Patent Publication Number: US-5524800-A

Title: Replacement drawstring for garment waistbands and hoods, laundry bags and the like

Description:
FIELD OF THE INVENTION 
     This invention relates to a replacement drawstring for garment waistbands and hoods, laundry bags and the like. 
     DESCRIPTION OF THE PRIOR ART 
     When typical such drawstrings break or slip out of their tunnel, it is difficult to re-string them because their aglet cannot be easily manipulated through the tunnel. Prior art reveals many devices which may be attached in some manner to a drawstring, but the art does not appear to show such a facilitating device built or molded into a drawstring. 
     SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION 
     This invention, however, reveals an aftermarket or replacement drawstring believed to be entirely new in the art, a drawstring, marketable in various lengths, with a discardable re-stringing wand or bayonet breakably molded to the end of one aglet of the drawstring. 
    
    
     BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS 
     FIG. 1 is a perspective view of the invention in the environment in which it is used. 
     FIG. 2 is an enlarged side elevation of the invention. 
     FIG. 3 is an enlarged side elevation depicting the wand or bayonet literally broken away from the aglet after re-stringing. 
     FIG. 4 is an enlarged fragmentary cross-section taken on line 4--4 of FIG. 2. 
    
    
     DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT 
     In FIG. 1, G is a garment or laundry bag with a drawstring tunnel T that has an opening 0. The device of the invention 10 consists of a drawstring 12 which, at one end, has attached an aglet 14 molded to a wand or bayonet 16 having a ball 18 at its leading end. The wand may be snapped off at parting line 20. 
     FIG. 2 depicts the wand or bayonet 16 of the replaceable drawstring 10 before it has been snapped off at parting line 20, while FIG. 3 depicts the same drawstring after the snap has occurred, thus revealing the broken end 22 of the aglet 14 and the broken end 24 of the wand or bayonet 16. 
     The FIG. 4 cross-section clearly reveals that the break may be cleanly made because it occurs only at the outer periphery of reduced wall thickness along the parting line 20. 
     In practice, the replaceable drawstring 10 is introduced into the opening 0 of the garment or laundry bag tunnel T, and is then threaded in normal fashion through the full length of the tunnel facilitated by ball 18 at its leading end. When the drawstring 10 emerges from the tunnel T, the wand or bayonet 16 is snapped by hand and may be discarded, thus leaving behind a standard drawstring with standard aglets at either end.