Spring biased door stop having a vertically movable tension member

A door stop for selectively preventing swinging movement of a door in one direction comprising a base adapted to be engaged with the face of a door which faces the direction of movement and adjacent the lower edge thereof, a prop member, means pivotally connecting the upper end of the prop member to the base for pivotal movement about a generally horizontal axis, means on the lower end of said prop member for engaging a floor surface when the prop member is in operative position approaching parallelism with the face of the door, the length of the prop member being slightly greater than the vertical distance between the floor and said axis, means in operative relationship with said base and with said prop member for biasing said prop member to an inoperative position with the lower end of said prop member spaced from the floor, and means interconnecting the base and prop member in spaced relation to said pivot axis for limiting movement of said prop member toward said inoperative position, said limiting means including a retainer vertically movable with respect to said prop member and base to enable unrestricted pivotal movement of said prop member toward said operative position, said retainer being gravitationally moved vertically to various positions to prevent movement of said prop member toward said inoperative position after movement of said prop member toward said operative position, wherein said base defines a vertically disposed slot, said prop member defining a longitudinal slot aligned with said slot in said base, said retainer comprising an elongated curved rigid member having a concave portion thereof oriented toward said pivot axis, said rigid member extending through and slidably received in said slots, each end of said rigid member being laterally enlarged to prevent movement through the slots while permitting free sliding movement of said rigid member in relation to said slots, the length of said rigid member is moved upwardly in said slots toward said pivot axis, said rigid member falling by gravity away from said pivot axis as said prop member swings toward said operative position until the lower end of said prop member contacts the floor, said rigid member automatically and positively retaining said prop member in any position to which it is moved when the lower end of said prop member contacts the floor with said prop member in acute angular relation to the face of the door thereby preventing movement of the door in one direction until said rigid member is moved toward said pivot axis.