US1091652A - Folding gate. - Google Patents

Description

I. E. HALL.

FOLDING GATE.

APPLICATION FILED MAY 13, 1913.

1,091,652. Patented Mar. 31, 1914.

UNTTED STATES PATENT! ()FFICE.

IBVIN E. HALL, OF CORVALLIS, OREGON.

FOLDING GATE.

Application filed May 13, 1913.

To all 10710122, it may concern Be it known that I, InvIN E. I'IALL, citizen of the United States, residing at Corvallis, in the county of Benton and State of Oregon, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Folding Gates, of which the following is a specification.

This invention relates to foldable closures which may be employed in a gateway opening, a door opening, or the like, and has for one of its objects to simplify the construction and improve the efficiency and utility of devices of this character.

Another object of the invention is to provide a simply constructed device wherein means are provided for preventing injury to the hands of the operator in opening and closing the device.

Another object of the invention is to provide a simply constructed device which may be readily adapted without material structural change to doors, gateway openings or the like of different widths.

Another object of the invention is to provide a simply constructed device which may be turned out of the way when not in use so that it does not obstruct the doorway opening.

Another object of the invention is to provide a. device of this character so constructed that it will be held at any point of elevation and thus control the size of opening.

\Vith these and other objects in view the invention consists in certain novel features of construction as hereinafter shown and de scribed and then specifically pointed out in the claims.

The improved device may be applied to gateway openings, doorway openings, or the like, but for the purpose of illustration is shown applied to a conventional doorway opening to which the device is more particularly applicable, and in the drawings thus employed.

Figure l is an elevation of a doorway opening including the frame and easing with the device in closed position. Fig. 2 is a view similar to Fig. 1 showing the improved attachment in open or elevated posit-ion. Fig. 3 is an enlarged transverse section 011 the line 33 of Fig. 1.

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 side members of the door frame are Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented Mar. 31, 1914.

Serial No. 767,404.

represented conventionally at 1011, sill at 12. and the casings at 13-1 l.

The confronting faces of the door frame 10 are formed with rabbets in step-like order as shown, the object to be hereafter explained.

The improved device comprises side members or stiles 16-47 and rails or bars 19 pivoted at their ends to the members 1617 and spaced at uniform distances apart, one half of the rails being pivoted to the members 16-l7 at one side thereof and the other half pivoted to the stiles at the other side, as shown. One of the stiles, for instance the stile 17, is hingedly connected at 20-21 to the frame 11, the hinges having their pintles located at some distance from the face of the frame, so that when the member 17 is disposed in open position, as shown in Fig. 2,

the member 17 will be located at some dis tance from the adjacent face of the frame to leave room for the bars 19 which are attached to the outer face of the member 17. By this means the member 17 is held away from the face of the frame a distance equal to the thickness of the bars 19. The stile 16 is designed to bear against the edge of the frame member 10 and within one of the rabbets thereof when the device is in closed position while the inner rails bear within another of the rabbets, as shown in Figs. 1 and 2, and to prevent the displacement of the member 16 catches are arranged upon the inner face of the frame 10 to receive the member 16 and hold it in position. These catches are each formed from a plate of sheet metal, preferably circular, bent into trough-like shape having sides of unequal width with a short side 22 and a long side 23.

The trough-like catches form seats to receive the stile member 16 of the closure when the latter is in its downward or closed posit-ion, as represented in Figs. 1 and 3, and by forming the inner side of each catch wider than the outer side the stile is more readily guided into the seat, as the rear face of the stile 16 engages against the rearward wider sides of the catches when partly closed, the wider sides thus forming guides to facilitate the entrance of the stile 16 into its seat. This is an important feature of applicants device and materially increases its efliciency and utility. Attached to one or more of the bars 19 is a stop 25 which engages against the neXt bar above when the device is in open position, as represented in Fig. 2, and thus prevents the bars from closing in close proximity and thus obviates danger of catching the fingers of the operator between the bars. This is also an important feature of applicants device and materially increases its efiiciency and utility.

The bars 19 are pivoted, as before stated, to the stile members 16 17, the pivots being represented at 26 and formed of screws, rivets or other like devices. Surrounding each of the pivots 26 between the bars 19 and the stile members are washers 27 of leather or like material against which the bars 19 are compressed when the pivots 26 are set up and thus produce a. sufiicient degree of friction'between the bars and the stiles to retard the movement and cause the device to be retained at any point to which it is elevated, while at the same time permit its ready movement when a suflicient degree of force is applied. Thus the gate device may be partly opened and remain in its partially open posit-ion through the friction imparted between the washers and the bars and stiles. This is an important feature of applicants device, and causes the stile 16 and the bars 19' to be retained intheir elevated position without the necessity of applying catches or other holding means. By hinging the stile 17 to the door frame the whole device may be turned to one side when in elevated position, and thus be out of the way and form no obstruction to the passage through the doorway opening.

The stile 17 is shorter than the stile 16 so that the lower end of the stile 16 is spaced a considerable distance above the sill 12 to provide space for the broom when sweeping, and thus'facilitate the sweeping operation.

The improved device will be found of great advantage for partly closing doorway openings to prevent small children from passing from one room to another, or from passing through open doors which lead to stairways or the like. When the device is employed for a doorway opening the bars 19 will be provided with surplus openings 28 spaced from the openings for the pivots 26 so that the device may be readily applied to doors of different widths. For instance, the device will be constructed for an ordinary doorway opening of two feet eight inches wide and the surplus apertures 28 located two inches from the openings for the pivots 26 to accommodate the bars to a door of two feet six inches wide, or other dimensions, as may be preferred, and the device will be furnished to the trade with the bars arranged for doors two feet eight inches wide, and if required, for a door of smaller width, the pivots 26 will be detached and located in the openings 28, the surplus lengths of the bars being cut off as required. By this means the utility of the device is materially increased.

Havingthus described the invention, what is claimed as new is:

1. A device of the class described comprising side members, rails spaced apart and piv' ot'ed at the ends to said side members, elastic elements surrounding the pivots between the rails and the side members, and means for compressing the side members and rails against the elastic elements.

2. A device of the class described comprising side members, rails spaced apart and piv oted at the ends to said side members, a stop carried by one of said rails and engaging against another of the rails when the same are disposed in elevated position to limit the movement and prevent the rails from engaging against each other.

3. The combination with a supporting frame including side members having their confronting faces each formed into a plurality of rabbets arranged in step-like order, a closure including side members and connecting rails pivotally united, the side members of the closure engaging in one set of the rabbets and the ends of the rails engaging another set of the rabbets.

4. In a device of the class described, sides and rails spaced apart and pivotally united, one of said sides being shorter than the other side and adapted to be connected to a support and spaced at its lower end fro-1n the floor to. provide for sweeping beneath the shorter side member.

5. The combination with a door frame including the side members and the, sill, of a closure comprising sidemembers and rails spaced apart and pivotally united, one of said closure side members being shorter than the other and adapted to be connected to one of the sides of the door frame and spaced at the lower end from the sill.

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

IRVIN E. HALL. [L.S.]

lVitnesses:

MYRTLE BURNAP, E. E. WILSON.

Goplee of thin patent may be obtained for five cents each, by addressing the Commissioner of .Patents, Washington, D. G.

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