US Patent: 1,287,784
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| Towel-cabinet
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Patentee:
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| George A. Steiner (exact or similar names) - Salt Lake City, UT |
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Patent Dates:
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| Applied: |
Mar. 01, 1917 |
| Granted: |
Dec. 17, 1918 |
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Jeff Joslin
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Description: |
| At the time of this patent, paper towels were not available and so cloth towels were supplied in public washrooms; see patent 1,256,274 for an example of a simple cloth-towel dispenser. Once that design was deployed it was found necessary to prevent the towels from being stolen which eventually led to the once-ubiquitous towel loop dispenser. Patent 1,287,782 proposes the use of a vertical cord on which a series of towels is strung, each towel having a metal grommet crimped onto one end. But the grommet was found to be objectionable which led to this improvement, which replaces the grommet with a pair of double hems so that each towel can be threaded onto a pair of loops of cord. Provisions withing the cabinet allow the loops to be secured with padlocks. Patent 1,287,785 represents the biggest step forward in this evolution: the series of individual towels is replaced with a single long "roller towel". Patent 1,287,786 adds a mechanism to only allow the towel to advance a predetermined distance when it is pulled down. Patent 1,414,443 simplified and improved that design, and was the final patent in the series.By the late 1940s paper towels had been developed and had started to supersede the loop cloth towels, but it took a couple of decades for the loop cloth towel to largely disappear from public washrooms. |
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