Trunk.

Application filed March 30, 1907. Serial No. 365,481.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, Seymour W. Bonsall, a citizen of the United-States', residing in the borough of Manhattan, city and State of 5 New York, have invented a certain new and useful Improvement in Trunks, of which the following is a specification.

The present invention, has relation to means whereby drawers in the swinging trays 10 of trunks may be made more convenient and useful, and may be given a greater individual capacity.

Trays have been hitherto used in travelers’ trunks which are hung upon pivots or 15 separable hinges on one edge, so that the whole tray may be swung forward out of the trunk when the latter is on one end. These trays are usually employed in connection with other devices which take up a large pro20 portion of the space , within the trunk, and such trays are therefore usually made quite shallow. _ The consequence is that when they are provided with drawers, the horizontal depth of such drawers is much restricted, and 25 they cannot be used for many articles for which they would be suited if they could be made deeper.

My present invention has for its object to provide means whereby drawers and other 30 movable containers used in trays in the manner above described may be made as deep as desired, and their usefulness may thus be enhanced.

The invention is illustrated in certain pre35 ferred forms in the accompanying drawings wherein

Figure 1 is a perspective view of a wardrobe trunk with a swinging tray provided with my invention, the drawer being re40 moved, Fig. 2 is a side view partly in section of said tray with the drawer in place, Fig. 3 is a front view of the same with the drawer compartment closed, Fig. 4 is a similar view of a modification and Fig. 5 is a detail.

The body of the trunk is shown at 1 and the swinging tray at 2. The lower-most compartment 3 is simply provided with a tilting cover 4 which may be secured by leather loops 5 or the like. The upper two 50 compartments 6, 7, are constructed in accordance with my invention. Each of these is a complete box or container in itself and two dimensions of each fit the depth and width respectively of the main tray 2.

_ The compartment 6 is pivoted to the two sides of the main tray at 8, that is to say at the two forward lower corners, so that it may be tipped out at will into the position shown in Fig. 2. It is supported in this outward position by the flexible tape or cord 9, CO

The drawer 10, slides in the upper part of the container 6, and the depth of the drawer from front to back is thus practically equal to the vertical depth of said container when tipped back into the.closed position shown in 65 Fig. 3.

The compartment 7 is supported in the same manner as 6, the tape 9 being shown in dotted lines in Fig. 2. This container differs, however, from 6 in having no drawer. 70

In order not to jam at the top, each container 6, 7, has a slanting top as shown. Consequently container 6 will not find a bearing on the top of 7 and therefore I prefer to provide ears 11 on the sides of the con- 75 tainer 6 which act as stops to prevent the container from being pushed in too far when closed.

In Figs. 4 and 5 are shown a modified form of stop which retains or supports the con- 80 tainer both when pulled open and when pushed back. This takes the form of a substitute for each pivot 8. Instead of a plain rivet, bolt or pin, I employ a bent bar 12 having a rounded portion upon which the side of 85 the container may turn. One portion of each bar 12 is turned vertically, as shown, the whole bar being fixed, immovably in the side of the tray. In this position the back of the container comes against the upright 90 bar 12 when the container is drawn forward, and is thus supported in this position. At the same time, in the closed position the container is supported by the bottom coming in contact with the same bar. 95

It will be seen that, by the use of this invention a much greater horizontal capacity is available in drawers and containers for trunks than is had where these simply pull in and out on horizontal supports. In the 100 latter case only the horizontal depth of the swinging tray is available, while in my improved device, the drawer or box may be made much deeper than this from front to back, because, when closed within the main 105 tray or swinging support, as shown at 7, this dimension assumes a vertical position and can therefore be easily accommodated by the swinging tray whose longest dimension is vertical. 110

The importance of a maximum space from front to back in a drawer of limited width

898,549 within a trunk, is found in being able to reduce the vertical depth for a given total capacity, so that articles are not piled on each other as much as they must be where the vertical depth is greater. Moreover certain articles can be packed flat without folding, where the drawer or box is deep enough.