US1191589A - Combined milk and mail box. - Google Patents

Description

A. GUTOWSKI & T. S. BLAZUCKI.

COMBINED MILK AND MAH. BOX.

APPLICATION FILED MAR. at. 1916.

Patented July 18, 1916.

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COMBINED MILK AND MAIL BOX.

Specification of Letters Patent.

Application filed March 31, 1916. Serial No. 87,899.

Toall whom it may concern Be it known that we, ANTHONY GUTOWSKI and THADDEUS S. BLAZUCKI, citizens of the United States, residing at Detroit, county of Wayne, State of Michigan, have invented a certain new and useful Improvement in Combined Milk and Mail Boxes, and declare the following to be a full, clear, and exact description of the same, such as will enable others skilled in the art to which it pertains to make and use the same, reference being had to the accompanying drawings, which form a part of this specification.

This invention relates to combined milk and mail boxes. It is constructed to operate as a container for either milk or mail, but the invention is especially capable of use as a container for articles that have some weight, such as a bottle of milk. When so used, it automatically locks itself when an article of this character is placed within it. Automatic locking containers of this kind are not broadly new. Our invention as regards the milk container, considered apart from the combined mail box and milk container, inheres in the mechanism for automatically locking the door through which the article is placed and also in the double arrangement of latches, one of which is trapped when the locking mechanism is put into operative position by the weight of the article. These features will more fully appear in the description.

In the drawings, Figure 1 is a front elevation, the door being open. Fig; 2 is a vertical section. Fig. 3 is a section dkthe outside-controllable latch. Fig. 4 is a sec tion of the latch adapted to be trapped by the automatic locking mechanism.

a indicates the casing which may be of various conformations and which is provided at the top with a lid 6 provided with a lock 0, and this lid is ordinarily kept locked. At the front a door (Z is supported upon hinges and is provided with an outside latch e and an inside latch g. The outside latch can be operated from the outside .by theknob h, but the inside latch is trapped to lock the door when the hook z is drawn down in registry with the opening 3' in the door jamb. This hook is dropped down in registry with the opening in the door jamb .by the depression of the platform is. This elbow reciprocate vertically in the housing n on the lnslde of the casing a. The plat form is normally held in its upward position within the casing or any other, article of Patented July 18, 1916.

similar weight, the platform is is depressed as shown in the dotted lines of Fig. 2. Consequently the hook 11 drops down across the opening j. The cam :12 serves to throw the hook over against the inside of the doorjamb and hold it there. Hence, when the delivery man slams the doorg shut, the inner latch g is trapped behind the hook i.

Consequently the doorcannot be opened and the contents of the casing can only be taken out by using a key and lifting the lid 6. Of course, when the article is removed from the platform, the hook i is withdrawn from the opening in the jamb and when the door is again grasped, the outside latch may be removed by the knob h and the inside latch is not trapped but passes freely through the opening j in the jamb. This container may very nicely be also used as a mail box without materially enlarging itscubical capacity. The lid is provided with a slot p ordmarily covered by a small hinged cover 9. Through this slot the mail may be dropped, and inmilk and mail box is that either compartment can be enlarged at the expense of the other compartment when necessary, and consequently the entire container does not have to be as large as if it were simply a case of a box for one kind of articles added to a box for another kind of articles. By the use of the swinging partition 1' which is ordinarily kept, in the position shown in the full lines by the spring 8, the milk compartment may be enlarged as shown in the dotted lines of Fig. 2'." Th milk bottle will push the partition 1' back to the position shown in the dotted lines, but it will never push it back so far as to bring the partition under or to the rear ofthe slot 79 so that the mail will drop into the milk compartment. To prevent the milk bottle from so doing, a stop strip at is attached to the platform so that the bottle can never be shoved any farther than this strip, which will not be far enough to push the swinging partition 7" beyond the mail slot 7). The spring u is used at the hinges of the lid 1) to prevent a too sudden and noisy drop ot'the lid.

Whatwe claim is:

1. An automatic locking receptacle, having in combination, a casing'provided with a hinged lid and a swinging door at the side, means for locking the lid, an outside-controlled latch on the swinging door, a second latch unsusceptible to control from the outside adapted to swing through an opening in the jamb, and a latch trap adapted to be drawn across the opening in the jamb by the weight of an article inserted in the cas 5. An automatic locking receptacle, having in combination, a caslng provided with a lid and with a swinging'door," means for locking the lid, anoutside-controlled latch, a second latch unsusceptible to outside control, a hookadapted to be drawn down in menses the path of the second latch to trap the same, a movable platform normally raised, and connections between the swinging platform and the hook to draw the hook down to trap the second latch when an article rests upon the platform.

3. An automatic locking receptacle, having in combination, a casing provided with a lid, means for locking the lid, a swinging cation.

ANTHONY GUTOWSKI. THADDEUS S. BLAZUCKI.

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