US3042470A - Locker unit - Google Patents

Description

July 3, 1962 R. G. MONEY LocKER UNIT Filed May 4, 1959 2 ROBERT s. MONEY fwwLZ/@Q/ ATTORNEYS United States Patent @dice 3,042,470 Patented July 3, 1962 This invention relates as indicated to a locker unit and more particularly to a locker unit in which articles of clothing can be hung on hangers and yet the locker unit will have a much shorter overall depth normal to the front thereof than would normally be required for this purpose.

The conventional lockers for the storage of clothing, etc., are not sufiiciently -deep to permit coats, shirts, etc., to be hung on hangers Since this would require approximately two feet of depth. When deep lockers are employed, they generally protrude into the locker room to such an extent that many fewer lockers may be utilized in a locker room. Moreover deep lockers markedly contribute to the congestion of locker rooms since deep lockers require more lloor space.

Furthermore, in the deeper locker units, the shelves for bottom shoe lockers or top hat compartments are generally much too deep and narrow vfor the purposes for which they are intended. Moreover, indeep narrow lockers, shoes have to be placed therein in end to end relationship instead of side-by-side. If other items are stored in the locker, as for example golf equipment, etc., it is extremely dicult to find and have access to ones shoes or other small articles placed therein.

It is accordingly a principal object of my invention to provide a locker unit having a front to rear depth normal to the front of the locker unit insu'icient to accommodate a coat hanger, but having compartments therein of sufticient effective depth readily to accommodate such coat hanger.

It is afurther principal objectof my invention to provide a locker which can readily be adapted to modular locker units having a plurality of side-by-side compartments having intervening side partitions disposed diagonally to the rear of the locker unit, the length of the diagonal side partitions being at least equal to the length of a standard coat hanger whereas the overall front to rear depth normal to the rear of the locker unit is less than the length of such coat hanger.

It is a further object of my invention to provide a locker unit that will accommodate coat hangers therein and yet have a minimal front to rear depth so as not to contribute excessively to the congestion of the locker room.

Other objects and advantages of the present invention will become apparent as the following description proceeds.

To the accomplishment of the foregoing and related ends, the invention, then, comprises the features hereinafter fully described and particularly pointed out in the claims, the following description and the annexed drawings setting forth in detail a certain illustrative embodiment of the invention, this being indicative, however, of but one of the various ways in which the principles of the invention may be employed.

In said annexed drawing:

FIG. l illustrates a locker room employing locker units in the general form of my invention;

FIG. 2 is a front elevation of a typical locker unit built in accordance with my invention;

FIG. 3 is an enlarged somewhat schematic horizontal section taken generally on the line 3-3 of FIG. 2;

FIG. 4 is an enlarged horizontal section taken generallyl on the line 4--4 of FIG. 2; and

FIG. 5 is an enlarged horizontal section taken generally on the line 5-5 of FIG. 2.

Referring now to the drawing and more particularly to FIG. l thereof, there is illustrated a conventional rectangular locker room employing lockers that can be generally 12 inches square for example. It can be seen that with these relatively small units that there is a considerable amount of circulating space within the locker room l. The lockers may be employed along the walls as generally indicated at 2. These units may line three of the four walls and in addition thereto, I may provide a center locker unit generally shown at 3 which would consist -of 2 separate locker units in back-to-back relationship. lf the locker units are increased in depth to approximately 2l inches, for example, it can be seen that there will be considerably less circulating space within the locker room.

Referring now to FIGS. 2 through 5, there is illustrated a typical locker unit constructed in accordance with my invention. The locker unit which is roughly l2 or more inches in depth can be extended to any desired length as by adding single or multiple units `depending upon the dimensions of the particular locker room application. The unit generally comprises a metallic housing 4 formed from metallic parts such as sheet steel by suitable spot welding, rivet or bolt construction in a manner conventional in the art. The back of the housing 4 comprises simply a back plate 5 which can extend the entire length of the locker unit and forms a rear edge therefor. It will, of course, be understood that this back plate may be provided with various spaced louvered ventilation openings as desired. It is entirely possible, of course, to employ the locker room wall as the back plate of the unit if the unit is securely fastened to the floor. In this manner the back plate 5 may be omitted.

The ends of the particular unit shown comprise a vertically extending side plate 6 and -a door plate 7 having hinged thereto a conventional locker door 8. It will, of course, be understood that in certain locker unit applications the end door 8 will not be available for use, however, in applications such as the central unit 3 as illustrated in FIG. l, end door 8 may readily be employed. The front of the locker comprises a corner post 9 and a plurality of vertically extending doors lll for each forwardly facing locker compartment. Between the doors there is a post construction employing vertically extending channel members 11 having one side thereof facing a channel member l2 allochirally identical in form thereto. The facing elongated sides of the channels 11 and 12 may be spot welded, bolted or otherwise suitably secured as shown at 13 to form a rigid post construction. Hinged to the channel plates 12 are the conventional locker doors 1t) which, as will be seen in FIG. 2, extend substantially the vertical height of the locker unit. It will, of course, be understood that each of the locker compartments may be provided with separate doors.

Interiorly of the locker unit, I place horizontal shelves 14 and 15. These shelves may extend the entire length of the locker unit and form at the top and bottom thereof, hat shelves and the top of shoe or other storage compartments. The shelves, of course, may be assembled in sections for each individual unit and may be placed at any desired height. Extending vertically from these shelves 14 and 15 are short panel sections 16 and 17 which connect the shelves 14 and 15 with the respective bottom and top of the locker unit. In this manner, it can be seen that each of the forwardly facing lockers will have at the top and bottom thereof rectangular compartments formed by the horizontal shelves and the respective vertical panel members.

In the intermediate portion of the locker between the shelves 14 and 15, I provide diagonal panel partition sections 18 which can be secured as by rivets, spot welds or bolts to the elongated sides of the channels 11 and 12. These diagonal panel members 18 provide an intermediate vertically elongated locker section or compartment in which coat hangers may be placed on suitable supports. It will, of course, be understood that the exact angle of the panels 18 with respect to the front or rear of theunit is not critical, however, it should be within a range of 25-45 v In this manner, lockers having an effective intermediatevcompartment depth of approximately 24 inches can be provided without increasing the floor area covered thereby. With special reference to FIG. 3, it will be seen that a conventional coat hanger H can easily be placed within the intermediate compartment parallel to the partition 1S. The hanger may be hung on a conventional support S which can be a hook or suitable bar secured either to the top shelf or the diagonal partition 18. The 4diagonal partition members 18 do not join the face or front edge of the unit but are spaced therefrom a depth of approximately l or 2 inches by the channels 11 and 12. This permits the channels 11 and 12 to, provide the necessary rigidity and moreover gives sufficient room at the post for the assembly of the parts. Furthermore, this permits the door 1t) which may have a small depth to be recessed within the face of the locker unit.

It is, of course, understood that the end door 8 does not extend vertically beyond the horizontal shelves 14 and 15. The rectangular compartments for this locker could be provided at the opposite end of the unit, however, it may readily be seen that the locker unit may be shortened to the lines indicated at 19 if the opposite end is not to be used as the compartment portion for the end locker. In this manner, it will now be seen that lockers having a depth suiicient to hang overcoats or the like therein can be provided with less than the space required for short rectangular locker units in which people would be unable to hang coats on a hanger. More'- over, my locker unit provides separate hat and shoe compartments of shorter effective depth thereby making it much more easyrto store items such as hats, shoes, golf balls, etc. As shown at 20, the locker doors may be provided with the usual louvered ventilation openings in a conventional manner. It will also be understood that the diagonal partitions 18 can be suitably spot welded, riveted or bolted to the back plate in a conventional manner as shown at 21. They may further be secured to the shelves 14 and 15 in a similar conventional manner. The various sections or components of the locker such as the sides, back, door frame, etc., of each individual locker may be assembled by bolting by the purchaser utilizing untrained labor. In this manner, the components can be connected into a series of lockers which can be any length. l

It will also be understood that my unique locker construction may be employed in an automatic checking operation, as for example, in crowded airline or bus terminals. The intermediate portion of my locker unit will, of course, accommodate luggage or other parcels which a conventional short rectangular unit would' not. The hat and shoe compartments in this arrangement CTI 4 would accommodate any small item desired to be checked.

Referring again to FIG. l, it can be seen that with the use of my locker units employing diagonal intermediate partitions, lockers having no more than a l2 inch depth, for example, can be used to hang coats or the like therein without increasing the oor space required therefor. Moreover it can be seen that the locker unit 22 which would be a blind or unusable locker in a conventional arrangement may now be used to increase the depth of the intermediate portions of the adjacent locker 23 and in this manner utilizing the space in the locker room more advantageously. As can be seen deep rectangular units thatl would be required to provide the same locker depth that is provided in my diagonally partitioned unit would extend into the locker room a con* siderable distance as shown at 24 considerably reducing the remaining floor space and obviously contributing to the congestion of the locker room. Of course, the `diagonal locker may extend the full height of the unit. In this manner, the hat and shoe shelves would extend diagonally within the locker. Any arrangement may be employed depending upon the requirement of the particular locker installation.

It will readily be seen that the diagonal compartments of my unit can easily accommodate a standard coat hanger which is 16 to 17 inches long, an additional 2 inches usually being required for a bulky overcoat or the like, when hung thereon. Furthermore with the use of diagonal parallelogram compartments the maximum dimension from one corner to the opposite corner has been greatly increased and in this manner permitting the storage of even longer articles such as card tables, etc. If desired, of course, the front to rear depth of the locker may be foreshortened and this maximum dimension utilized to accommodate hangers.

Other modes of applying the principles of the invention may be employed, change being made as regards the details described, provided the features stated in any of the following claims, or the equivalent of such, be employed.

I, therefore, particularly point out and distinctly claim as my invention:

l. A locker unit for garments and the like comprising a plurality of compartments in side-by-side relation having a common rear wall, a door for each compartment, each of said doors being parallel to the common rear wall of said unit when closed, divider partitions between each `compartment parallel to each other and diagonal to said rear wall extending from said rear wall :to the respective doors to provide a plurality of oblique parallelepiped enclosed compartments, said doors extending vertically between said divider partitions.

2. A locker unit as set forth in claim l including a garment hanger support within the upper part of each compartment adapted to support such hanger with the maximum dimension of the latter disposed substantially parallel to said diagonal partitions.

3. A locker unit comprising a front panel plate having vertically extending doors therein, lockers for each door comprising diagonal compartments of suicient depth to hang tcoats and the like therein on hangers and subsidiary compartments having partitions normal to the front panel plate of said locker, said subsidiary compartment extending the full depth of said locker unit and having a depth insucient to hang coats and the like therein on hangers.

4. A locker unit comprising a back panel member, a side panel member and a front panel member, having spaced vertically extending access doors therein, said locker unit being of an overall front to rear depth normal to said back panel member insufficient to accommodate coat hangers, a horizontally extending upper shelf therein, panels vertically extending from said upper shelf to the top of said locker between said access doors and normal to said back panel member, a horizontally extending lower shelf in said locker and vertically extending panels normal to said back panel member connecting said lower shelf and the bottom of said locker unit between said access doors, vertically extending diagonal partitions be tween said lower shelf and said upper shelf and connected to the front of said locker unit between said access doors and forming intermediate diagonal compartments therein of an effective depth suicient to hang coats therein on hangers.

244,818 McLean July 26, 1881 6 Bliss May 10, Lambert .lune 25, Armstrong .Tune 13, Foose June 29, Thornton uly 31,

FOREIGN PATENTS Germany June 5,

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