US559057A

US559057A - Clothes-drier

Info

Publication number: US559057A
Authority: US
Publication date: 1896-04-28
Anticipated expiration: 1913-04-28

Description

(No Model.)

Y C. I'OWLEB..

CLOTHES Damm No. 559 o5?.

'Patented Apr. 28, 1896.

wihyzssas AN DREW EGRKAM. PHQTD'LH'HQWASHINGTOM ILCv llNrTEn STATES PATENT @Erica CHARLES FOVLER, OF LAKE ARIEL, PENNSYLVANIA.

cLoT'HEs-DRIER.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 559,057, dated .April 28. 1896. Application filed February l0, 1894. Serial No. 499,775. (No model.)

To all whom zit may concern:

Be it known that I, CHARLES FOWLER, a citizen of the United States, residing at Lake Ariel, in the county of Vayne and State of Pennsylvania, have invented a new and useful Clothes-Drier, of which the following is a specification.

The invention relates to improvements in clothes-driers.

The object of the present invention 4is to improve the construction of clothes-driers,

and to provide one which will be adapted to be mounted in a yard or the like when in use, and which may, when not in use, be compactly folded for carrying into a building or other similar inclosure.

A further object of the invention is to provide a clothes-drier on which the clothes to be dried cannot become torn or otherwise injured by the action of the wind on the drier.

The invention consists in the construction and novel combination and arrangement of parts hereinafter fully described, illustrated in the accompanying drawings, and pointed out in the claim hereto appended.

In the drawings, Figure 1 is a perspective view of a clothes-drier constructed in accordance with this invention. Fig. 2 is avertical sectional View.

Like numerals of reference indicate corresponding parts in both iigures of the drawings.

1 designates a vertical shaft having its lower end mounted in an opening or socket of a base 2 and forming a spindle fora frame 3. The base is designed to be firmly iixed in the ground, and the frame is provided at diamctrically-opposite points with pivoted bars or props 4, which support lines 5, and which are adapted to fold vertically.

The frame 2 is removably mounted upon the vertical shaft or spindle. It consists of a central post 6, horizontal arms 7, extending outward from the top of the post and arranged at right angles to one another, and lower horizontal arms or bifurcated lugs 8, between which are pivoted the lower ends of the props orbars 4. The Vupper and lower horizontal arms 7 and 8 are preferably composed of cross-bars. The lower ones are provided with bifurcations to receive the lower ends of the bars or props 4, and the upper arms are provided with longitudinal slots 9, forming ways for the reception of the props or bars 4. The upper end of the vertical shaft or spindle is reduced at 10, and a shoulder 11 is formed a short distance above the base or block 2, and the removable frame 3 is provided with upper and lower bearing-plates 12 and 13, which rest and 'loosely turn upon the shoulders of the shaft' or spindle, and which have openin gs corresponding with the diameters of the shaft at those points. The upper horizontal arms 7 which are diagonally disposed, are braced by the horizontal bars 3, which are arranged in the form of a square, and which connect the pairs of guide-arms 7 adjacent to the outer ends thereof.

The clothes-lines 5 are horizontally disposed and are arranged in the form of rectangles when the drier is in operative position, and it will be readily apparent that as the clothes-lines are arranged at different points the rectangles formed by them gradually vary in size and enable the clothes to be suspended from them without those of one line contacting with or interfering with those of another. y

The folding bars or props 4 are locked by pins 14 in their operative and folded positions, and are provided with upper and

lower perforations

15 and 16, adapted to register with inner and outer perforations 17 and 18 of the arms 7 for the reception of the pins.

When the clothes-drier is not in use, the props or bars are folded vertically, as illusA trated in dotted lines in Fig. 2 of the accompanying drawings, and the frame may be readily removed from the vertical shaft or spindle to enable the drier to be carried into the house.

It will be seen that the drier is simple and comparatively inexpensive in construction, that it may be readily folded compactly, .and that when in operative position it presents a maximum amount of clothes-lines in a minimum amount of space.

At this point emphasis is laid upon the arrangement wherein the folding props or bars are arranged to work in the longitudinal slots of the rigid guides 7. By this arrangement the props or bars are securely braced later? ally, so that their pivots are entirely relieved from any strain that otherwise might be placed thereon, while at the same time the clothes- IOO Krevolved by the wind. In this connection another important feature of the present invention is to be noted in the fact that the upward divergence of the folding props or bars, in connection with the short vertical pivot-post andy the manner of connecting the props or bars thereto, assists to prevent the drier from being lifted from its pivot-shaft by hard winds, and the specific manner of mounting the drierframe on the double-shouldered pivot-shaft allows the drier to revolve easily in a slight breeze, which rotation assists in drying the clothes quickly and also prevents the clothes from tearing in high winds.

Changes in the form, proportion, and the minor details of construction may be resorted to without departing from the principle or sacrificing any of the advantages of this invention.

Vhat I claim is- In a clothes-drier, the combination of a suitable base, a short vertical pivot-shaft fitted at its lower end in said base and provided at a point .directly above the base and near its upper extremity with separate supportingshoulders, Aa vertical` pivot-post of substantially the same length as the distance between the two supportingshoulders of the shaft, said post being loosely and removably mounted on the pivot-shaft and having fitted on its upper and lower ends perforated metallic bearing-plates, said bearing-plates on the upper and lower ends of the pivot-post being arranged to loosely turn respectively on the upper and lower supporting-shoulders of the shaft to permit of a free rotation of the drier by wind, a series of upwardly-divergent folding props pivotally connected at their lower extremities with the lower end of the pivotpost so as to turn with the latter, and means for fastening the props in their folded and extended positions, substantially as set forth.

In testimony that I claim the foregoing as my own I have hereto affixed my signature in the presence of two witnesses.

CHARLES FOWLER. Witnesses:

E. W. SIMoNs, JONATHAN BRowN.