US1093021A - Freight-car ladder. - Google Patents

Description

W. E. WILLIAMS.

FREIGHT OAR LADDER.

APPLICATION FILED NOV. 2a, 1913.

1,093,021 Patented Apr,14, 1914.

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WILLIAM ERASTUS WILLIAMS, OF CHICAGO, ILLINOIS.

FREIGHT-CAR LADDER.

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Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented Apr. 14-, 1914.

Application filed November 28, 1913. Serial No. 803,481.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, WILLIAM Enas'rns WILLIAMs, a citizen of the United States, residing at Chicago, in the county of Cook and State of Illinois, have invented a new and useful Improvement in Freight-Car Ladders, of which the following is a specifioation.

The general objects of this invention are to provide a very light inexpensive ladder which offers unusual resistance to injury by strains applied in any direction and which is scarcely weakened by long exposure and never corroded in such manner as to have concealed weak points.

In the drawings, Figure 1 is aperspective view of a portion of a car provided with my devices. Figs. 2 and 3 are, respectively, views showing horizontal and vertical sections of the ladder. Figs. 4 and 5 are views analogous, respectively, to Figs. 2 and 3 but showing a modified construction.

In its preferred form, shown in Figs. 1, 2, 3, the ladder has each stile made up of two round rods 2, 8, and the four rods are connected by round rod rungs 4, 5, each bent inwardly near its ends so that each consists of a straight body portion having at each end a short leg or branch, and the legs of the rungs 5 are provided with terminal eyes 6 which are bolted to the car 1. As shown, the legs of the other rungs, 4:, do not reach the car wall and lack the terminal eyes. As indicated in Fig. 2, the stile rods 2, one on each side of the ladder, are welded at 8 to each rung between its legs or bends, while the rods 3 are welded to the legs or branches as indicated at 7, between the bend and the car, the stile rods and many rungs thus forming a sort of side swipe-resisting beam having a depth indicated at 9, and a beam having a depth indicated at 10 and offering great resistance to strains trans verse to the plane of the car wall. The great rigidity secured by this construction depends upon welding or integrally connecting the parts, since the slight yielding practically unavoidable with other unions is, although slight, suflicient to make such a light ladder yielding or flimsy in character. This construction, then, combines as does no ordinary construction, lightness, rigidity, strength and low cost, which are of controlling importance, practically. It may be noted, also, that besides affording no joints within which rust may work concealed injury and ultimately lead to accident, the ladder has no sharp angles to injure the hands, nor portions likely to catch clothing or the like.

Figs. 4 ando show the stile members as consisting of channel iron 11 having flanges 12, 13 welded to the rungs 14, thus giving some of the advantages of the preferred construction. In both forms, the parts are united by welding small areas at materially separated points, so that welding at any point cannot injure the weld at any other point-, a matter of considerable importance, practic-ally.

IVhat I claim is:

1. A ladder composed of two stile pieces on each side all integrally connected by rungs each inwardly bent at each end, one of said stile pieces on each side being united to the inwardly bent portions of the rungs and the other to the port-ions between the bends.

2. A ladder having on each side two stile pieces one integrally united to inwardly bent end portions of a series of rungs and the other similarly united to the rungs between the inwardly bent portions, the inwardly bent ends of some of the rungs being provided with eyes for attaching them to a wall.

In witness whereof, I have hereunto sub scribed my name on this 13th day of November, 1913, in the presence of two subscribing witnesses.

WILLIAM ERASTUS WILLIAMS.

lVitnesses N. M. Hynancnn, I-Iownnn M. KnnrE.

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

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