US2861284A - Longitudinal shoe holder or stretcher with mounting means - Google Patents

Description

Nov. 25, 1958 P. N. FLOCOS LONGITUDINAL SHOE HOLDER OR STRETCHER WITH MOUNTING MEANS Filed March 18, 1957 INVENTOR PE TE R FLO COS ATTORNEYS LONGITUDINAL SHOE HOLDER OR STRETCHER WITH MOUNTING MEANS Peter N. Flocos, Pittsburgh, Pa.

Application March 18, 1957, Serial No. 646,839

Claims. (Cl. 1253.7)

The present invention relates to shoe holders and particularly to shoe holders adapted to be mounted on a wall for facilitating shoe polishing operations.

A serious problem encountered in conventional shoe holders is their inability to be satisfactorily adapted for various sizes of shoes. Numerous attempts have been made to solve this problem, for example, by making the toe portion or the heel portion adjustable in a forward or rearward direction. However, these attempts have not produced structures which are capable of convenient adjustment and also of satisfactorily holding the shoe against movement.

Accordingly, it is an important object of the invention to provide a novel shoe holder particularly adapted to be conveniently adjusted for accommodating and desirably supporting shoes of various sizes.

Another object resides in the provision of a novel combination of shoe and toe portions in a shoe holder adapted to securely retain shoes in desired position on the holder.

A further object is to provide an improved shoe holder of inexpensive and durable construction.

An additional object resides in the provision of a novel means for attaching the shoe holder in operative position against a wall.

Further objects and advantages of the invention will bev in part obvious and in part pointed out hereinafter.

The novel features of the invention may be best made clear from the following description and accompanying drawings in which:

Figure 1 is a perspective view of a shoe holder of the invention; and

Figure 2 is a fragmentary and partially vertical sectional view of the heel portion and adjacent parts of the holder of Figure 1.

Referring now to the drawings, a shoe holder of the invention preferably includes a horizontal bracket 12, and a toe portion 14 and heel portion 16 defining a shoe form. In accordance with a preferred embodiment of the invention, toe portion 14 is slidably connected to the bracket 12 for convenient adjustment thereof in a forward or rearward direction, and the heel portion 16 is continuously urged in a rearward direction for firmly and securely engaging a shoe fitted on the holder.

The bracket 12 preferably is attached to a vertical wall by means of vertical mounting plate 18. The plate 18 includes upper 20 and lower 22 countersunk holes whereby the plate can be attached to the wall by conventional fasteners, such as screws or nails inserted through these holes. The rear end of the bracket 12 and the plate 18' are provided with structure permitting the shoe holder 10 to be detachably mounted on the plate 18 in supported, horizontal position. An examplary embodiment of this structure includes a vertical plate 24 formed at the rear end of the bracket 12 and having downwardly converging side walls.26. These side Walls preferably are of dovetail configuration in a transverse or horizontal section through plate 24, as shown, and are slidably mounted in a downwardly converging dove-tail slot in the vertical 2 plate 18. Such slot may be defined by upper 28 and lower 30 pairs of forwardly and inwardly projecting lugs formed in the plate 18, as shown. It will be understood that these upper lugs 28 may be joined to the lower lugs 30 whereby the dove-tail slot will be defined by continuous vertically extending side walls.

Thus, it will be seen that the bracket 12 may be conveniently and removably arranged in operative horizontal position by insertion of the vertical plate 24 into the dovetail slot on plate 18, with the downward convergence of the engaged surfaces retaining the bracket in this position.

Referring again to the preferred construction of the toe portion 14 and the heel portion 16, the toe portion 14 is illustrated as being of narrow, arched configuration, and as indicated above, is attached to the bracket 12 for adjustable projection or retraction thereof. For this purpose, the bracket 12 is provided with a longitudinally extending bore 32 (Figure 2), which may extend throughout the entire length thereof, and the toe portion 14 is joined to a horizontal stem 34 by the intermediate vertical section 37, as shown. The stem 34 is slidably disposed within the bore 32 of the bracket 12, and these portions rearward direction.

preferably are of polygonal sectional configuration, such as rectangular. The stem 34 includes a ratchet 36 on the upper surface thereof with rearwardly extending teeth 38 and a pawl 40 is pivoted to the upper forward end of the bracket, extending through opening 42 therein for locking engagement with the ratchet teeth 38 to retain the stem 34 in adjusted axial position. The pawl 40 may be pivotally mounted by means of transverse pin 44 journalle'd within upstanding ears 46 on the bracket, and includes a rearwardly extending finger-engageable tab 48 continuously urged upwardly by a compression spring 50 acting on the bracket 12 and tab 48, as shown. This spring may be positioned by engagement to the lugs 52, 54 arranged respectively on the bracket 12 and tab 48. As is evident, the stem 34 may be moved to the left, in Figure 2, without first depressing tab 48, but to move the stem to the right, it is necessary to depress tab 48 first, to disengage pawl 40 from ratchet 36.

The toe portion 14, the stem 34 and intermediate section 37 may be formed integrally of metal in any suitable manner, such as by casting, and additionally, a finger grip loop or ring 56 is provided at the upper end of the intermediate section 37.

The bracket 12 and the wall portion 24 may also be of cast metal construction, and a vertical leg 58 preferably depends from the bracket 12 adjacent the forward end thereof, as shown in Figure 2. A vertical channelshaped member 69 is fixed in enclosing relationship to this leg 58 as by bolts 61 and nuts 63, and opens in a A second channel-member 62 is pivoted to the upper end of channel member 60, as by bolt 64 extending through these members, and the second member 62 preferably encloses the first member 60, as shown, A downwardly turned flange or lip 66 in the form of a bead is provided at the rear end of a base wall 68 of the first member 60 (Figure 2), and an upturned flange 70 is formed at the forward end of base wall 72 on the second member 62. These flanges 66, 70 are normally retained in engagement with each other as by compression spring 74 mounted within the channel mem- 1 position, a vertical block 76 is fitted within the channel member 66 and retained therein as by screws 78.

The heel portion 16 may be formed of Wood, as indicated in Figure 2, or any other suitable material, and

.is secured to the lower portion ofthe channel member 62 by screws 80, to be continuously urged rearwardly therewith by the action of spring 74.

The operation of the shoe holder will now be described. -The toe portion 14 is moved to desired projected position with respect to the bracket 12, with the pawl engaged in the ratchet to lock the toe portion in this position. A shoe is then fitted over the toe portion :14 and the channel-shaped member 62 is then pivoted or moved forwardly to compress the spring 74 so that the heel of the shoe may be fitted over portion 16. At this time the channel member 62is released and will be firmly urged against the adjacent portions of the interior of the shoe to urge the latter in a rearward direction by reason of the movement induced by spring 74. It will be appreciated that the shoe will now be firmly retained on the shoe holder 19 so that the usual polishing or other .operations may be performed without any danger of slippage or other undesirable movements of the shoe. It is to be noted that when first adjusting the toe portion 14 for a particular shoe, the toe portion should be moved so that the distance between toe 14 and heel .16 is slightly greater than the size of the shoe to be mounted thereon. In this way, desired spring urged, locking engagement of .heel 16 in the heel of the shoe will be. assured. The fact that spring 74 is located a maximum distance from pivot pin or bolt 64 guarantees optimum biasing of the heel 16 rearwardly, inasmuch as the moment arm for the spring force, measured to pin 64 will also be a maximum.

It should be evident that by virtue of the novel arrange.- ment of the adjustable toe portion 14 and the continuously biased heel portion 16, the shoe holder 10 may be readily adapted for shoes of various sizes, and furthermore, it has been found to be highly satisfactory in securely holding such various sizes of shoes against movements during polishing or cleaning.

It will be appreciated, that structural arrangements other than channel- shaped members 60, 62 will be suggested to those skilled in the art for mounting heel 16 as desired. The channelshaped member 60 may be welded or otherwise secured to the bracket 12, omitting leg 58, and the spring 74 may be replaced by a solid mass of resilient material such as rubber or other equivalent compression spring means. Additionally, the channel-shaped members may be connected to each other for relative reciprocating, rather than pivoting or oscillating movement. That is, channel member .62 may be arranged for straight line forward and rearward movement, instead of swinging, with a compression spring still urging this member rearwardly. Suitable structure other than the ratchet 36 and pawl 40 may be provided for permitting axial adjustment of the stem 34.

The toe portion 14 preferably is of such size that it will desirably receive the narrow toe portions of certain types of shoes such as ladies shoes, but may be enlarged as by utilization of a cover or cap 14' fitted thereover as indicated in phantom lines in Figure 1. This cap 14 preferably is also of arched configuration, substantially complementary to the toe portion 14 and may be secured thereto by any suitable means, such as bolt extending through the toe portion 14 and engaged to nut (not shown).

It will be appreciated that the shoe holder 10, while being completely detachable from the wall in the manner described above, is also characterized by a retractable toe portion 14 whereby the amount of horizontal projection of the shoe holder 10 from the vertical wall to which it is attached, may be desirably reduced to minimize the danger of inadvertent bumping or contact of the shoe holder when not in use, yet the holder is still adapted, by adjustment of the stem portion 34, to accommodate shoes of relatively large sizes.

It will thus be seen that the objects of this invention have been fully and eifectively accomplished. It be realized, however, that the foregoing specific embodiment has been shown and described only for the purpose of illustrating the principles of the invention and is subject to extensive change without departure from such principles. Therefore, this invention includes all modification encompassed within the spirit and' scope of the appended claims.

I claim:

;1. A shoe holder comprising: a horizontal bracket, a toe portion and a heel portion constituting a shoe form, said toe portion slidably connected to said bracket adjacent one end of the bracket for adjustable outward projection thereof, a rigid member rigidly secured .to and depending from said bracket rearwardly of said toe portion, said heel portion pivotally engaged to said member, and spring means acting between said member and said heel portion and urging said heel portion rearwardly away from said toe portion.

2. The structure defined in claim 1 wherein said heel portion includes a lever arm pivotally connected to said member adjacent said bracket and substantially coextensive with said member, a heel form attached to said arm adjacent the lower end thereof, and means for limiting relative pivotal movement between said member and said arm.

3. A shoe holder comprising: a horizontal bracket having means at one end engageable to a vertical wall for supporting said bracket, said bracket having a longitudinal bore therein, a stem slidably mounted in said bore and extending forwardly therefrom, a ratchet portion on said stem, a pawl pivoted to said bracket and spring urged into locking engagement with said ratchet portion, a toe v portion depending from the outer end of said stem, a leg depending from the forward end of said bracket rearwardly of said toe portion, a first channel-shaped member fixed vertically to' said leg and opening in a rearward direction, a second channel-shaped member connected to the upper end of said first member for limited pivotal movement and opening in a forward direction, one of said channel-shaped members fitting within the other, a heel form attached to the lower end of said second channelshaped member and defining an adjustable shoe form with said toe portion, and compression spring means intermediate said channel-shaped members and continuously urging said second channel-shaped member to pivot rearwardly away from said first member.

4. The structure defined in claim 3 wherein the channel-shaped members are substantially coextensive, said first member fitting within said second member, and a base wall at the bottom of each member.

5. The structure defined in claim 4 wherein a downturned flange is formed at the rear end of the base wall on said first member and an upturned flange is formed at the front end of the base wall on said second member forwardly of said downturned flange, and further wherein said compression spring means is disposed within said channel-shaped members adjacent the base walls thereof normally biasing said upturned flange against said downturned flange.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS

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