Description

Clothes-horse equipped with support to dry shoes.

The present patent application relates to a clothes-horse equipped with support to dry shoes.

The purpose of the invention is to provide potential users with an instrument capable of meeting a need that has become more and more common recently.

Reference is made to the large use of fabric shoes that can be washed with water and soap by hand or in the washing machine.

The problem that is generally related with this activity refers to finding the most suitable way to drain, and completely dry, the shoes that have been washed.

So far, users are forced to find "rule of thumb" solutions, the most common one consisting in hanging the wet shoes on the lines of traditional clothes-horses.

In particular, this operation is carried out by using traditional clothes pins to attach the tongue or heel of the shoes to the lines of traditional clothes-horses.

So far, fabric shoes are hung with or without clothes using traditional clothes-horses that are not provided with specific space or means to support the said shoes. This procedure is characterised by the following disadvantages: especially if wet, fabric shoes are quite heavy and can therefore damage the lines of traditional clothes-horses that are designed and built to support lighter items.

In addition, fabric shoes occupy part of the space that is typically dedicated to clothes.

Another disadvantage of the presence of shoes together with clothes on the lines of traditional clothes-horses is related to the fact that fabric shoes normally absorb a much larger quantity of water than clothes.

Because of this fact, water continues on dripping from shoes when clothes have dried, with the risk of wetting the items that are hung on the same clothes-horse.

Last, another disadvantage related to the drying of fabric shoes is represented by the difficulties encountered in placing the wet shoes in a position capable of favouring water drainage from the shoes due to gravity and without water stagnation.

As a matter of fact, if shoes are placed in a perfectly vertical position, the water that is drained from the upper tends to stagnate on the toes (if the shoes are hung from the heel) or on the heel (if the shoes are hung from the tongue).

Evidently, the drying time of the shoes is extended and the efficacy of the drying operation is impaired due to the aforementioned water stagnation.

A careful examination of the said disadvantages has resulted in the new clothes-horse that is the object of the present patent application for utility model.

The purpose of the present invention is to provide a clothes-horse with traditional structure with means especially studied to support wet shoes to be dried. The said means are capable of maintaining the wet shoes in inclined position in order to favour the complete drainage of the water that is gradually released from the upper due to gravity.

The said support means for shoes are placed at a lower height than the traditional lines used for clothes, in order to protect the clothes hung on the lines against the large flow of water drained from the shoes.

Moreover, the said support means for shoes are placed in an alternative position with respect to traditional lines (in particular, they are fixed between the legs of the clothes-horse of the invention); because of this, the space that is traditionally dedicated to clothes is not reduced. For major clarity, the description of the invention continues with reference to the enclosed drawing, which only has an illustrative, not limitative purpose, whereby figure 1 is an axonometric view of the new clothes-horse of

the invention, with an enlarged detailed view.

With reference to the aforementioned figure, the clothes-horse (1 ) of the invention has a traditional structure, with two mutually hinged

"quadrilateral" legs (1), designed to support in projected or intermediate position a plurality of racks (R) provided with the transversal lines (2) that are traditionally used to hang clothes.

The innovative peculiarity of the invention consists in the presence of an horizontal rod (3) with upward projecting arches (4) with upper tapered section at the end of each "quadrilateral" leg (1). In particular, the said arches (4) are perfectly contained in the ideal plane formed by the quadrilateral structure of the corresponding leg (1).

In view of the above, when the clothes-horse (1 ) of the invention is opened in operative position, the arches (4) are inclined inwards with respect to the ground, as shown in fig. 1. The same fig. 1 shows that each arch (4) is used to support one shoe, which is "worn" on it from up downwards, in such a way that the internal surface of the toe directly rests against the upper tapered end of the arch (4). Considering that the arches (4) have a reduced width (generally lower than the width of the upper), it appears evident that this is the only direct interference point between the arch and the upper.

The presence of a single interference point is extremely important in practical terms for the correct and rapid drying of the shoes; it being evident that each contact point between the arch and the fabric of the shoe will limit the free circulation of air, thus probably causing the formation of humidity and mould over time.

The inclined position of the arches (4) permits to support shoes in a subvertical position that favours the gradual drainage of the water for gravity from the upper of the shoes that have been washed.

Regardless of the illustration contained in fig. 1 , it is understood that the same inventive idea can be advantageously actuated also in the presence of clothes-horses without a quadrilateral structure, which are composed of two parallel pairs of mutually hinged rods.

In such a case, the horizontal rod (3) designed to support the arches (4) is mounted in intermediate position between each pair of rods that act as legs.