US1093624A - Mail-bag catcher and deliverer. - Google Patents

Description

A. A. HERTHER.

MAIL BAG GATGHBB AND DELIVERER.

APPLICATION FILED 111:0 so, 1912.

1,093,624; Patented Apr. 21, 1914.

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ATTORNEY A. A. HERTHBR.

MAIL BAG GATGHBR AND DELIVERER.

APPLICATION FILED mo. 30, 1912.

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' ran STATES PATENT OFFICE.

AUGUST A. HERTHER, OF INDIANAPOLIS, INDIANA.

MAIL-BAG CATCI-IER AND DELIVERER.

To all whom it may concern 7 Be it known that LAUGUST A. Hnn'rrrnn, a citizen of the United States, and a resident of Indianapolis, county of Marion, and State of Indiana, have invented a certain new and useful Mail-Bag Catcher and Deliverer; and I do hereby declare that the following is a full, clear, and exact description thereof, reference being had to the accompanying drawings, in which like letters refer to like parts.

The object of this invention is to improve a construction of mail bag catching and delivering apparatus so that the mail will operate reliably and accurately and without injury to the difierent parts of the apparatus or the mail. bag and the mail in the bag.

One feature of the invention consists in providing guiding means in connection with arms on a car and the sides of the railway, which carry the bag holding means arranged so that the two sets of arms or bag holding means will maintain the proper vertical relation to each other so that the bag will be properly caught or delivered. And for apparatus of the sort intended to deliver one bag while another is receiving, there are provided two arms extending from the car and two from a post beside the railway, each arm carrying proper bag holding means, and guides on one set of said arms and cushions on the other for engaging each other, whereby the pair of arms extending from the car will always pass between the pair of arms extending from the post and avoid collision between the parts and cause also a proper vertical relation between the bag holding devices.

The nature of the invention will be understood from the accompanying drawings and the following description and claims:

In the drawings, Figure 1 is a side elevation of a railway mail car with one end broken away and also of a mail bag receiving and delivering post beside the railway, the parts being shown in their position just previous to the delivery and receipt of some bags. Fig. 2 is the same just after the receipt and delivery of mail bags. Fig. 3 is a vertical transverse section through the car, and the side elevation of the apparatus on the car and beside the railway at the time of the receipt and delivery of the bags, a portion of the car being broken away. Fig. 4: is a plan View of Fi 1. Fig. 5 is a side elevation on an enlarged scale of a portion of Specification of Letters Patent.

Application filed December 30, 1912.

Patented Apr. 21, 1914.

Serial No. 739,298.

what is shown in Fig. 3 with the mail bag delivered and other parts broken away. Fig. 6 is a section on the line 66 of Fig. 5. Fig. 7 is a perspective view of a pair of the bag catching and delivering fingers.

In the drawings a railway 10 is shown with'a mail car 11 traveling thereon and beside the railway there is a post 12 with an apparatus thereon for the receipt and delivery of mail bags 14 and 15 and in the car there is a post 13 for the receipt and delivery of mail bags.

The apparatus in the mail car will be first described.

The post 13 is mounted in and near the door 16 of the mail car so as to be oscillatory. There is a mail delivery arm 17, a mail receiving arm 18 and a mail bag holding arm 19 secured to the post 13 and when desired to be used, the post is turned sothat these arms will project outwardly as in Fig. 3, but at other times the arms are turned around in the car against the side wall and out of the way as much as possible. Thesearins are rigid, although the arms 17 and 18 are made up of a plurality of pieces, as shown in Fig. 5, but not necessarily so, and the arms 17 and 18 extend out forequal distances and they are supplemented by bars 20 and 21 which are loosely mounted on a pair of parallel vertical rods 22 secured in the outer ends of the arms 17 and 18 and the bar 20 is held down and the bar 21 is held up by spiral springs 23 and 2 1- which surrounds the rods 22 and, therefore, there are two pairs of springs 23 and two pairs of springs 24 separated by a block 25 slidable on said rods and whereby the springs are equalized. The block 25 is also used for holding the arms 17 and 18 in their outer positions, as a brace 26 is pivoted to said block 25 and its inner end is downwardly turned so as to be insertible in a pocket 27 secured to the side of the car. When the apparatus is turned around in the car and not in use, the brace 26 hangs down idle, but when the apparatus is turned around in the positions shown in Figs. 1 and 2, the lower end of the brace is inserted in the pocket 27. Therefore, the bars 20 and 21 are parallel and opposite each other exactly and are spring held in place on the rods 22. The upper bar 21 has a pair of spring bag catching fingers 30 which project forwardlyso as to catch a bag on the post The bar 20 below has a pair of spring bag delivering fingers 31 projecting rearwardly and under the bar 20 and on top of bar 21 there are cushions 32. This consti tutes the construction of the apparatus on the car and the details of the pairs of bag holding and receiving fingers will be hereafter explained.

The post 12 has arms and 36 parallel and projecting toward the railway. They are the same length and are braced by braces 37. The lower arm 35 has, as seen in Fig. 1, a pair of spring bag catching fingers 38 extending in one direction parallel with the railway, and the upper arm 36 has asimilar pairof bag delivering fingers 39 projecting in the opposite direction from the fingers 38. The spring fingers 38 and 39 are similar to the spring fingers 30 and 31 and each consists of a pair of spring bars secured fixedly at their inner ends, as shown in Fig. 4, and then bowed outwardly so as to make a grasping or bag holding portion and then they are flared or spread outwardly to make receiving fingers. A bag entering between the fingers will be moved to the throat thereof where they are contracted and the momentum of the bag will force the bag betweenthe spring fingers into the oval recess and bag holding portion of the fingers. These fingers are just the same for bag deliverers as they are for bag receivers, because they permit the bag to be readily drawn out of the spring fingers as well as delivered to the same.

The lateral flare of the spring fingers 33 enable them to catch the bags or deliver the bags with reliability although the bags might not meet the pair of fingers centrally. It is more important, however, that these fingers catch the bag at the right point on the bag, and the registry of parts to accomplish this action is caused by the bevel bars 40 and 41. These bars extend parallel with the railway track and are secured to the underside andthe upper side, respectively, of the two arms 36 and 35 and they are formed of boards a few feet long and the lower corners at the ends are beveled or curved so that as the car passes the pair of bars 30 and 31 on the arms 17 and 18 and the cushions 32 on the bars 20 and 21, will pass between the two bars 40 and 11, and by reason of said bars 10 and 41 having theirends beveled, this action will take place whether the arms extending from the car are exactly at the right elevation or not. In other words, this arrangement of the bars 40 and 4:1 permits the mechanism on the car to pass between them regardless of the rocking of the car or ordinary variations in movement or in the workmanship of the parts. Anclwhen the bars 20 and 21 from the car pass between the bars 10 and 41, a limited relationship vertically will be established between the bag holding fingers,

so that the bags will be caught at substan tially the right point on the bags so as not to injure the contents and to cause the bag to be held when it is caught. In the drawings herein the parts are arranged to catch the bags when near their upper ends, but they might be arranged to catch the bag in the middle when the middle is contracted, as is often the case. In any event, the parts just described will maintain the proper relationship of the coiiperating pairs of receiving and delivering fingers or bag holders, so as to cause the apparatus to work with accuracy and success and prevent collision between the bars 20 and 21 and arms and 36.

In Fig. 1 the car is approaching the post beside the railway and the car apparatus has a bag let on the pair of fingers 31 in position for delivery. The post has a bag 15 on the fingers 39 in position to be received. As the car advances. the fingers 30 on the car apparatus will pick up the bag held by the fingers 30 on the post, and the fingers 38 on the post will catch the bag on the fingers 39 of the car apparatus, as shown in Fig. 2. Then the brace 26 at the side of the car is released and the car apparatus is turned into the car and the bag removed. It may be noted that the means for receiving the bags are always located slightly below the means for delivering the bags, but as the momentum of the lower part of the bag is slightly greater than that of the upper part of the bag, as shown, the bag enters the receiving fingers obliquely so that by the time it gets into the inner and holding part thereof, the receiving fingers will be holding the bag at about the same point thereof at which the delivering lingers had held the bag.

I claim as my invention:

1. A mail bag delivering and catching apparatus including a mail bag catching and delivering device on a car, a mail bag catching and delivering device mounted beside the railway in position to cooperate with the means on the car, a guide board on the bag catching and delivering means beside. the railway and extending parallel with the railway, the ends of said guide board being beveled, and a cushion on the bag catching and delivering means on the car in position to engage said guide board as the car passes.

52. A mail bag delivering and catching apparatus including a mail bag catching and delivering device on a car, a mail bag catching and delivering device mounted beside the railway in position to cooperate with the means on the car, a guide board on the bag catching and delivering means beside the railway and extending parallel with the railway, the ends of said guide board being beveled, a cushion on the bag catching and delivering means on the car in position to engage said guide board as the car passes, and means for mounting the bag catching and delivering means on the car so that they will yield vertically.

8. A mail bag catching and delivering apparatus including a plurality of bag holding and catching means on a car, a plurality of bag holding and catching means mounted beside the railway and between which said means on the car are adapted to pass, a guide board on the upper side of one of said bag catching and delivering means beside the railway, a similar guideway on the underside of the other bag catching and delivering means beside the railway, a cushion on each of the bag catching and delivering means from the car in position to engage said guide boards, and means for rendering the bag catching and delivering means on the car vertically yieldable.

45. A mail bag catching and delivering apparatus including a pair of vertical yieldable bars mounted in connection with a railway car, one of said bars being above the other, bag catching and holding means projecting laterally from one of said bars in one direction, a bag catching and holding means projecting laterally from the other one of said bars in the opposite direction, a pair of arms mounted beside the railway and be tween which said bars are adapted to pass, bag catching and holding means on each of said arms which extend in directions opposite to the corresponding bag catching and delivering means mounted on the car, and means for controlling the vertical relationship of the cooperating bag catching and holding means.

5. A mail bag catching and delivering apparatus including a pair of vertical yieldable bars mounted in connection with a railway car, one of said bars being above the other, bag catching and holding means projecting laterally from one of said bars in one direction, a bag catching and holding means projecting laterally from the other one of said bars in the opposite direction, a pair of arms mounted beside the railway and between which said bars are adapted to pass, bag catching and holding means on each of said arms which extend in directions opposite to the corresponding bag catching and delivering means mounted on the car, cushions on said bars, and guide boards on said arms and parallel with the railway and in position to be engaged by said cushions as the car passes. I

6. A mail bag catching and delivering apparatus including a pair of arms adapted to project from a railway car, one above the other, a pair of vertical rods secured to the outer ends of said arms, a bar loosely mounted on the lower portion of said rods, another bar loosely mounted on the upper portion of said rods, springs on said rods pressing against said bars, oppositely extending means on said bars for catching and holding the bags, cushions on said bars, a pair of arms mounted beside the railway between which said arms may pass, means on said arms for catching and holding bags which project in directions opposite to the corre' sponding bag catching and holding means on said bars, and guide boards on said arms adapted to be engaged by said cushions, whereby the bars will be spring held in place and yieldably mounted.

7. A mail bag catching and delivering apparatus including a pair of arms adapted to project from a railway car, one above the other, a pair of vertical rods secured to the outer ends of said arms, a bar loosely mounted on the lower portion of said rods, another bar loosely mounted on the upper portion of said rods, a sliding block on said rods, springs on said rods both above and below said sliding block for holding said arms in position, a brace connected with said block for bracing the device to the side of the car, oppositely extending means on said bars for catching and holding bags, cushions on said bars, a pair of arms mounted beside the railway between which said arms may pass, means on said arms for catching and holding bags which project in directions opposite to the corresponding bag catching and holding means on said bars, and guide boards on said arms adapted to be engaged by said cushions, whereby the bars will be spring held in place and yieldably mounted.

In witness whereof, I have hereunto atfixed my signature in the presence of the witnesses herein named.

AUGUST A. HE'RTHER.

Witnesses O. M. MCLAUGHLIN, V. H. LOOKWOOD.

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

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