US2573078A - Curtain rod - Google Patents

Description

Oct. 30; 1951 Y o. N. WHITEHEAD V 2,573,078

CURTAIN ROD Filed April 10, 1948 I. INVENTOR ATTORNEYS Patented Oct. 30, 1951 CURTAIN ROD Oscar N. Whitehead, Wallingford, Conn., assignor to H. L. Judd Company, Wallingford, Conn., a corporation of Delaware Application April 10, 1948, Serial No. 20,190 I 2 Claims. (Cl. 211-1053) My invention relates to curtain rods and in particular to improved means in a curtain rod for facilitating the operation of threading a curtain onto the rod.

It is an object of the invention to provide an improved device of the character indicated.

It is another object to provide an improved curtain-rod threading means that may present only smoothly rounded surfaces to the parts of the curtain that are being threaded and which may therefore facilitate the threading operation.

It is a further object to meet the above objects with a simple and relatively inexpensive construction that may nevertheless be sufficiently well reinforced to perform its intended functions in spite of considerable abuse.

Other objects and various further features of novelty and invention will be pointed out or will occur to those skilled in the art from a reading of the following specification in conjunction with the accompanying drawings. Insaid drawings, which show, for illustrative purposes only, a preferred form of the invention:

Fig. 1 is a fragmentary, partly broken-away, front view of an assembled telescopic curtain rod incorporating features of the invention;

Fig. 2 is a perspective view from the rear of the inner element or section of the rod of Fig. 1;

Fig. 3 is a front view of the end of the element of Fig. 2;

Fig. 4 is an end view of the element of Fig. 2;

Fig. 5 is a side view of the end of the element of Fig. 3; and

Fig. 6 is a flat layout of sheet material, suitable for use in fabricating the element of Fig. 2.

Briefly stated, my invention contemplates an improved end construction for a curtain rod, whereby only rounded and hence non-fouling surfaces may be presented to a curtain as the curtain is being threaded onto the rod. The invention has particular usefulness in connection with telescoping curtain rods, and in the form to be described, the end construction is adapted to the inner element of a two-element telescoping curtain rod.

Referring to the drawings, my invention is shown in application to a telescoping curtain rod comprising an outer element or rod section III and an inner element or rod section II. Both elements I0II are generally flat rods of usual generally c-shaped section and may include flat front faces (I2, for rod element Ill, and I3, for rod element II). In the outer element Ill reinforcement is obtained from flanges I4 which may be generally rounded and include rear portions I5 more or less in the plane of a rear face. The flanges I4 may thus provide a generally C-shaped channel for suitably guiding and supporting the inner rod element II. The general construction of the inner rod element II may be similar to that of the outer rod element Ill, and is shown to include generally rounded flanges I6 more or less tangent to the front face I3. If desired, further reinforcement may be provided for the flanges [6 by folding over and crimping the exposed edges thereof, as shown at I! in Fig. 2.

In accordance with the invention, I provide a means for so finishing the telescoping end of the inner rod element I I that it may be readily threaded, without snagging, into a curtain. Referring particularly to Fig. 6, it will be seen that in a preferred form I so cut away the forward end of the front face I3 that the flanges I6, or at least the material used in the rounded part of the flanges I6, may project forward of the front face, as at the tabs I8. To facilitate the necessary bending operation, I prefer that the outer edges I8 of the tabs I8 be cut away from the reinforcement edges I1, so that there need be no bending of the reinforced edge H. The projecting tabs l8 may be bent around substantially to meet each other and, in a preferred form, to provide a smoothly rounded front contour for the element II. Not only are the tabs I8 preferably bent around to meet each other, but they are also preferably bent to conform with the same general curvature as that of the flanges I6. When so bent, the nose or threading end of the element Il may present a completely rounded and smooth surface, as will be clear.

To avoid all possibility of snagging a curtain, I prefer that the end or cut-away part of the front face of the threading element II project forward, as at I9, and that it be of generally rounded contour. Suitably formed, the projecting part I9 of the front face I3 may be abutting or at least adjacent the rounded flanges I8, as well as being substantially tangent thereto, and the threading end may be part of a smooth surface of revolution about a normal axis, as indicated generally at 20.

It will be appreciated that I have described an ingenious threading construction for particular application to the inner of two telescoping elements of a curtain rod. The construction is such as to provide inherently for its own reinforcement and to present smooth tangential transitions from straight or flat surfaces to curved surfaces whe'r'ver such transitions occur.

While I have described my invention in detail for the preferred form shown, it will be understood that modifications may be made within the scope of the invention as defined in the apr front face and extending longitudinally beyond l-a said front face and being bent in a smooth curve to meet each other forward of said front face. 7

2. A curtain-rod section according to claim 1,,

in which the end of said front face is ofgenera'lly rounded contour so that when said flanges are bent to meet each other they are substantially adjacent said front face end throughout and substantially tangent to said front face end throughout.

OSCAR N. WHITEHEAD.

REFERENCES CITED The following references are of record in the file of this patent:

UNITED STATES PATENTS "Number Name Date =56-ig723 Yacheron July 28, 1896 1,019,662- Kroder Mar. 5, 1912 1,686,141 'Blakely Oct. 2, 1928 1,930,996 Cuthbert Oct. 1'7, 1933 Auslander Aug. 22, 1939

Images