Bag supporting means

An improved bag supporting means is disclosed for gripping a marginal portion of the mouth of a bag comprising a substantially vertical upright peg fixed at its lower end to a support. A resilient locking ring having an inside diameter less than the diameter of the peg is adapted to be moved downwardly over the peg with the marginal portion of the bag being spread over the peg to hold the bag upon the peg. The locking ring may be affixed to the support by anchor means.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 
Simple, satisfactory means for dealing with the difficult problem of 
supporting a trash bag with its mouth held open have not hitherto been 
designed and made available for general use. This invention is provided to 
remedy that difficulty. 
OBJECTS OF THE INVENTION 
The principal objects are to provide a supporting means, adapted easily set 
up and easily remove a trash bag and to provide simple and effective means 
for holding the bag in a hanging position with its mouth held open. 
Other more specific objects and advantages of this invention will be 
apparent from the following description and the accompanying drawing.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION 
Referring first to the embodiment of FIGS. 1-6, the bag supporting means 
comprise a relatively rigid, horizontally disposed, open, rectangular 
frame 10, a pair of uprights stakes 12, the upper ends of which are 
tightly fitted into sockets 14 provided oppositely in the under side of 
the frame 10, and the lower ends of which stakes are preferably somewhat 
pointed for driving into the ground; and plural bag holding pegs 18 
mounted in upstanding positions at the four corners of the frame 10. 
The frame 10 and the stakes 12 may be of suitable light weight material 
such as wood, plastic, or aluminum, and said material may be either solid 
or tubular and of square or circular shape in cross-section. The pegs 18 
are mounted in apertures or holes 20 in the frame 10 at the corners 
thereof as more specifically explained hereinafter with reference to FIG. 
6. In FIG. 1, four pegs 18 are shown in four corner holes: Additional 
holes 20a are provided at intermediate points in the frame 10 to permit 
some variation, if desired, in the locations where pegs 18 may be mounted 
on the frame 10 to accommodate different sizes of bags. 
A trash bag 22, as best seen in FIG. 3, hangs from pegs 18 on the frame 10 
and is straddled by the two upright stakes 12. 
A preferred form of peg 18 is best illustrated in FIGS. 4, 5 and 6. It is 
generally cylindrical in shape and may be of wood, relatively rigid 
plastic, or other suitable material. A long bolt 24 extends coaxially 
within the peg 18 from the domed top of the peg to the bottom thereof, 
whence it extends through a selected hole 20 in the frame 10 to which the 
peg is fixed by a nut 26 threaded upon the lower end of the bolt 24. 
Trash bags such as bag 22 are commonly made of relatively thin plastic 
sheet material and, to cause the bag to be held by a peg 18, a marginal 
portion 22a of the mouth of the bag 22 is placed over, down, and around 
the peg as fragmentally indicated in FIG. 5, possibly being slightly 
stretched in being so disposed upon the peg. The thus disposed marginal 
portion of the bag is firmly held upon the peg by a ring arrangement now 
to be described. 
An intermediate portion of the peg 18 is formed with a first area of 
reduced effective cross-section shown as a first circumferential locking 
groove 18a, preferably having a planar top surface 18b and a frusto 
conical bottom surface 18c diverging downwardly from the inner limit of 
the top surface 18b. A locking ring 28, preferably of slightly resilient 
rubber or plastic material may be manually pushed downwardly over the peg 
18 and over the marginal bag portion 22a. During an initial part of this 
pushing, the ring 28 is expanded, partly because of the dome shape of the 
top of the peg 18 and partly because the inner surface of the ring 28 
converges upwardly to some extent. 
When the ring 28 has been pushed downwardly into radial alignment with the 
groove 18a, its resiliency causes it to contract into locking engagement 
with the bag's marginal portion 22a and into the groove 18a. When it is 
desired to remove the ring 28 to release the bag, the ring may be forced 
upwardly whereupon it expands to slide from and off of the top of the peg 
18, thus freely the previously held marginal portion 22a of the bag 22. It 
should be understood that the resiliency of the ring 28 is such as to 
permit the described manipulation thereof both to enable the bag portion 
22a to be locked upon the peg and later to be freed therefrom as 
described. 
As thus far described, the locking ring 28 could easily become lost. To 
prevent this, it is preferred to provide a flexible anchor line 30 the 
upper end of which is fixed to the ring 28 and the lower end of which is 
suitably secured to a lower portion 18d of the peg 18. One of various ways 
of thus securing anchor line 30 to the peg's lower portion 18d is shown 
best in FIGS. 5 and 6 as fixedly attaching the lower end of the anchor 
line 30 to a preferably resilient anchoring ring 32 which is first 
forcibly expanded over the top of the peg 18, then pushed downwardly 
thereon past groove 18a until it snaps into a second area of reduced 
cross-sectional area shown as a second circumferential anchoring groove 
18e. It will be noted from FIG. 6 that the anchor line 30 is long enough 
and flexible enough to enable the locking ring 28 to be inactively held 
clear of the peg 18 and also to reach to a position over the top of said 
peg and over a marginal bag portion 22a placed over said peg. 
FIG. 7 illustrates how two pegs 18 may be fastened to the exterior of a 
building wall by securing each peg, by its bolt 24 to a horizontal flange 
34 of a sturdy angle bracket 36 and by securing a vertical flange of the 
angle bracket 36 to the wall of a building by screws or bolts 38. Where 
only two pegs 18 are used as in FIG. 7, the mouth of the bag 22, while not 
held wide open, is nevertheless held open sufficiently to enable trash, 
etc. to be conveniently placed therein. Moreover, as some trash 
accumulates in the bag, the trash, itself, aids in holding the mouth of 
the bag open. 
FIG. 8 shows that instead of using stakes 17 driven into the ground, as in 
FIG. 3, uprights 40 may be used to support frame 42, the lower ends of 
said uprights being seated firmly in suitable sockets at opposite sides of 
a base frame 44 which rests upon a substantially flat ground surface. This 
figure shows the use of only three pegs 18 to hold the top of bag 22 and 
to keep it open. 
FIGS. 1 and 2 show three unused holes 20 in the frame 10, these excess 
holes permitting the user to shift the pegs 18 to various combinations of 
holes, particularly to enable bags of a variety of sizes to be 
accommodated. The three peg arrangement of FIG. 8, also permits 
accommodation of smaller bags. 
It will be realized that this invention may be practiced in various ways 
other than as shown herein without departing from the invention as set 
forth in the following claims.