Fitting room mirror bracket

The specification discloses a fitting room mirror assembly in which the mirror is mounted at an angle in a corner of a fitting room using upper and lower nonapertured mounting brackets at the mirror's top and bottom respectively. Each mounting bracket comprises a nonapertured triangular plate, two edges of which fit snugly against the two walls of the corner while the third edge receives the mirror so that access to the space behind the mirror is prohibited.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 
The present invention relates to fitting room mirrors, particularly those 
mounted at an angle in a corner of a fitting room. Many clothing stores 
have serious problems with thievery. Utilizing a fitting room with a 
conventionally mounted corner mirror, a thief can abscond with new clothes 
by taking them into the room, removing their price tags and labels, 
changing into the new clothes, concealing his old clothes and the tags and 
labels from the new clothes behind the fitting room mirror and walking out 
of the store leaving no evidence of his crime. Some even put the new 
clothes over the old and simply hide the tags and labels behind the 
mirror. Although it is preferable to have an angled mirror in the corner 
of a fitting room to enable the honest customer to fully view a 
prospective clothing purchase, the potential for thievery makes this 
impractical. It is too easy to hide tags and old clothes behind the 
mirror. Therefore, many fitting rooms now have mirrors which are mounted 
flatly against the wall so that no clothing may be hidden behind them. 
This placement of the mirrors flat against the wall is irritating to some 
customers who wish to view their clothes from more than one angle, which 
is difficult to do with such placement in a small fitting room. Further, 
it is often still possible to slide tags and labels behind the mirror. 
Artisans have either not attempted or been unable to solve the problem of 
placing a mirror at an angle in the corner of a fitting room while at the 
same time preventing access to the space behind the mirror. Prior art 
corner shelves which might be suitable for use in mounting a wall mirror 
have either some type of hole through them or gaps along their edges where 
they are mounted against the wall. Examples of such shelves can be seen in 
U.S. Pat. Nos. 2,096,024 and 2,389,349. In addition to the holes in the 
surface of U.S. Pat. No. 2,096,024, a significant gap is created in the 
corner of both shelves. All of these apertures are large enough to push 
price tags and labels through. However, even if the thief can hide only 
the price tags and labels from the new clothes without being able to hide 
his old clothes, he may still commit the larceny by walking out of the 
fitting room wearing the new clothes over his old clothes. This is 
especially true of outerwear such as coats and jackets. 
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION 
In the present invention, access to the space behind a mirror mounted 
diagonally across a corner of a fitting room is prevented through the use 
of inexpensive mounting brackets. A pair of these brackets is installed in 
the corner of the fitting room, one above the other, with the mirror 
supported between them. Each bracket comprises a generally flat, 
nonapertured plate generally triangular in shape. Securing means are 
provided on two edges of each plate to attach the bracket to the two walls 
of the corner of the fitting room. Receiving means are provided on the 
third edge of each plate to secure and support either the top or bottom 
edge of the mirror. This third edge is substantially the same length as 
the mirror to be supported thereby so that the vertical edges of the 
installed mirror will be held securely against the fitting room walls. 
When the mirror is installed using the brackets of the present invention, 
access to the space behind the mirror is blocked (1) at top and bottom by 
the mounting brackets which are sealed on their three sides by the two 
walls and the mirror and (2) at the sides by the mirror which is held 
securely against the walls. 
These and other objects, advantages and features of the invention will be 
more fully understood and appreciated by reference to the written 
specification and appended drawings.

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT 
In the preferred embodiment, the mounting bracket 10 has a generally 
triangular shape defined by plate 11 (FIGS. 2, 3 and 4). A downwardly bent 
mirror flange 14 runs along the hypotenuse of plate 11 while a downwardly 
bent side flange 12 and rear flange 13 run along the other two sides of 
plate 11. These three flanges are formed by bending the edges of blank 9 
along the three bend lines 19 so that the three flanges are generally 
perpendicular to plate 11. Blank 9 is made of a material of sufficient 
strength and rigidity to support a mirror, preferably 16 gauge cold-rolled 
steel. A mirror retaining angle iron 16, also formed of 16 gauge 
cold-rolled steel or equivalent, is mounted on plate 11 adjacent to and 
parallel to the mirror flange 14, so as to define a mirror retaining 
channel 18. Preferably, the downwardly (or upwardly, depending on 
orientation of bracket 10) depending wall of angle iron 16 extends beyond 
the terminal edge of flange 14 to facilitate mounting mirror 20 as 
hereinafter explained. 
Both side flange 12 and rear flange 13 contain a plurality of attaching 
holes 17 which receive screws 40 used to attach the flanges to the walls. 
Both side flange 12 and rear flange 13 extend downwardly (or upwardly, 
depending on the orientation of bracket 10) beyond the terminal edge of 
the downwardly (or upwardly, depending on the orientation of bracket 10) 
depending wall of angle iron 16 a sufficient distance so that attaching 
holes 17 are also located beyond the terminal edge of the depending wall 
of angle iron 16. Such location of attaching holes 17 facilitates 
attachment of the bracket to the walls because the blade of a screwdriver 
used to drive screws 40 can be positioned flat against the heads of screws 
40. 
The corner point 15 enables the complete sealing of the bracket against the 
corner. Prior art corner brackets and shelves do not include this sealing 
point, apparently so that problems with fitting these brackets and shelves 
into the corner are alleviated. However, without corner point 15, small 
articles such as price tags and labels may be hidden behind the mirror. 
The corner point 15 is formed when the blank is cut by removing a portion, 
here approximately 1", of side flange 12 and rear flange 13. This creates 
a very thin space on each side of corner 15 which will accommodate 
installation of the bracket in an imperfectly square corner. Therefore, 
the corner point 15 varies slightly from being square with respect to side 
and rear flanges 12 and 13 to facilitate the bracket's installation in 
corners which are imperfect, but the variation must be slight enough so 
that corner point 15 still fits sufficiently snugly into the corner to 
prevent one from pushing tags and labels around it. Preferably, such 
variation is no greater than the thickness of the metal of side and rear 
flanges 12 and 13. 
Referring to FIGS. 1 and 4, mirror 20 is installed using two oppositely 
mounted brackets 10. Rear flange 13 of each bracket is attached to rear 
wall 30 of the dressing room and side flange 12 is attached to side wall 
31 of the dressing room. These attachments are performed using screws 40 
which pass through attaching holes 17 and into the walls 30 and 31. A 
hardboard channel filler 22 is then placed in retaining channel 18 of the 
lower bracket in order to provide a shock absorbing material upon which 
mirror 20 rests. Channel filler 22 extends the full width and length of 
retaining channel 18 but not the full height; thus retaining channel 18 
may still receive the edge of mirror 20 and mirror backer 21. 
Finally, mirror backer 21 and the mirror 20 are fitted into the retaining 
channels 18 of the upper and lower brackets. Top bracket 10 is spaced 
above bottom bracket 10 a distance such that one can slide mirror 20 up 
into top channel 18, swing the bottom of mirror 20 past the top of bottom 
flange 14 until it hits the depending portion of angle iron 16 and then 
slide it down into bottom channel 18. Suction cup handles are used to 
facilitate this operation. 
Because brackets 10 are reversible, mirror 20 can be mounted in any corner 
of the fitting room at either of two angles. Once installed, plate 11 with 
corner point 15 prevents one who is using the fitting room from stuffing 
clothes, price tags or lables behind mirror 20. 
A fragmentary view of an alternative embodiment 10' of bracket 10 is shown 
in FIG. 5 wherein rear flange 13' (as well as the side flange) is bent in 
a direction opposite to that of mirror flange 14'. When brackets 10' are 
used to install a mirror, rear flanges 13' (as well as the side flanges) 
of upper and lower brackets 10' extend outwardly from the assembly and 
away from each other. Attaching holes 17' in rear flange 13' (as well as 
the side flange) are therefor easily accessible for installation of screws 
40'. Whereas the first alternative embodiment results in bracket 10 having 
a more aesthetically pleasing appearance when installed, this second 
alternative embodiment facilitates easier installation of bracket 10'. 
Of course, it is understood that the above is merely a preferred embodiment 
of the invention and that various changes and alternatives can be made 
without departing from the spirit and broader aspects of the invention as 
set forth in the appended claims which are to be interpreted in accordance 
with the principles of patent law, including the doctrine of equivalents.