US2985311A

US2985311A - Tie rack

Info

Publication number: US2985311A
Application number: US849653A
Authority: US
Inventors: Abel Irving
Original assignee: Individual
Current assignee: Individual
Priority date: 1959-10-29
Filing date: 1959-10-29
Publication date: 1961-05-23
Anticipated expiration: 1978-05-23

Description

May 23, 1961 l. ABEL TIE RACK Filed Oct. 29. 1959 TIE RACK Irving Abel, 27041 Freeport Road, Rolling Hills, Calif. Filed Oct. 29, 1959, Ser. No. 849,653

'3 Claims. (Cl. '21186) This invention relates to a rack for ties and belts and, more particularly, relates to such a rack for attachment to the horizontal garment-supporting rod commonly used in a clothes closet.

Tie racks are commonly adapted for mounting on wall surfaces, and since wall surfaces of clothes closets are seldom suitably accessible for tie racks, tie racks are commonly mounted on outer wall locations that are continuously exposed to view and are also continuously exposed to dust. The present invention meets this situation by a tie rack adapted to be mounted on a garment-supporting rod in a clothes closet with the tie rack in a horizontal position perpendicular to the rod.

One problem in carrying out this concept is to mount the tie rack on the rod in a manner for rigid support of the tie rack in the desired horizontal position. This problem is complicated by the fact that in many instances the garment-supporting rod is not itself anchored against rotation.

The invention solves this problem by employing hanger means for mounting the tie rack on the garment-supporting rod and by making the hanger means adjustable relative to the rod so that the tie rack may be extended into stabilizing contact with the rear wall of the closet. For this purpose, the rear end of the tie rack may be enlarged to abut the vertical wall surface at vertically spaced points and at horizontally spaced points as well.

By virtue of this arrangement, the hanger engages the garment-supporting rod in a manner to prevent the rack from shifting axially of the rod and in a manner to keep the rack from rotating laterally about its own longitudinal axis. At the same time, the rear end of the tie rack makes contact with the surface of the closet'wall at points sufliciently spaced apart vertically to keep the tie rack from rotating in a vertical plane about the axis of the rod. As a result, the tie rack is immobilized at the desired horizontal position.

A feature of the invention is the concept of mounting the hanger means on the tie rack in a sliding manner for adjustment of thetie rack towards the back wall of the closet and the further concept 'of using a single screw for the mounting procedure. A single screw both clamps the tie rack to the garment-support rod and immobilizes the hanger means at its adjustment longitudinally of the tie rack.

In the selected embodiment of the invention, the hanger means slidingly straddles the garment-supportingrod and also straddles the tie rack in sliding engagement with two downwardly facing longitudinal shoulders on the two longitudinal sides of the tie rack. The single screw is mounted in the hanger means to advance downward against the upper side of the garment-supporting rod. When this screw is tightened against the garment-supporting rod, it lifts the tie rack against the under side of the rod and thus both clamps the tie rack to the rod and I immobilizes the tie rack relative to the hanger means.

A further feature of the selected embodiment of the invention is that the tie rack is longitudinall; extensible nited States Patent O A 2,985,311 Patented May 23, 1961 forward to display the ties hung thereon and to make the rack more accessible for selecting ties therefrom and for returning ties to the rack. For this purpose, the tie rack comprises an elongated support member that is clamped to thegarment-supporting rod and further comprises an auxiliary slide member that carries the ties. Normally the slide member is in its rearwardly retracted position out of the Way to permit the closet door to be closed.

The features and advantages of the invention may be understood from the following detailed description together with the accompanying drawing.

In the drawing, this is to be regarded as merely illustrative:

Fig. l is a side elevational view of the selected embodiment of the tie rack with the tie rack in its rearwardly retracted state;

Fig. 2 is an end elevation of the tie rack as seen along the line 22 of Fig. 1;

Fig. 3 is an enlarged perspective view of the installed tie rack;

Fig. 4 is a perspective view of a second embodiment of the invention;

Fig. 5 is a fragmentary side elevation of the second embodiment of the invention;

Fig. 6 is a transverse cross section taken as indicated by the line 66 of Fig. 4;

Fig. 7 is a fragmentary elevational view of the hanger means of the second embodiment of the invention; and

Fig. 8 is a side elevational view of a hanger pin employed in the second embodiment of the invention.

In the first embodiment of the invention shown in Figs. 1, 2 and 3, the tie rack comprises a support member, generally designated 10, which may be made of wood support means may be attached to a horizontal garmentsupporting rod 14 with the support means backed against a rear closet wall 15 that is parallel with the rod. Figs. 1 and 2 show the usual closet shelf 16 spaced above the garment-supporting rod.

It is contemplated that with the hanger means 12 attaching the support member 10 to the rod 14, the rear end of thesupport member will abut the surface of the closet wall 15 at points sufliciently spaced apart vertically to prevent any tendency of the support member to rotate about the axis of the rod. The support member may be enlarged at its rear end for this purpose. In the construction shown, the rear end of the support member 10 has a rectangular enlargement 17 which may be integral with the support member or may be a separate body suitably united with the support member.

The hanger means 12 may comprise a metal strap of the configuration of an inverted U dimensioned to straddle the garment-supporting rod 14 and adapted at its two lower endsfor sliding engagement with the support member 10. For the purpose of providing the sliding engagement, the support member 10 is formed with two downwardly facing longitudinalshoulders 18 on its opposite sides. In this instance, the two longitudinal shoulders 18 are provided by longitudinal grooves 20 in the opposite sides of the support member 10. As indicated in Fig. 3, each of the two legs of the hanger means 12 is cut away to receive the upper edge portion of the support member 10 in a sliding manner and to provide. [two pairs of fingers 22 to hook into each of the two lonportion of the hanger means 12 to be tightened downward against the upper side of the garment-supporting rod 14.

It is apparent that when the thumb screw 24 is tightened against the upper surface of the rod 14, the support member is correspondingly tightened against the underside of the rod to clamp the support member to the rod. It is further apparent that the tightening of the thumb screw 24 not only serves to clamp the support member 10 to the rod 14 but also serves to immobilize the hanger means 12 relative to the support member.

This first embodiment of the invention is further formed with a longitudinal groove 25 in which an auxiliary longitudinal member 26 is slidingly mounted. It is contemplated that the longitudinal groove 25 will have at least one overhanging wall to prevent lateral separation of the auxiliary slide member 26 from the groove. In the construction shown, both the longitudinal groove 25 and the auxiliary slide member 26 are of dovetail cross-sectional configuration. p

The auxiliary slide member 26 is suitably adapted to support a plurality of ties or similar objects such as belts. For this purpose, the auxiliary slide member 26 is provided with a plurality of hanger elements in the form of laterally extending pegs 28. In the construction shown,

there are two longitudinal rows of the pegs 28 with th pegs of the two rows staggered.

It is apparent that this construction permits the longitudinal slide member to be extended whenever desired froma normal retracted position shown in Fig. 3 to a forward position at which the pegs 28 are readily accessible for the removal of ties therefrom or the return of ties thereto. Thus the tie rack may be normally mostly concealed between garments supported by the rod 14 but maybe extended forward to expose the ties thereon whenever desired.

To facilitate the manual extension of the longitudinal slide member 26, the slide member may be provided with a suitable handle at its forward end. In the construction shown, a simple eyescrew 30 is mounted in the forward end of the slide member 26 for this purpose.-

It is further desirable to provide stop means to limit the forward extension of the slide member 26 to prevent complete withdrawal of the slide member from the longitudinal groove 25. For this purpose, a screw 32 may extend laterally from the forward end of the support member 10 adjacent the slide member 26 and the rear end of the slide member may be provided with an angular screw 34 to abut the screw 32 at a forward limit position of the slide member.

To install the tie rack, first the hanger means 12 is separated from the support member 10 and is placed 1 in position straddling the rod 14. With the thumb screw 24 retracted, the support member 10 is then again sliding-ly engaged with the hanger means. Finally, the support member is held endwise against the rear closet wall and the thumb screw 24 is tightened.

In the second embodiment of the invention shown in Figs. 4 to 8, the support member comprises a thin-walled channel member 42 and a base block or foot 44 mounted on the rear end thereof for abutment against the rear closet wall 15. The thin-walled channel member 42 may be made of sheet metal with the block 44 .made of plastic or both the channel member and the block may be made of plastic. The open sideof the channel member faces downward and both of the longitudinal side walls 43 of the channel member are formed with inwardly extending longitudinal flanges 45. A longitudinal slide member 46 is slidingly mounted inthe channel member 42 and for this purpose is T-shaped witha downwardly extending central web 48.

The hanger elements for ties and like objects prise two staggered rows of pegs 50 extending. laterally from both sides of the central web 48 of the slide mem- Comber 46. For this purpose, a series of peg members 52 of the character shown in Fig. 8 may be used. Each peg member 52 has a central knurled portion 54 which is slightly enlarged and which is formed with longitudinal serrations. The peg members 52 are mounted in apertures 55 in the central web 48 with the knurled portions 54 dimensioned for forced fit in the apertures. The slide member 46 may be made of a suitable plastic material that is slightly yielding for interlocking engagement with the knurled portions 54.

A handle means for the slide member 46 may comprise simply a ring 56 in an aperture 58 at the leading end of the slide member. In the construction shown in Fig. 4, a tongue 60 is cut in the channel member 42 and bent downward to serve as a stop in cooperation with a stop pin 62 that is mounted in the rear end of the slide member 46.

The hanger means 12a in this second embodiment of the invention is substantially identical with the first described hanger means 12 of the first embodiment and functions in the same manner. In this instance, the longitudinal shoulders of the support member that are slidingly engaged by the fingers 22a of the hanger 12a are the inwardly turned longitudinal flanges 45 of the channel member 42.

My description in specific detail of the selected embodiments of the invention will suggest various changes, substitutions and other departures from my disclosure within the spirit and scope of the appended claims.

I claim:

1. A tie rack for cooperation with a vertical wall surface and with a nearby horizontal rod parallel thereto,

comprising: an elongated support member for position ing horizontally under said rod perpendicular thereto, said support member having a rear end for abutment against said wall at vertically spaced points, said support member having a longitudinal overhanging shoulder. and

having longitudinal grooves on its opposite sides, each groove being formed with at least one overhanging side wall; hanger means for engagement with said rod to attach said support member thereto, said hanger means being slidably mounted in said grooves on said support member for adjustment longitudinally thereof; screw means mounted on said hanger means for movement against said rod to anchor the hanger means on the rod and to anchor the hanger means against sliding movement along the support member; a longitudinal slide memberslidingly mounted in said longitudinal groove for retractable extension forwardly of the support member; and 'a plurality of hanger elements for ties carried by said slide member and spaced longitudinally thereof.

2. A tie rack as set forth in claim 1 in which the forward end of said groove is open at the forward end of the support member; and which includes stop means to limit the forward extension of said slide member.

3. A tie rack as set forth in claim 1 in which said longitudinal groove is on one side of said support member.

Refere'ncesCited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS France Jan. 17, 1951