US2684150A

US2684150A - Garment bag

Info

Publication number: US2684150A
Application number: US245125A
Authority: US
Inventors: Kroner George
Original assignee: Individual
Current assignee: Individual
Priority date: 1951-09-05
Filing date: 1951-09-05
Publication date: 1954-07-20
Anticipated expiration: 1971-07-20

Description

July 20, 1954 G. KRONER 2,684,150

GARMENT BAG Filed Sept. 5, 1951 INVENTOR 4/ Geoz ge ffi onen ATTORNEYS Patented July 20, 1954 UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE GARMENT BAG George Kroner, Harrison, N. Y.

Application September 5, 1951, Serial No. 245,125

1 Claim. 1

in the bag, since the other hand holds the garment to be inserted.

It is accordingly among the objects of the invention to provide a garment bag of the above type which may readily be made of easily available materials of low cost such as plastic film, fabric tape, wire and slide fasteners and yet affords a structure of adequate strength to meet the requirements of use and'which affords ready access for removal or introduction of garments without need for manually holding apart the edgesof the long opening or slit therein.

According to the invention, a pair of spring arms are affixed to the sides of the frame at the top of the bag and protrude laterally outward with their ends at the upper front corners of the frame, automatically to urge the bag to open position when released by opening the usual slide fastener which, in closed position of the bag, maintains said spring arms in stressed position along the frame.

In the accompanying drawing in which is shown one of various possible embodiments of the several features of the invention:

Fig. 1 is a perspective view of the garment bag in closed position,

Fig. 2 is a fragmentary view similar to Fig. 1 of the bag in open position,

Fig. 3 is a transverse sectional view, taken along line 3-3 of Fig. 1,

Fig. 4 is a view similar to Fig. 3, taken along line t t of Fig. 2, and

Fig. 5 is a fragmentary perspective View of the garment bag frame.

Referring now to the drawings, the garment bag includes a floor It, a front wall I l, a rear wall l2, side walls It, and a top wall it, each of said walls being rectangular in shape and having their contiguous edges secured in any suitable manner to define a box-shaped bag. The bag may be of any flexible fabric but for economy is of translucent or transparent plastic such as of one of the vinyl plastics.

The floor is preferably somewhat reinforced by a rectangular inset it which may be of fiber board or the like to maintain said floor distended.

To afford access to the interior of the bag, it

is longitudinally slit at 16, desirably from near the bottom edge l! of front wall II to the top edge !8 thereof, substantially midway between the lateral edges of wall 1 I, and also rearwardly across top wall M toward the rear edge It thereoflalso substantially midway between the lateral edges thereof.

Suitable closure means are provided releasably to connect the adjacent edges 2| of the slit H5 in the front and top walls I I and. I4. Such means desirably comprise a line of slide fastener tape 22 affixed to each of said edges 2i and mounting a fastener slide 23 which may bemoved along the tapes to connect or disconnect the latter in conventional manner. Desirably the fastener slide 23 is so positioned that it must be moved from end 2% of the aperture IS on the top wall 14 to the other end 25 thereof near the bottom edge ll of wall II to open the aperture.

The top wall it of the bag is maintained distended by a rectangular frame 21, desirably fashioned from a single length of metal wire, welded together at its abutting-ends 28. Across the side bars 29 of wire frame 2?, there is hooked at 3! in corresponding indentations 32, a metal cross brace desirably in the middle of the lengths of bars 29. The cross brace 33 extends substantially parallel to the front bar 35 of the frame, is corrugated to space the hooks (not shown) of the garment hangers to be carried thereby, and mounts one or more, usually two hooks 36 that serve for suspension of the bag from the ordinary horizontal pole in a clothes closet. Desirably the median transverse portion of the top wall [4 has eyelets 31 therein through which the respective hooks 3! extend.

According to the invention, means are desirably provided resiliently to exert outward pressure against the side walls l3 of the bag adjacent the top wall 14 thereof so that when the slide fastener 23 is moved from the top of the bag toward the bottom thereof to open the slit therein, the adjacent edge 2! of such aperture will be spread apart to facilitate the introduction and removal of clothing.

To this end, as shown in Figs. 3, 4 and 5, a pair of spring members M is provided, each comprising a length of wire affixed at one end as by welding at 42 to each of the side bars 29 of the frame near the cross brace 33. Such length of spring wire is desirably bent into a. loop as at 43, positioned within the outline of and in a plane substantially parallel to the frame. The length of wire when unrestrained, extends outwardly from said loop across the associated side bar 29, toward the front bar 35, desirably forming an acute angle with respect to the associated side bar 29, when the bag is in open position, as shown in Figs. 2 and 4.

The free ends 44 of each of the outwardly extending portions of the spring members 41 which also lie in a plane substantially parallel to that of the frame, are desirably bent into a loop, and such loop ends are positioned respectively in suitable pockets 45 formed at each of the two corners of top wall M of the bag adjacent the side walls i3 thereof.

Although the pockets 45 may be formed in any suitable manner, in the embodiment herein, each desirably comprises a strip of material affixed on three sides to the topwall [4 and defining an opening 46 into which each loop end 44 may be inserted.

With the construction above described, as the slit It in the bag is closed by the slide fastener 23 and the edges 2] of said aperture are drawn together to the position shown in Figs. 1 and 3, the loop ends 44 of spring members II will be moved inwardly until they extend substantially parallel to side bars 29, and will be so retained under tension to exert outward pressure against the side Walls l3.

As the slide fastener 23 is moved from the top end 24 of closed slit IE to open the bag, the loop ends 44 of the spring members 4| will be released and by their spring action will move outwardly of the frame to spread apart the adjacent edges Zl of slit l6, thereby providing ready access into the interior of the bag.

It is therefore a relatively simple matter to suspend garments in the bag even when it is partially filled as the user who with one hand may be holding a garment on a hanger, may reach with his free hand into the bag through the wide open slit 16 therein and with his free hand spread apart the garments hanging on cross brace 33 to provide space, and thus suspend upon said cross brace the garment he is holding.

Thus, the rather awkward procedure is avoided of attempting to spread apart with one hand the adjacent edges of the slit in the conventional bag while simultaneously trying to suspend a garment held in the other hand on the cross bar in the bag, especially when other garments are I suspended on such cross brace which must be spread apart to provide room.

As many changes could be made in the above construction and many apparently widely differ ent embodiments of this invention could be made without departing from the scope of the claim, it is intended that all matter contained in the above description, or shown in the accompanying drawings, shall be interpreted as illustrative and not in a limiting sense.

Having thus described my invention, what I claim as new and desire to secure by Letters Patent of the United States is:

A box-shaped garment bag having a floor, a top Wall, front side and rear walls, a rectangular wire reinforcing frame about the periphery of said top wall, a transverse brace across said frame, at least one hook anchored to said frame and rising from said bag, a slide fastener extending from near said brace along a slit in said top wall to the front edge thereof and downward along a slit in said front wall, a pair of pockets on said top wall positioned respectively at each corner thereof adjacent said front wall, said pockets each having a mouth at the rear thereof, and a pair of resilient spring arms each com prising a length of wire, affixed at one end to the sides of said frame respectively adjacent the side walls of said bag, and normally extending outwardly from the sides of the frame toward the front edge of said bag with the free end of each of said lengths positioned respectively in said pockets, each of said lengths of wire having a loop therein positioned respectively inwardly of the sides of said frame and lying in a plane substantially parallel to that of said frame, whereby said lengths of wire are stressed when the is closed, so that the free ends thereof exert out- Ward pressure against the side walls of said bag adjacent the top thereof to spread apart said slit as said slide fastener is moved to open position in order to provide ready access into the interior of said bag.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS Number Name Date 1,570,263 Kurowski Jan. 19, 1926 2,128,099 Marks Aug. 23, 1938 2,236,115 Schwartzman Mar. 25, 1941 FOREIGN PATENTS Number Country Date 349,203 Great Britain May 28, 1931