US1026338A - Signal attachment for letter-boxes. - Google Patents

Description

Patented May 14, 1912.

2 SHEETS-SHEET 1.

C. BAILEY.

APPLIUATION FILED 11110.10, 1910.

SIGNAL ATTACHMENT FOR LETTER BOXES. 1,026,338.

S z @l w COLUMBIA PLANoaRAPn co.. WASHINGTON. D. c.

0. BAILEY.

SIGNAL ATTACHMENT FOR LETTER BOXES.

3 SHEETS-SHEET 2.

UNITED PATENT OFFICE.

CLARK BAILEY, or UTICA, NEW YORK, AssIGNoR To LEWIs J. SMALL, 0F UTICA, NEW YORK.

SIGNAL ATTACHMENT FOR LETTER-BOXES.

Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented May 14, 1912.

To all whom t may concern Be it known that I, CLARK BMLEY, citi- Zen of the United States, residing at Utica, in the county of Oneida and State of New York, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Signal Attachments for Letter-Boxes, of which the following is a specilication.

This invention relates to improvements in letter boxes, more particularly to boxes employed in the rural free delivery service, and has for its object to provide a simply constructed attachment whereby the act of inserting mail into the box will release an indicator which will denote that mail has been inserted into the box, and means whereby when mail is removed from the box the indicator will be withdrawn from observation. i

Vith this and other objects in view the invention consists in certain novel features of construction as hereinafter shown and described and then specifically pointed out in the claim.

The improved device may be applied without material structural changes to any of the various forms of mail boxes in which a mail inserting slot and a movable closure for the opening through which the mail is removed is employed, and for the purpose of illustration is shown applied to a conventional mail box, and in the drawings thus employed, Figure 1 is a front elevation of the improved box; Fig. 2 is a rear elevation; Fig. 3 is a section on the line 3--3 of Fig. 1; Fig. 4 is a plan View with the box in section on the line 4 4 of Fig. 2.

Corresponding and like parts are referred to in the following description and indicated in all the views of the drawings by the same reference characters.

The improved box is of the usual rectangular form and includes the front 10 and the back 11. Formed through the front 10, preferably near the upper end, is a relatively small opening or slot 12 through which the mail is inserted, and a larger opening, indicated at 13, through which the mail is removed. The smaller slot is provided with a closure 14 internally of the box and hingedly connected at its upper edge at 15. The closure 14 is thus arranged to swing inwardly when mail is deposited in the box. The larger closure 13 is provided with a door 16 hingedly united at 17 to the box near the lower end and arranged to swing outwardly. The door 16 is provided with a suitable lock, represented at 18. Located within the Inail box, and preferably attached to one of the end walls of the same is a base member 19 of vulcanite, or other similar non-conducting material, and containing a contact plate 20, and with a lever 21 pivoted at 22 to the plate and adapted when in one position to engage the contact 2() and to be detached therefrom when in another position. By this means a suitable circuit closing device is produced. The lever 21 is connected at its lower end to the lower edge of the closure 14 by a rigid arm 23, andais held yieldably in open position relative to the contact 2O by a spring 24. By this means the spring operates to maintain the closure 14 yieldably in closed position and likewise to hold the lever 21 yieldably in position disconnected from the contact 20, as shown in Fig. 3. Mounted to slide vertically through guides 25 is a bar 26 having an arm 27 at one end and carrying an indicator or target device 28, preferably containing the word Mail. The arm 26 is provided with a spring 29 operating to move the latter upwardly when released. The guides 25 are so located that when the arm 2G is in its downward position the indicator 28 will be withdrawn below the upper edge of the back 11 of the box, and will thus be concealed behind the box.

Formed through the rear or back 11 of the box is a slot 38, and extending from the bar 2G is a stop lug 31 which projects through the slot and into the interior of the box. The lug 31 bears upon the bottom of the slot 38 when the bar 26 is in its lower position, and thus limits the downward movement of the bar. Projecting from the lever 21 is another .stop lug 30 which engages with the lug 31 and thus locks the bar 26 in its lower position and against the resistance of the spring 29, and with the target concealed. The two lugs 30-31 engage each other by relatively long contiguous faces, so that no danger exists of the accidental disconnection of the parts while at the same time the lugs are readily separable when the door 14 is pushed inwardly. The connecting link 23 being rigid the movements of the parts are positive, and no danger exists of any changes taking place in the lengths of the members.

The door member 16 is connected to the bar 26 by a section of chain or bendable wire 32 which passes over a guide pulley 35. The connecting member 32 is so arranged that when the door 16 is opened the bar 26 will be drawn downwardly until the lug 31 engages beneath the stop lug 80 and thus locks the member 26 in its lower position against Athe resistance of the spring 29 and likewise maintaining the indicator 28 in concealed position behind the box.

An electrically operated signal device will preferably be connected into the improved apparatus and may be located at any desired Lpoint, and to which the conductor wires 36-37 are connected in the ordinary manner, but the signaling apparatus is not shown, as its construction is so well known. By this means so long as the member 14 is closed the lever 21 will be maintained in broken or open position, but in the event of the member 14 being actuated by the insertion of mail the circuit. will be closed through the signal and the latter sounded, thus notifying the proprietors of the box that mail has been deposited therein. The signaling will necessarily be of short duration owing to the fact that as soon as the mail drops into the box t-he spring 24 closes the member 14 and incidentally returns the lever 21 to its former position and breaks the circuit through the signal device.

The improved apparatus is simple in construction, can be inexpensively manufactured and applied without material structural changes to mail boxes of various sizes and forms and located in any position.

Having thus described the invention, what is claimed as lnew is:

The combination with a mail box having a slot through one of its walls and with an opening through which the mail is inserted, a movable closure to said opening, a bar carrying a target and movably connected to the box, a stop lug extending from said target-carrying bar and projecting through said slot, a spring operating t-o elevate said bar, an arm pivoted intermediate its ends within the box, a catch lug extending from said bar at one side of its pivot and engaging the stop lug of the target-carrying bar, and a rigid member connected to the swinging closure and to the lever at the opposite side of its pivot.

In testimony whereof, I affix my signature in presence of two witnesses.

CLARK BAILEY. [1.. s]

litnesses EDWARD W. MA'rI-inws, HENRY F. SMALL.

Copies of this patent may be obtained for five cents ea'ch, by addressing the Commissioner of Patents, Washington, D. C.

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