US1411625A - Sliding-door controller - Google Patents

Description

J. GULLAGE.

SLIDING DOOR CONTROLLER.

APPLICATION FILED MAR. 9, 1921.

1,41 1,625. Patented Apr. 4, 1922. 4 FIE-.1 1g

INVENTDH 2 44 in ATTDRNEYE UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

JOSEPH GULLAGE, OF SOMERVILLE, MASSACHUSETTS, ASSIGNOR, BY DIRECT AND MESNE ASSIGNMENTS, OF TWO-THIRDS TO FRANK F. COGGIN, OF MEDFORD, MASSA- CHUSETTS.

SLIDING-DOOR CONTROLLER.

Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented Apr. 4, 1922.

Application filed March 9, 1921. Serial No. 450,963.

To all whom it may comer-n:

Be it known that I, Josnrrr Gunmen, a citizen of the United States, residing at Somerville, in the county of Mliddlesex and State of Massachusetts, have invented new and useful Improvements in Sliding-Door Controllers, of which the following is a specification.

This invention relates to sliding doors of railway cars, and particularly to baggage, mail, express and milk cars, the door being at the side of the car and adapted to be opened and closed only from the interior of the car.

The door now used in this class of cars is usually provided with fastening means, adapted to fasten the door in only two positions, viz., fully opened and fully closed, such means being usually embodied in hooks on the door, and staples on the side of the car, and requiring manual operation, both to fasten and to release the door, no provision being made for automatically fastening the door in a partly opened position.

Serious and sometimes fatal accidents have been caused when the door is partly opened and unfastened, and a train-man is standing in the doorway, between one edge of the door and the jamb or casing, and leaning against the edge of. the door. In such a case the sudden starting or stopping of the train is liable to cause the door to move quickly toward its fully open position, and cause the trainman to fall out of the car.

Other serious accidents have been caused when the door is wide open and unfastened, and a trainman standing in the doorway leans against the jamb or casing. In such a case a sudden checking of the movement of the train causes the door, through momentum, to suddenly close against and injure the trainman. L A door ofthis character is heavy and runs easily on rolls, so that it is capable of striking a severe blow.

One object of the invention is to prevent liability of accidents from the above-mentioned. and other causes, this object being accomplished by providing a row of fixed keepers at the upper horizontal edge of the doorway, said keepers being at difli'erent distances from the vertical edges, and by providing the door with a locking bolt, guided in a vertical path and adapted to automatically engage either keeper and lock the door in any position provided for by the row of keepers.

Another object is to provide improved means for manually retracting the automatically projected bolt to unlock the door, this object being accomplished by combining with the bolt a hand lever, fulcrumed on the door and constituting a door-opening and closing handle, connections being provided between the hand lever and bolt, whereby the lever is normally maintained in a central position, and is caused to retract the bolt by a swinging movement in either direction from said position, said swinging movement belng caused by the application to the lever of the force which moves the door.

Of the accompanying drawings forming a part of this specification,-

Figure 1 is a fragmentary side elevation, looking from the interior of the car, and showing portions of one side of the car and a portion of a sliding door equipped with controlling means embodying the invention;

Figure 2 is an enlarged section on line 2-2 of Figure 1.

Figure 3 is an enlargement of a portion of Figure 1.

Figure at is an edge view of a portion of the door, and an edge view of the mechanism shown by Figure 3.

The same reference characters indicate the same parts in all of the figures.

In the preferred embodiment of the invention shown by the drawings, 12 represents an elongated horizontal member, preferably an iron bar or strip, fixed to the the upper edge of a doorway, in the side of a car, and provided with a row of keepers 13, located at different distances from the vertical edges of the doorway, one of said vertical edges being shown at 14: in Figure 1. The keepers are preferably the walls of orifices formed in the strip 12, and they are preferably spaced about six inches apart, the row extending entirely across the doorway, so that the keepers at the ends of the row are adaptedto cooperate with the-locking bolt hereinafter described, in locking the sliding door 16 fully closed, and fully open, the 1nte rmediate keepers similarly cooperating 1n locking the door at various intermediate positions. I

With the door, is suitably connected 8. locking bolt '17, which is automatically proment beinglsuch that whenthe bolt is manu ally retracted from a keeper and then released, it bears yieldingly on. the strip 12,

while the door is being moved until it reaches the nextkeeper, into which it 13, ormay be automatically projected to lock the door. The strip 12 is preferably located directly over the upper edge of the door, and the path of the bolt. is preferably between the sides of the door, as shown by Figure 2.

To manually retract the bolt I provide a rod 20, which is connected with the bolt by a connecting member 20*, extending from the rod to the bolt through a'vertically elongated slot 21, in the inner side of the door. Said member as here shown, is a bent end portion of the rod joined to the bolt, and is movable in the slot 21 to the extent required to retract the bolt. The rod and the bolt are guided in a vertical path by guides 22, fixed'to the inner side of the door in vertical alinement with each other and embracing the red, the bolt and rod being normally raised by thespring. While any suitable means may be provided for manually moving the rod to retract the bolt, I prefer the means next described. 23 represents a hand lever, fulcrumed on the door, the fulcrum being provided b a screw or bolt 24, entering a block 24, whic is fixed to the door. are provided between the rod 20 and the lever 23, whereby the lever is normally maintained by the yieldingly supported rod in the central position shown by full lines in Figure 3, and whereby the lever is caused by a swinging movement from said position to depress the rod, as shown by dotted lines in Figure 3, and thus retract the bolt, the lever being adapted to swingi in either direction from its central position. Force'ap plied manually to swing the lever from its central position may be continuedto push" the door in either direction, the swinging of the lever being limited either by the hearing or the rod portion 20 on the end of the slot 21, or by the bearing of the lmver end ofthe rod on the block 24*, so that the lever is'rigidly supported in position to move the oor. H

The said connections between the, rod and lever are preferably embodied in a pair of laterally.projectin'g'fingers on the rod,

and a pair of laterally projecting fingers 26 on the lever, loosely engaging the rod fihgerafl I "prefer to provide the', lever fi lg'e'rsli'b Witlrbent end; portions 26, b ing separably on therod fingers 25, the al' rangdifien'tbeingsuchthat when. the lever is swung from its central position, one otthe end portions '26 acts on one oi." the rod fingers 25 todepress the red, the other bent Suitable connections portion being separated from i the; other rod linger, as indicated by dotted lines in Fig;

.ure 3.-

7 It will be seen that-when the bolt isiprojected to lock the door, the two rod fingers bear on the two lever fingers, and maintain the lever vieldingly in its central position,

and that when the lever is swung from said variousintermediate positions, and provides means for preventing any extended move ment of the doorby momentum.

The door controlled by means embodying my invention cannot be opened from the outside, cannot be opened from the inside until the hand lever is moved from its normal position, and is automatically locked immediately after the operator removes his handfrom the lever, whenever the bolt registers with a keeper.

improved controller obviates the necessity of using'a short chain on an express car, to limit the opening of the door suflici'ently to prevent entranceto the car from without. The controller is adapted to herform the same-function "the chain, the lever being released when the door is slightly gpened, and permitting'the locking of the cor. The spring 18 and the lower portionof the bolt 17 are preferably housed in a casing til), inserted in a mortise 31, formed in the upper edge of the door, the spring casing on the closed inner end ofthe bushing, and the slot 21 being formed in one side of the casing.

It will lie seen thatJIhtWe provided a controller constituting an attachment a plicable to any of the various sliding oors now in use in baggage,'mail, express, and milk cars, with no change or adaptation of the door other than the formation of the mortise 31 in the inner side 'of 'the door at its upper edge. .The essential elementsof the atta'rhment shownby the drawings are the casing '30, inserted in the mortise 31, and provided with theslot 21, the guides 22, screwed or bolted tothe inner side of the door, the rod 20, manually movable insaid guides and located atthe inner side ofthe door, the locking bolt17' in'the casihgfand the rod and bolt-connecting member 20" ex tending from the rod through the slot 211m 1 the bolt, suitable"means,such as the spring 18, being provided for automatically pro jecting the bolt; and the'rod being manually movable in one directiontoi retract the bolt.

I claim:

1. A controller constituting an attachment applicable to a sliding door, and comprising a casing insertable in a mortise formed in the upper end of the door, and provided with a vertically elongated slot in one side, guides attachable to the inner side of the door, an elongated manually movable rod, movable in said guides, the form of the rod and guides being such that when the guides are located on the door in vertical alinement with each other, the rod is mov able endwise in a vertical path, a locking bolt in said casing, and a rod and bolt-connecting member extending from the upper end of the rod through said slot to the bolt, and adapted to retract the bolt when the rod is manually moved endwise in one direction, means being provided for automatically projecting the bolt, when the controller is installed on a door, and the rod is released.

2. A sliding-door controller comprising an elongated rod, movable vertically in fixed guides on the door, a locking bolt carried by said rod, and yieldingly projected to engage a fixed keeper adjacent to the door, and a hand lever fulcrumed on the door, and con stituting a door-moving handle adapted to swing on its fulcrum, the rod being provided with laterally projecting fingers, and the lever being provided with corresponding laterally projecting fingers loosely engaged with the rod fingers the arrangement being such that the rod normally maintains the lever in a central position, and is retracted with the bolt by a swinging movement of the lever in either direction from said position.

3. A sliding-door controller comprising an elongated rod, movable vertically in fixed guides on the door, a locking bolt carried by said rod, and yieldingly projected to engage a fixed keeper adjacent to the door, and a hand lever fulcrumed on the door, and constituting a door-moving handle adapted to swing on its fulcrum, the rod being provided with laterally projecting fingers, and the lever being provided with angular fingers bearing separably on the rod fingers, the arrangement being such that the rod fingers normally bear simultaneously on the lever fingers to maintain the lever in a central position. a swinging movement of the lever in either direction from said position causing one of its angular fingers to retract the rod and bolt, and separating the other angular finger from the corresponding rod finger.

a. In a railway car of the character stated, in combination, a row of fixed keepers at the upper edge of a doorway in the car, said keepers being at diiferent distances from the vertical edges of the doorway, a sliding door adapted to close the doorway, and a controlling attachment adapted to cooperate with said keepers in locking the door in either of a plurality of positions, said attachment comprising a casing inserted in a mortise, formed in the inner side of the door, one side of said casing being substantially flush with the inner side of the door, and provided 'with a vertically elongated slot, guides attached to the inner side of the door in vertical alinement with each other, an elongated vertical rod manually movable endwise in said guides, a locking bolt vertically movable in said casing, and a rod and bolt-connecting member extending from the upper end of the rod through said slot to the bolt, and adapted to retract the bolt when the rod is manually moved endwise, in one direction, means being provided for automatically projecting the bolt when the rod is released.

5. In combination, a railway car having a side doorway and a row of fixed keepers at the upper edge of the doorway; a door freely movable horizontally to open andclose the doorway; a bolt carried by, and adapted to be projected above the door and to cooperate with either of said keepers, the form of the bolt and keepers being such that the engagement of the bolt with a keeper positively locks the door against horizontal movement in either direction, and a boltcontroller including means automatically exerting upward pressure on the bolt to cause it to cooperate with a keeper in automaticallv and positively locking the door in a position determined by the location of the keeper, said controller being manually operable to retract the bolt and permit movement of the door.

In testimony whereof I have afiixed my signature.

JOSEPH GULLAGE.

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