US439272A - Lace-curtain stretcher - Google Patents

Description

' UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

JAMES GILRAY, OF BUFFALO, NEW YORK.

LACE-CURTAIN STRETCHER.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 439,272, dated October 28, 1890.

Application filed November 19, 1888. Serial No. 291,279. (No model.)

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, JAMES GILRAY, a citizen of the United States, residing at Buffalo, in the county of Erie and State of New York, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Curtain-Stretchers, of which The stretcher-frame consists of two longitudinal side bars A and two cross-bars arranged in rectangularform and firmly but adjustably united at the corners by the C- shaped screw-clamps O. In order that the side bars may be closed into a compact form, they are each divided midway of its length and the two parts united by a top hinge a, so that one part may be folded over upon the other, as indicated by dotted lines in Fig. 2.

When in use, the bars must be held in a stifi or rigid condition, and for this purpose I apply to the under side of each bar across the joint a metal plate f, bolting the same at one end firmly to one of the parts of the bar and connecting it at the opposite end to the other part of the bar by a butterfly-nut j on the end of a bolt seated in the bar. By giving this nut a partial rotation it is permitted to pass through an opening i, made in the plate, as shown in Fig.7, so that the bar may be folded or closed. The plate f is provided with uprising flanges along its edges, which give it a channeled form, so that it embraces or incloses the two parts of the barin such manner as to keep them in line both vertically and horizontally. The plate thus formed and applied co-operates with the hinge on the opposite side in keeping the bar in proper form and relieves the hinge to a great extent from the severe strain to which it would otherwise be subjected.

Instead of providing the bars, as usual, with renter-hooks, which are very objection able because of their extending beyond the bar in such manner as to be frequently caught and bent accidentally, I use straight pins d.

'Each bar has its inner edge channeled or rabbeted, as shown at c, and in this channeled surface the pins are inserted with an outward inclination and driven below the level of the face of the bar. The pins thus applied and falling wholly within the planes of the faces of the bar admit of the bars being stored, transported, and handled Without serious liability of their being caught or-bent, as in the case of hooks or of pins projecting beyond the surface of the bars. In making use of the structure there is danger of the ends of the pins being pressed or bent out of line with the portion which is buried in the wood. Then the pin is thus bent, the strain of the curtain will tend to cause it to turn in the wood, so that the upper or bent end will assume an outward inclination'and allow the curtain to escape therefrom. To resist this tendency and prevent the rotation of the pins, I flatten their inner ends, as shown in Fig. 4, so that when driven into the wood it is impossible for them to turn. When the ends are thus flattened, the straight pins will answer every purpose of the more expensive hooks commonly employed and have the great.

advantage that they may be applied so as to lie wholly within the edges of the bar, as before explained.

What I claim is 1. The herein-described curtain-stretcher, consisting of the cross-bars, the clamps, and the side bars, each of the latter divided midway of its length and having itstwo parts united by a hinge applied to one side and by a flanged plate f, secured to the opposite side.

2. In a curtain-stretcher, a side bar A, consisting of two parts or members joined end to end by a hinge b on one face and by a channeled plate f on theopposite face, said plate bolted to one of the parts and connected to the opposite part by a nut or turn-button, substantially as shown.

Dated at Buffalo, New York, this 28th day of July, 1888.

JAMES GILRAY.

In presence of FRED F. THOMAS, A. W. KILLINGER.

Images