AN IMPROVED CLOTHES HANGING APPARATUS
Year: 1864

page_text: Jar 30
г
LETTERS PATENT to Alexander James Walker, of the City and State
of. New York, United States of America, for the Invention of "AN
IMPROVED CLOTHES HANGING APPARATUS."
C
f
10
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Alexander James
Walker at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition,
on the 3rd February '1864.
I, ALEXANDER JAMES WALKER, of the City and State of New York,
United States of America, do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention
for "AN IMPROVED CLOTHES HANGING APPARATUS," to be as follows:-
I make use of moveable pendent wardrobe hooks, having projecting arms,
adapted to hanging clothing upon, and I sustain such pendent hooks by means
of eyes upon such hooks taking over nails or screws. By this device à hook
"
adapted to articles of clothing can be placed in any desired location by simply
inserting a screw or nail, or the same may be lifted off the nail or screw
"

page_text: when not required for use. In order to apply several hooks in one location
without using a separate nail or screw for each, I attach two or more such
hooks to a bar by a rivet so as to hang from such bar and be sustained by
the same when in use, but said hooks can be turned around parallel to such
bar, so as to take less room in packing for transportation. In order to render
the bar, sustaining several of such hooks, portable, it may be jointed or made
in the form of links extending from one hook to the next and forming a
clothes hanging apparatus, which may be suspended by eyes at the ends
placed over screws or nails and one or more intermediate eyes may be
employed. To prevent the eyes accidentally lifting off the screws or nails
when articles of clothing are removed small elastic bands are provided
around the eyes and beneath such nails or screws.. Bands or short tubes of
india-rubber or similar material are employed around the hook at the part
that comes in contact with the wall, or the place where the hooks are
suspended, to prevent injury and render the hooks more steady.
A modification of my clothes hanging apparatus consists in arms forming
the hooks which extend above and below a circular and vertical metal body,
which circular metal body being retained in grooves crosswise of a pair of hori-
zontal strips of wood will form a clothes hanging apparatus adapted to halls
and other places, as the hooks can be turned with said vertical body part
so as to project from the sustaining strips, or be pushed back out of the way
parallel or nearly so with such sustaining strips.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said Alexander James Walker in the Great Seal Patent Office
on the 1st August 1864.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL, COME, I, ALEXANDER
JAMES WALKER, of the City and State of New York, United States of
*America, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria,' by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Third day of February, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and sixty-four; in the twenty-seventh year of Her
reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto me, the
said Alexander James Walker, Her special license that' I; the said Alexander
James Walker, my executors, administrators, and assigns, or such others
as I, the said Alexander James Walker, my executors, administrators, and

page_text: assigns, should at any time agree with, and no others, from time to time and
at all times thereafter during the term therein expressed, should and lawfully
might make, use, exercise, and vend, within the United Kingdom of Great,
Britain and Ireland, the Channel Islands, and Isle of Man, an Invention for
AN IMPROVED CLOTHES HANGING APPARATUS," upon the condition (amongst
others) that I, the said Alexander James Walker, by an instrument in
writing under my hand and seal, should particularly describe and ascer-.
tain the nature of the said Invention, and in what manner the same was
to be performed, and cause the same to be filed, in the Great Seal Patent.
Office within six calendar months next and immediately after the date of
the said Letters Patent.
NOW KNOW YE, that I, the said Alexander James Walker, do hereby
declare the nature of my said Invention, and in what manner the same
is to be performed, to be particularly described and ascertained in and by the
following statement, reference being bad to the Drawing hereunto annexed,
and to the letters and figures marked thereon (that is to say).:-
Fig. 1 is a side view of one of my clothes hanging hooks; and
".
-"
2 is a front view of the same;
3. is an elevation of five of my clothes hanging hooks connected
together by metallic bars or series of links; -
4 is an elevation; and
5 is a section of my improved hooks connected together by a wooden
bar.
Hooks of various characters for hanging clothes upon have heretofore been
made, but they have been adapted to screwing or otherwise fastening per-
manently in place..
:
The nature of my said Invention consists in a pendent hook, adapted to
hanging clothes upon, and made so as to be retained in place by a nail or.
screw and capable of easily being unhooked or removed, thus rendering the
hook portable and adapted to being hung up or taken down according to the
convenience of the person using the same, a nail or screw only remaining.
in place. I also combine two or more such hooks together in a form adapted
to the use of travellers and others, because the hooks can be so turned as to
occupy but little space in transportation, thus overcoming the, difficulties
heretofore experienced in transporting a series of wardrobe hooks, because they
have usually been permanently affixed to a bar or strip at right angles thereto,
and. hence occupied considerable room.
In the Drawing a is a hook that is to be made of metal, with one or more,

page_text: projections or arms 1, 1, upon which to hang garments; 2 is an eye at the
upper end of the back or base of the hook to be passed over a'nail or screw
and suspend the same. This eye is' preférable when 'made with a notch in
the upper portion, as seen in Fig. 2, so as to take behind the head of the nail,
screw, or other suspending device, and prevent the hook a slipping off. Fig: 3
shows several of such hooks, but instead of being separately suspended by'a
nail they are united to a bar or series of links 6 by the rivets or screws 3, 3,
so as to hang from this bar, and by having eyes 4, 4, at the end hooks, and if
necessary at one or more of the intermediate hooks; this clothes hanger can'
be suspended from nails or screws less in number than the clothes hooks;
and when this suspending bar is jointed in one or more places, so as to form
links, the bar itself can be folded in order to bring the hooks side by side, and
thus occupy as little space as possible. When the bar is not thus jointed the
hooks can be turned into the same plane as the bar and occupy but little space
in transportation.
"
:..
J.
Figs. 4 and 5 represent my improvement constructed so that the hooks can
be turned into the same plane'as the connecting bar for transportation, in this
case, however, the hooks a with the arms 1, 1, are made with a round body
at 5; 5, that passes through the sustaining bar 6, and hence can be swung or
turned into the plane of the bar for transportation, and this bar 'b'may be of
two pieces screwed together after the hooks have been inserted-in their places,
or the lower part or arm of the' hook may be attached to the bottom part of
the body 5 by a nut and screw. These hooks a upon the said bar 6 may be
sustained by eyes 2, 2, on the-hooks taking nails or screws, or by any other
convenient device.
When it is desired to prevent the hook from injuring the wall or other part
with which it may come in contact, and at the same time preventing it
swinging freely when any garmeut is put thereon or removed, I apply a band
or short tube of india-rubber or similar material as at 6, and a small rubber
band may be employed as at 7 around the 'eye'2, passing below the nail to
prevent the hook being accidently lifted off the nail; this band however
can be stretched to pass over the nail when it is desired to remove the
hook a.
17
What I claim and desire to secure by Letters Patent, is,
First, a pendent wardrobe hook constructed substantially as and for the
purposes specified.
Second, I claim sustaining a series of pendent wardrobe hooks by a bar or
series of folding links, as and for the purposes set forth.

page_text: Third, I claim a series of hooks fitted to turn horizontally, when
sustained on a supporting bar and forming a clothes hanging apparatus as
specified.
Fourth, I claim the eyes 2, 2, in combination with the pendent wardrobe
hook substantially as specified.
In witness, whereof, I, the said Alexander James Walker, have hereunto
set my hand and seal, this Seventeenth day of June, in the year of
our Lord One thousand eight hundred and sixty-four.
o Witnesses,
THO. GEO. HAROLD,
121, Nassau St., N.Y.
CHAº. H. SMITH,
121, Nassau St., N.Y.
ALEX. J. WALKER.
(LS.)