US2602978A - Resilient clip for curtain rods - Google Patents

Description

y 15, 1952 R. c. CLARK 2,602,978

RESILIENT CLIP FOR CURTAIN RODS Filed March 9, 1949 INVENTOR.

ROBERT 6. OLA/PK BY ATTORNEY Patented July 15, 1952 UNITED; STATES PATENTFOFFICE Robert 0. Clark, San Francisco, Calif.

Application March 9, 1949, Serial No. 80,397

, v 1 Claim.

This invention relatesto resilient clips for holding rods such, as are employed for hanging curtains, and more particularly relates to spring clips in a cornice member for supporting within the cornice member a rod on which a window curtain or drape is threaded by insertion of the rod in the hem of a curtain. While such'a clip may have other analogous uses, its employment with ourtain rods aifords one practical use for illustrative purposes.

The employment of acornice in the hanging of curtains or drapes is well known, generally comprising an elongated strip or headboard having a skirt depending at its opposite ends and along a front longitudinaledge, the opposite elongated side of the cornice being adapted for attachment to a wall, usually over a door or window. opening. The depending skirt of the cornice may be of the same material as the headboard or may be of other draped material, tapestry or the like. Customarily clips of some kind have been employed to releasably hold a curtain rod in the cornice, and this is especially desirable if a slatted blind or so-called Venetian blind is employed at the opening, whereby the curtain or drape and the rod upon which it is mounted may be removed readily for cleaning of the curtains, washing of a window or cleaning or repairing of a slatted blind at the window. Difiiculty has been encountered heretofore in providing a clip for mounting such a rod so that the rod may be readily removed and replaced and which will not tear or disfigure the curtain, but which will hold the curtain on the rod as it is originally draped without sliding of the curtain.

The present invention consists of providing for such a cornice a spring clip member having a top plate or strap forattachment of the underside of the headboard of the cornice, and having a pair of integral opposed-resilient fingers which are retroverted at the opposite ends of the top plate and convergerelatively to an opening between opposed faces of the fingers, and then outwardly and their inwardly upon themselves to cooperatively provide resilient clamping jaws forming a loop or collar having aflat bottom wall at both sides of a slitted opening which is normally closed responsive to the resilience of the fingers.

A broad object of the invention is to provide a novel resilient clip for releasably holding a curtain rod, and a more specific object is to provide a resilient clip for holding a curtain rod wherein the curtain rod may be inserted readily within resilient holding jaws, and be more resistant to removal therefrom by reasonof fiat areas in said jaws adjacent the slit opening between the jaws.

With the foregoing and other objects in view which willbe apparent from or will be further set forth in this specification, one embodiment of the invention is described herein and illustrated in the accompanying drawing it being understood that resort may be had to changes of details without departing from the spirit of the invention which is defined in the appended claim.

Referring to the accompanying drawing:

Fig. 1 is a perspective view of the invention with a cornice and drapes shown in brokne lines.

Fig. 2 is a plan view partly in section, and partly broken away, enlarged with relation to Fig. 1.

Fig. 3 is a laterally transverse vertical section on line 3-3 of Fig. 2.

Fig. 4 is an enlarged perspective end view of one of the clip members of the invention.

Fig. 5 is a fragmentary perspective of a portion of modified form of clip member.

Fig. 6 is a perspective .view of another modification of clip member.

Referring to the drawings in which like reference characters indicate corresponding parts of the several views, I 0 indicates generally any suitable type of cornice member for mounting across the lintle of an opening such as a door or window. The cornice is provided with an elongated top or headboard H from one elongated side and from each end'of which depend a skirt I2 of any suitable material to obscure the underside of the headboard and the attachments which are mounted thereto. The cornice may be of any suitable transverse width, dependent largely on the purpose which it is to serve as a covering. Obviously, if it is to overhang a curtain only it may be relatively narrow in transverse width, whereas it may be relatively wider if it is to overhang both a curtain and a slatted window blind.

From the underside of the elongated cornice headboard l'l depend springclips generally indicated l3, which are of relatively thin integral strips of resilient material of suitable width having an elongated top plate Hi, from the opposite ends of which are retroverted integral resilient fingers l5 bent from the plane of the top plate.

The fingers l5 converge relatively to an opening l6 therebetween which is intermediate the ends of the fingers and spaced from the top plate I4, being preferably bent to provide an inverted triangular frustum-shaped space I! within the fingers. At the opening [6 the walls of the respective fingers provide jaws by bending the fingers relatively outwardly upon themselves at an angle 18, preferably arcuately as at l9 and then arcuately inwardly toward each other as at 20, the terminal portions of the jaws being relatively fiat portions 2| extending horizontally in opposite direction from lips of slit 22 in a plane substantially perpendicular to the lateral transverse central vertical plane of the clip and thereby providing a collar with a flat bottom horizontal wall on both sides of slit 22 so that a rod may be loosely held in the collar and move from side to side therein and not necessarily remain directly overlying the slit. At the opposed ends of the fiat portions the opposed lips of the jaws come close together and preferably are in resiliently induced superficial contact relatively, to provide the resiliently closed slit opening or lips 22, whereupon the fingers are again bent at said lips relatively angularly outwardly to provide divergently fianged guide wings 24 which may diverge relatively to each other approximately perpendicularly or substantially ninety degrees.

Thus, the arcuately formed portions 19, 28 and the flattened portions 2| of the fingers cooperate to provide within the jaws an open loop or collar 25 for receiving a curtain rod 29. One side of the collar 25 has the opening [8 into the triangular space I! and the opposite side of which has the resiliently closed slit of the lip opening 22. While the opening I6 is intended to remain open, the jaws contact at the 'slit '22, this being importantin relation "to the flatted areas 2] of the jaws, since the object is'to hold a curtain rod of some considerable weight and hold it firmly against the tension of any normal pull of the curtain mounted on the rod.

The top plate 1'4 is secured to the underface of the planar headboard H by a screw inserted through a hole 21, preferably having a slot 28 open to the side edge of the top plate so that the screw may be permanent in the headboard and the top plate slid between the head of the screw and the headboard by sliding the shank of the screw in the slot'forremoving or replacing the clip. The hole 2'lis shown in Fig. 4 as being slightly greater in diameter than the width of slit 28 so that slight adjustment may be made in position of the clip on the screw before cinching the screw, whereby a series of clips may be adjusted to perfect relative alignment when inserting rod 29 simultaneously in a series of the mounted clips even though the screws for mounting them may be somewhat out of alignment. Or, if desired, the head of a previously fixed mounting screw may be inserted through the opening hole 27 and the clip moved laterally until the shank of the srew is in the slot 27, whereupon the mounting screw may be cinched tight to securelyposition the clip. This latteruse of the hole and slot is not to be preferred as it tends to position a series of the clips out of alignment unless each clip is measured for position before cinching the mounting screw.

The curtain rod 29 may be a straight bar or have its opposite ends angularly turned to provide opposite end sections 30, the curtain drapes 3| being mounted on the rod by providing a hem 32 through which the rod is inserted in a wellknown manner. If the curtain rod is straight, the clips are mounted with the elongated top plate ll normal to the length of the headboard which aligns the resiliently opposed slit or lip opening 22 and the collar opening parallel with the length of the headboard. If the ends of the rod are turned angularly as at 30, then the clips at the opposite ends of the headboard have the elongated length of the top plate parallel to the length of the headboard and, therefore, the open collar 25 and the resiliently closed lip opening 22 are perpendicular to the length of the headboard.

In operation, assuming the curtain to have been inserted on the rod by insertion of the rod in the hem, the rod may then be manually pressed between the divergent wings 24 with sufllcient pressure to open the jaws whereby the rod and the hem portion of the curtains thereon may be inserted by continued pressure into the collar opening 25 between the jaws, and any portion of the curtain above the hem maybe passed through the opening I6 and into the triangular space I1. The fiat portions 2| of the jaws serve to support and hold the rod in the collar opening, since a normal downward pressure or pull of the rod against the flat surfaces 2| will not have a tendency to spread the jaws at the lip opening 22, whereas if the collar walls incline towards the opening slit 22, the rod, when pressed against the slit, acts as a wedge against the inclined walls in spreading the lips of the opening apart. When it is desired to remove the curtain rod, it is only necessary'to exert a slight manual pressure of the operator's thumb between the flanged wings 24 in order to open the jaws by a similar pressure as was employed to insert the curtain rod therebetween.

In Figs. 5 and 6 modified forms of the clip are illustrated. In Fig. 5 the modification comprises mainly a top plate Ma of greater length than in Figs. 1 to 4, the top plate being retroverted at its opposite ends and overlapped upon itself closely parallel to provide opposite end flanges [4b through which the eye 26 may be made .for receiving screws for mounting the clip on the headboard. In the modification of Fig. 6, the top plate I40 is somewhat inwardly concave, providing a somewhat greater resilientpressure to the jaws at the lip opening 22. Other than the modification of the top plate of Figs. 5 and 6 the structure of the clip of those -modifications is similar to the clip of 'Figs. 1 to 4.

Having thus described the invention, I claim:

A clip for curtain rods, comprising a strip of resilient material bent upon itself and having a top plate, resilient fingers at the opposite ends of the top plate bent from the plane thereof at an incline toward each other, each of said fingers being bent outwardly from the end of the said inclined portions and then bent inwardly to provide a pair of lips of confrontingly opposed jaws integral with the resilient fingers, said jaws providing an open collar for receiving a curtain rod, the jaws being resiliently in contact at the opposed lips thereof providing a resiliently closed slit in the collar, and the collar having flat wall portions extending in opposite directions-from the slit substantially in the same plane horizontally perpendicular to the lateral transverse central plane of the clip; and a wing at the terminalend of each finger fianged'relatively outwardly-from each of the jaw lips at said slit.

- ROBERT C. CLARK.

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

UNITED STATES PATENTS Number Name Date 150,251 McCoy Apr. 28, 1874 474,277 Young. May -3, 1892 588,974 Frost et-al Aug. 31, 1897 713,888 Kellner' Nov.'18, 1902 832,296 Coggeshall Oct. 2, 1906 1,340,070 Markham-"1 May 11,1920 1,423,043 Steinheiser July'l8,-1922 1,845,268 Harvey 'Feb. 16, 1932 1,906,874 Platt May "2, 1933

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