GB2423702A

GB2423702A - Umbrella-type clothes dryer with protective cover

Info

Publication number: GB2423702A
Application number: GB0504297A
Authority: GB
Inventors: Conrad Charles Salt
Original assignee: Individual
Current assignee: Individual
Priority date: 2005-03-02
Filing date: 2005-03-02
Publication date: 2006-09-06
Also published as: GB0504297D0

Abstract

A rotary clothesline incorporating an umbrella wherein the umbrella is opened and closed by a powered mechanism on command from a rain sensor. Preferably the umbrella, once opened can be lowered in height relative to the washing to provide additional lateral protection. The umbrella is preferably hemispherical or trapezium shape. A further preferred feature is the umbrella being inverted, hence opening downwards with the ribs supporting the cloth from above. The umbrella may also include a programmable delay function governing the retraction of the umbrella after rain.

Description

DESCRIPTION

WASHING PROTECTOR

Hanging washing outside to dry is an effective, long-established method of drying it, and the rotary clothesline enables this to be done conveniently in a compact area. However there remains the problem of bringing the washing in quickly should it start to rain and this requires somebody's presence whenever there is a risk of rain.

Umbrellas are similarly an effective, well-established means of providing personal protection from rain. There is no problem of somebody's presence being required to notice that it is raining and to open the umbrella, since the umbrella bearer will always be there to do these two things.

The Washing Protector uses a rain sensor, coupled to a powered mechanism, to open or close an umbrella, as appropriate, over washing on a rotary clothes line, thus bringing the personal weather security enjoyed by the umbrella bearer to washing whilst it is drying out doors on a rotary clothesline, without the need for anyone's presence. The Washing Protector combines three well-established devices, the rotary clothesline, the umbrella and the rain sensor, to provide a completely novel solution to a long-standing problem.

The umbrella (I, Fig 1) is housed, in its closed satate, in the central, vertical, cylindrical support of the rotary clothesline (2, Fig 1) whose diameter will be greater than that of the conventional rotary clothesline in order to accommodate it. A rain sensor, positioned so that washing will not obstruct the passage of precipitation onto its critical surfaces, will trigger the deployment of the umbrella at the onset of rain. This powered deployment will have at least two, and possibly three, stages. The first will be the raising of the closed umbrella from within its cylindrical housing sufficiently for the second stage, the opening of the umbrella, to take place without the umbrella snagging on any part of the clothes line or its washing. A possible final, third stage will be the lowering in height of the open umbrella over the washing in order to enhance its protective function, especially from wind driven rain approaching the washing obliquely. This is indicated in Fig 2 by an intermittent outline.

On the cessation of rain, the rain sensor will trigger the closing and retraction of the umbrella, and this will also have at least two, and possibly three, stages mirroring those of deployment. A consumer programmable delay may allow the umbrella itself to dry between cessation of rain and the umbrella's retraction.

The umbrella may either be of conventional design, albeit possibly with more of either a hemispherical, or a trapezium, shape than the traditional umbrella, or it may be radically different in so far as it will open downwards rather than upwards. That is to say its ribs will be supported, and held in position when open, from above and not, as with a conventional umbrella, from below. Such a design may permit lateral rain protection without the need for the third stage of deployment described above.

Power for the deployment and retraction of the umbrella may be provided by electricity, by compressed air or other gas, by springs or by any combination of these. In the case of electricity, solar generation, domestic mains or batteries, rechargeable or otherwise, may be used.

Claims

CLAIMS WASHING PROTECTOR

1. A rotary clothesline incorporating an umbrella, which umbrella is opened and closed by a powered mechanism on command from a rain sensor.

2. A rotary clothesline as claimed in claim I where the umbrella, after opening, may be lowered in height, relative to the washing, to provide additional lateral weather protection to the washing.

3. A rotary clothesline as claimed in claim 1 with an umbrella of hemispherical shape in order to provide greater lateral weather protection to the washing.

4. A rotary clothesline as claimed in claim I with an umbrella of trapezium shape in order to provide greater lateral weather protection to the washing.

5. A rotary clothesline as claimed in claim I with a device radically different from a conventional umbrella in that its ribs are supported from above (rather than, as conventionally, from below) so allowing the ribs and fabric to open downwards and not, as conventionally, upwards.

6. A rotary clothesline as claimed in claim I with a programmable delay function governing the retraction of the umbrella after rain.