US1128365A - Protector for freight-car doors. - Google Patents

Description

L; ROTHHOLZ. PROTECTOR FOR FREIGHT GAR DO0RS.'

nruomxon FILED 51113.13, 1914.

1,128,365. Patented Feb. 16, 1915.

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L. ROTHHOLZ.

PROTECTOR FOR FREIGHT CAR DOORS. APPLICATION FILED JAN. 13, 1914.

1,128,365, Patented Feb. 16, 1915.

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Application filed January 13, 1914. Serial No. 811,886.

To all whom it may concern I Be it known that I, LOUIS ROTHHOLZ, a citizen of the United States, residing at New York, Bronx county, and State of New York, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Protectors for Freight-Car Doors, of which the following is a full, clear, and exact specification.

This invention relates to a device for protecting railway freight car doors from being opened without authority. It has been found that car robbers secrete themselves beneath the cars and when the train gets out on the road, they climb out and open the car doors, enter and throw out valuable goods at places where their confederates are stationed.

It is the object of this invention to prevent these robberies.

When a robber climbs out from under a car in motion and attempts to break the seal on the door, itis necessary for him to hold on with one hand so that only one hand is free to manipulate the seal and afterward open the door. This fact is taken into consideration in devising the present invention, and apparatus is provided which requires the simultaneous operation by both hands to open the door, or rather to release the door in order that it may be opened. As a further precaution an alarm may be provided which will be sounded automatically when the door is released.

The invention will be hereinafter described in connection with the accompanying drawings, which constitute a partof this specification, and then more specifically defined in the claims at the end of the description.

In the accompanylng drawings, wherein similar reference characters are used throughout the several views to designate corresponding parts :Figure 1 is a side elevation of a freight car showing my invention applied thereto. Fig. 2 is an enlarged detail view of the protector and alarm, the covers of the lever box and alarm box being removed. Fig. 3 is a horizontal section of the lever box. Fig. 4 is a detail plan view of the keeper or eye-plate on the car door, and Fig. 5 is a detail side elevation of the hook for supporting the operating lever in its box.

Referring more particularly to the drawings, A designates a freight car of ordinary construction and having the usual sliding Specificationof Letters Patent. Patented Feb. 16, 1915. 7

door '13. .Mounted on the door. is a keeper or locking member 8 which is rigidly secured a to and adapted to move vertically with a rod 9 guided in brackets 10 fastened to the side of the car. One end of this rod, preferably the lower end, as shown, is extended into abox 11 and pivotally attached in said box to an operating lever 12 which is pivoted at 13, whereby the swinging of the lever down by grasping the handle 14 thereof willjmove the rod 9 and locking member 8 upwardly and remove the bent end 7 of said locking member from the keeper 6. In locked position, the lever 12 is normally retained by a hook 15, so that access must be had to the interior of the box 11 before the car door can be unlocked.

The box 11 is protected by a cover 16,. Figs. 1 and 3, which is normallyretained on the box so as to prevent access to the lever 12 by a pair of oppositely extending sliding bolts 17, 17. Each of these bolts is pivotally attached to an intermediatelv pivoted lever 18, the free ends of which are connected together by a spring 19 which tends to hold both bolts in locked position. These bolts are guided in lugs 20 on the cover 16 and are designed to interlock with lugs 21 on the box, as best shown in Fig. 3. It will be observed that by reason of the arrangement of these bolts as shown. it will be necessary for the spring-attached ends of both of the levers 18 to be simultaneously swung in opposite directionsin order to permit of the removal of the cover 16 for access to the operating lever 12 before the car door can be released, and that this simultaneous operation or actuation of the two bolts cannot be effected with one hand, which is all the robber has to work with, the other being necessarily occupied with holding on to or supporting himself from the car as already explained.

The other end of the rod 9 extends into an alarm box 22 also secured to the face of the car and provided with a perforated cover 23, Figs. 1 and 2. WVithin said box 32 may be mounted a gong 24 having sounding mechanism 25 arranged in the path of the rod 9, whereby an upward movement of said rod, as is necessary in order to release the door, will cause the alarm to be sounded. The rod 9 may be formed with a series of knobs 25 spaced apart like rack teeth, and

the clapper 26 may be mounted on a pivoted arm 27 which is pressed into contact with said knobs by a spring 28, the operation being obvious. Thus it Will be seen that the door is protected from being released by a robber as explained, and in the event of unauthorized access being had to the operating lever, the door can not be released without sounding the alarm.

Having thus described my invention, what I claim as new and desire to secure by Letters Patent of the United States is 1. A protector for inclosures of the character described, comprising a cover for the inclosure, a pair of oppositely sliding bolts for locking the cover on the inclosure, separate means for actuating said bolts,- and resilient means connecting said bolt actuating means for normally and yieldingly holding said bolts in locked position.

2. A protector for inclosures of the character described, comprising a cover for the inclosure, a pair of oppositely sliding bolts for locking the cover on the inclosure, a pair of intermediately pivoted levers, each having one end attached to one of said bolts, and resilient means connecting the free ends of said levers.

In testimony whereof I have signed my name to this specification in the presence of two attesting witnesses.

LOUIS ROTHHOLZ.

Witnesses WM. M. CHRISTIE, F. V. WINTERs.

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

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