Foldable support

Claim 1

A foldable support, comprising: an elongated vertical housing adapted to be mounted on a vertical wall and having a channel-shaped transverse cross-section formed by a pair of transversely spaced vertical flanges separated by an intermediate vertical web having a forwardly facing planar surface, said flanges and web defining an elongated recess therebetween, each of said flanges being vertically tapered such that its horizontal depth decreases with height above the bottom of said housing, each of said flanges being provided with a transversely extending through opening at a lower portion thereof; and an arm having one end portion pivotally mounted on said housing and having another portion continuing outwardly therefrom to the distal end of said arm, said arm being adapted to be selectively moved between a raised position at which said arm is received in said recess, and a lowered position at which said arm projects horizontally outwardly from said housing, said arm one end portion having a substantially U-shaped transverse cross-section terminating in a planar end face surface and having a trunnion extending transversely outwardly from each parallel leg of said one end portion, each of said trunnions having a cylindrical surface tangential to both the end face and the upper surface of its associated leg, said arm being complementarily tapered with said housing flanges to enable said arm to be moved through an arc greater than ninety degrees, whereby, when said arm is in said lowered position, the entire end face surface of said arm one end portion engages said housing web surface for distributing the force exerted by said housing on said arm end face to resist the moment of an object hanging from said arm other portion.