US3530545A - Christmas tree ornament securing means - Google Patents

Description

CHRISTMAS TREE ORNAMENT SECURING MEANS Filed April 16, 1968 INVENTOR PAUL E. LENG VEL TORNEYS United States Patent O 3,530,545 CHRISTMAS TREE ORNAMENT SECURING MEANS Paul E. Lengyel, R.D. Yale Ave., Slingerlands, N.Y. 12159 Filed Apr. 16, 1968, Ser. No. 721,714 Int. Cl. A44b 21/00 US. CI. 24-73 9 Claims ABSTRACT OF THE DISCLOSURE An ornament hanger composed of a material which is initially conformed to the coplanar shape shown in FIG. 2 having arcuate portions in a back-to-back relationship which are joined by the legs of a V-shaped portion, said legs adapted for being manually squeezed together to the position shown in FIG. 3 to bring the arcuate portions in a face-to-face relationship whereby the branch of a Christmas tree may be engaged between such portions, the elastic limits of the material being such that when the legs are released from the position shown in FIG. 3 the hanger returns to a position as shown in FIG. 4 so that the limb of the Christmas tree is loosely encircled by the arcuate portions.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION of the Christmas tree but instead hangs on needles extending from the branch and may be easily disengaged by a slight movement of the tree. This problem is accentuated with certain artificial Christmas trees having a number of plastic simulated needles extending normally from a twisted wire which constitutes the branch of the tree. In such case it is often difiicult to position the hook correctly on the twisted wire and, unless extreme care is taken, the ornament is supported by the plastic needles rather than by the wire.

Conventional wire hooks also present another problem in that where a box of such books is packed to its capacity, it is difficult to remove a hook without removing a number of other hooks entangled therewith.

Although many substitutes for the conventional Christmas tree ornament hooks may suggest themselves to those concerned with the problem, seemingly obvious substitutes are overly expensive to manufacture, may damage the tree or have other drawbacks which prevent their utilization.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The instant invention provides an ornament hanger which can be inexpensively manufactued, conveniently packaged and utilized to hang ornaments on a Christmas tree in a firm and substantially undislodgeable fashion with considerable ease and facility without injury to the tree. The hangers in accordance with the invention can additionally be easily removed for subsequent removal of the ornament. Thereafter the hangers can be saved and reused year after year.

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Essentially, the invention comprises the initial conforming of the Christmas tree hanger to a coplanar shape wherein it can be packaged and sold loosely secured to others in much the same manner as ordinary staples are initially secured together. The hanger is preferably composed of a non-rigid, non-spring type metal having, however, sufficient resilience that when the hanger is initially deformed for the purpose of grasping a Christmas tree branch it is returned by the resilience of the material only partly towards its original form so that the branch is loosely grasped by the hanger and the likelihood of injury to the Christmas tree is minimized. The terminal parts of the hanger are generally aligned so that they do not, in effect, hook around each other to facilitate removal of the hanger from the tree and, additionally, to make it more difficult for the hangers, when stored loosely together, to hook onto each other.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS Objects, adaptabilities and capabilities of the invention will appear as the description progresses, reference being had to the accompanying drawings, in which:

FIG. 1 is a perspective view showing the hanger of the invention on the branch of an artificial Christmas tree with an ornament hanging therefrom;

FIG. 2 shows in front elevation an individual hanger in its initial position before being deformed for placement on the branch of a Christmas tree;

FIG. 3 shows the Christmas tree hanger in accordance with the invention deformed so as to clasp a Christmas tree branch;

FIG. 4 is a further view of the hanger after it has resiliently returned from the position shown in FIG. 3;

FIG. 5 is a side elevation of the hanger as shown in FIG. 4;

FIG. 6 is an elevation of a modified embodiment of the Christmas tree hanger;

FIG. 7 is a perspective view showing a plurality of the hangers in accordance wit hthe invention secured together in a compact stacked manner; and

FIG. 8 shows stacked groups of hangers in accordance with the invention arranged in a box.

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS Referring now to FIG. 1 it will be noted that the hanger designated generally by reference numeral 10 has a Christmas ornament 11 hanging therefrom by a loop 12 which extends from the collar 14 of ornament 11. Hanger 10 loosely grasps an artificial limb 15 comprised of a twisted wire 16 having a plurality of artificial plastic needles 17 extending therefrom.

The hanger 10 is composed of a non-spring type metal or other substance which has some but not the considerable resilience imparted to spring metals. There are many inexpensive materials which are satisfactory for the purpose and readily occur to one skilled in the art. In its initial state, the hanger 10 is coplanar and is in a shape generally as shown in FIG. 2 wherein a pair of arcuate portions 21 and 22 are in back-to-back relationship with the terminal parts 24 and 25 being in a substantially collinear alignment along a line 26 which is shown in dot-dash lines. A V-shaped portion 27 having a pair of legs 30 and 31 joined by a part 32 connect the arcuate portions 21 and 22.

A plurality of the hangers 10, as shown in FIG. 2, may be stacked and lightly secured by a glue or other appropriate means to form a pack 34 as shown in FIG. 7. The pack 34 is essentially secured together in the same manner as ordinary staples which are sold in a similar form and the individual hangers can be readily disengaged therefrom.

With an ornament 11 attached thereto, the hanger 10 is squeezed together by exerting force with the fingers in the direction of arrows 35 and 36 so that the arcuate portions 21 and 22 cross each other and the terminal parts 24 and 25 are spaced apart a distance 37 which is sufficient to grasp the wire 16 and to avoid proximate artificial needles 17. The pressure is then released from the legs 30 and 31 and the hanger 10 resiliently returns to a position substantially as shown in FIG. 4 so that the arcuate portions 21 and 22 roughly form a circle and loosely grasp the limb in a manner which does not injure the needles 17, as shown in FIG. 1. The overlap of the terminal parts 24 and 25 is intentionally slight and it will be noted from FIG. 4 that axes extending tangentially from the terminal parts 24 and 25 have an included angle 40 which is about or slightly less than 180.

It is important to understand that the material which makes up the hanger 10 is deformed past its elastic limits when it is moved from the position shown in FIG. 2 to the position shown in FIG. 3 and that the resilience of the material is such that upon the hanger being released from the position as shown in FIG. 3 it will return naturally to that shown in FIG. 4.

Referring to FIG. 6, a modified hanger 10a is shown which has the same reference numerals for similar parts. However, in this embodiment the terminal parts 24a and 25a constitute bent-over portions which renders the hanger 10a somewhat safer to handle and render it less likely that the terminal parts may accidentally clamp against the wire 16 rather than extend above same as shown in FIG. 1.

Legs and 31 are preferably collinear with the longitudinal axes shown as dot-dash lines 41 and 42 in FIG. 2. It will be appreciated that these axes 21 and 42 extend forward of the terminal parts 24 and 25 and that the axes 41, 42 and 26 form an isosceles triangle. The configuration of the hanger 10 as shown in FIG. 2 and thus the pack 34 shown in FIG. 7 is quite advantageous for packaging as illustrated in FIG. 8 wherein a plurality of packs 34 are shown contained in a box 44.

Although I have described the preferred embodiments of my invention in a specific manner, it is to be understood that it is capable of other adaptations and modifications.

Having thus described my invention, what I claim as new and desire to secure by Letters Patent of the United States is:

1. A Christmas tree ornament hanger which comprises a non-rigid, non-spring wire having a pair of means substantially semi-circular (21, 22) for engaging a branch (15) of said tree in back-to-back relationship.

said engaging means being connected by a portion (27) of said wire comprising means (30, 31, 32) for connecting to the ornament (11), all parts of the hanger being substantially coplanar, and

said latter portion (27) being sufficiently resilient whereby it may be manually bent to place said engaging means in a faceto-face relationship to receive said tree branch and thereafter resiliently move said engaging means together to encircle said tree branch and hang loosely therefrom, said wire having sufiicient resilience so that when the hanger is initially deformed for the purpose of grasping a Christmas tree branch it is returned by the resilience of the material only partly towards its original form so that the branch is loosely grasped by the hanger and the likelihood of injury to the Christmas tree is minimized. 2. Christmas tree ornament securing means which comprises a wire member (10) having a pair of arcuate portions (21, 22) in a spaced back-to-back relationship,

the ends (24, 25) of said arcuate portions which constitute the terminal parts of said wire being in substantial collinear alignment and pointing in opposite directions, the other ends of said arcuate portions being joined to a V-shaped portion (27) which is conformed in its lower aspect (32) where the legs (30, 31) thereof join to receive a loop (12) of a Christmas tree ornament (11),

the longitudinal axes (41, 42) of the legs of said V- shaped portion extending forward of said terminal parts of said wire whereby when said legs are brought together said arcuate portions are in a spaced faceto-face relationship and said terminal parts are spaced apart a sufficient distance (37) to receive the branch (15) of a Christmas tree,

said V-shaped portion being sufiiciently resilient so that when said legs after having been brought together as aforesaid are released said terminal parts meet to encircle said branch.

3. Ornament securing means in accordance with claim 2 wherein said wire is substantially coplanar when said arcuate portions are in said spaced back-to-back relationship.

4. Ornament securing means in accordance with claim 2 wherein said wire is sufficiently deformable so that when the legs of said V-shaped portion are released and said terminal parts come together to encircle said branch said arcuate portions approximately form a circle and said terminal parts are not substantially overlapped whereby said branch is loosely encircled by said arcuate parts.

5. Ornament securing means in accordance with claim 2 wherein said terminal parts include bent-over portions (24a, 25a).

6. A Christmas tree ornament securing means which comprises a wire (10) initially shaped substantially as shown in FIG. 2 and which when deformed therefrom to substantially the shape shown in FIG. 3, by manually squeezing the legs 30 and 31 together, resiliently returns to substantially the shape shown in FIG. 4.

7. Hanger means composed of a single coplanar nonrigid, non-spring wire (10) which comprises a pair of arcuate engaging portions (21, 22) in spaced back-to-back coplanar relationship,

connected by a further portion (27) adapted to receive an object (11) intended for hanging, said further portion having sufiicient resilience so that when said engaging portions are initially moved to an overlapping face-to-face relationship for the purpose of grasping a Christmas tree branch, said further portion is deformed so that it is returned by the resilience of the material or partly towards its original form whereby the branch is loosely grasped by the hanger and the likelihood of injury to the Christmas tree is minimized.

8. Hanger means in accordance with claim 7 wherein said grasping means in the back-to-back relationship include terminal portions (24, 25) which lie in a substantially collinear axis (26) which is perpendicular to the operative vertical axis of the hanger.

9. Hanger means composed of a single coplanar resilient wire (10) which comprises a pair of spaced portions (21, 22) in spaced back-toback coplanar relationship connected by a further portion (27) adapted to receive an object (11) intended for hanging, said further portion adaptable for being resiliently bent whereby said grasping portions are moved to an overlapping and face-to-face relationship,

said grasping portions in the back-to-back relationship including terminal portions (24, 25) which lie in a substantially collinear axis (26) which is perpendicular to the operative vertical axis of the hanger, said further portion including two parts '(30, 31) having longitudinal axes (41, 42) which together with said collinear axis form an isosceles triangle.

References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 1,380,211 5/1921 Johnson.

DONALD A. GRIFFIN, Primary Examiner US. Cl. X.R.

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