes in a convenient position for cleaning and polishing and with a view to the storage of shoes along the side of a wall of a closet, for example, in such a way as to require a minimum of space for housing them.

A simple embodiment of my improved shoetree is shown in the accompanying drawing whereof the single figure is a view in elevation, partly in section, in which the full lines indicate the position of the parts when the shoe-tree is to be inserted in a shoe, and the broken lines the position of the parts in their stretching position within the shoe.

The stretcher bar I0, and the toe-piece I I carried by the forward end thereof, may be of conventional form, with the toe-piece adjustable on said bar in any customary manner, as by providing the toe-piece with a pin I2 to fit slots in that end of the bar. The other end of the stretcher-bar has a pivotal connection I3 to the end of a curved supporting-arm I4, which may be attached to a wall or other fixed support as shown, or will serve as a handle for the shoetree in case the latter is not to be attached to a fixed support.

The heel-piece I5, which preferably consists of two identical stampings held together by screws or rivets I6, I! and closely embracing the stretcher-bar at I8, is pivoted to the supportingarm I4. This may be done by passing the screw or rivet I6 through the supporting-arm. It will be noted that this screw or rivet I6 is above the pivotal connection I3 of the stretcher-bar to the supporting-arm, and thus provides a pivotal support for the heel-piece above the pivotal support of the stretcher-bar, while the screw or rivet I1 is placed below the pivotal support of the stretcher-bar for a reason which will presently appear. Between the pivotal support I3 and the screw or rivet I7 is a spring I9, preferably a coil-spring, as shown, held under compression by being forced at one end against a shoulder of an arm 2| through which the pivot I3 passes and around which said spring is coiled, and at the other end against the screw or rivet ll which thus acts as an abutment for that end of the spring.

When the device has been secured, for example, to a wall, and is disposed, as shown in full lines, substantially horizontally, the stretcher-bar I0 is in its retracted position and thus ready to receive a shoe which is readily fitted over the device while in this position. Then the stretcher-bar is depressed by pushing downwardly upon it so that it will occupy the position shown in the broken lines. The depression of the stretcherbar, being embraced as it is by the heel-piece, will cause the heel-piece to swing about the rivet I6, and the arm 2| to swing around the pivot I3, until the heel-piece and the arm I3 with its encircling spring I9 occupy the respective positions shown in the broken lines. At that moment, further movement of the stretcher-bar is halted by an edge of an opening 22 in the heel-piece (through which the end of the supporting-arm I4 passes) coming in contact with the support ing-arm; and likewise, when the stretcher-bar is moved from its depressed position back to its first or horizontal position, this backward movement is halted by the opposite edge of said opening coming in contact with the supporting-arm. The stretcher-bar is maintained in both of its normal positions, that is, in its horizontal and depressed positions respectively, by the force of the spring acting against the rivet I! as an abutment.

It will be noted that when the shoe-tree has been inserted in a shoe and is in its depressed position, it will be maintained and held there in a convenient posture for cleaning and polishing the shoe, and also that in this position the shoe may be brought fairly close to the wall or other fixed support to which the supporting-arm is attached. Thus, in the case where several of these shoe-trees are attached to the wall of a closet, for example, the space required in the closet for housing shoes will be relatively slight. It will also be noted that in a case where the shoe-tree is not attached to a fixed support, the supporting-arm I4 will serve as a handle therefor by which the shoe-tree can be carried about and by which it may be held when being inserted into a shoe and manipulated to its stretching position therein.

I claim as my invention:

1. In a shoe-tree, the combination with a supporting-arm therefor, of a heel-piece pivoted thereto, a stretcher-bar having a toe-piece at one end and a pivotal connection to said supportingarm at its other end and embraced by the heelpiece, and a spring between said pivotal connection and an abutment on the heel-piece to ment, whereby the stretcher-bar is normal-1y maintained by the spring in either one of .two positions relative to the supporting-arm.

3. The combination defined in claim; Zandiurther characterized by this: that the heel-piece embraces one end of said supporting-arm and has an opening through which said supportingarm passes, the edges of which opening being adapted to contact with said arm to limit the movement of the stretcher-bar when it is swung from one of its normal positions to the other.

4. The combination defined in claim 1 and further characterized by this: that said heel-piece is iorjmed in two parts held together byrivets one Qfi. which provides the pivot for securing. said heelpiece to said supporting-arm and the other of which provides said abutment on th heel-piece for said spring.

ROBERT C. MAGEE.

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