US1716764A - Convertible screen door - Google Patents

Description

June 11, 1929. 111:. CARRIGAN' 1,716,764

CONVERTIBLE SCREEN DOOR Filed June 15 1927,

' INVENTOR. JIe'ssE L. CA RIF/6AA! 9 ATTORNEYS.

Patented June 11, 1929.

JESSE L. CARRIGAN, OF BIRMINGHAM, ALABAMA.

CONVERTIBLE Application filed June 15,

This invention has general reference to screened, or partially-screcncd, forms of closures for door and window openings; but relates more particularly to such closures which are especially well adapted for use in doorways, and which are readily convertible from doors each of which has a screened ventilation portion, to those of the so-called solid type, and vice versa.

A primary object of my present invention is to produce a door, having an opening therethrough, which is provided with a fixed screen adapted to exclude mosquitoes, flies, and other insects, but to permit the passage of air and light, and having a shutter or other member for closing said opening, such closing member having one exposed surface, and being slidable adjacent an outer face of the door.

Another object is to provide the opening in the door with such a slidable closing member, having one or more panes of transparent or translucent material, such as glass.

A further object is to provide the door, adjacent the screen, with a grille or the like, having openings therein which are too small to permit the passage of a human hand therethrough.

A further object is to provide such a door with means for retaining the slidable closing member yieldably in one or more predetermined positions, which are selective.

And a still further object is to provide manually-operable means, carried by the door, for manipulating such retaining means, so that the slidable closing member may, selectively, be either left free for sliding movement, or held yieldingly against such movement.

The means by which the foregoing and other objects are accomplished by my invention, and the manner of their accomplishment, readily will be understood from the following description upon reference to the accompanying drawings, which depict preferred embodiments of the invention, and in which- Fig. 1 is a front, or outside, elevation of a door embodying my invention, with parts broken away, and with the slidable closing member shown in closing position.

Fig. 2 is a rear, or inside, elevation of the same door, with the slidable closing member shown in position to permit the passage of air through the screened portion of the door.

Fig. 3 is a fragmentary sectional view, on

SCREEN DOOR.

1927. Serial No. 199,078.

an enlarged scale, the section being taken substantially on the line HI-III of Fig. 1.

Fig. 4; is a view similar to Fig. 3, but with the section taken substantially on the line IV-IV of Fig. 2.

Fig. 5 is an enlarged fragmentary detail View of one of the means for holding the slidable closing member against sliding movement, or permitting such movement. As shown in the accompanying drawings, in which similar parts are designated by corresponding reference characters throughout the several views, the preferred form of my convertible screen door comprises the usual upper or top rail 7, lower or bottom rail 8, intermediate or middle rail 9, and stiles 10 and 11. The space bounded by the lower or bottom rail 8, the intermediate or middle rail 9, and the lower portions of the stiles 10 and 11, has fitted therein a solid panel 12, which is secured inplace by a molding 13 and brads 1d. The space defined by the upper or top rail 7, the intermediate or middle rail 9, and the upper portions of the stiles 10 and 11, is fitted with a fine-mesh wire screen 15, which is held in place by a molding 16 and brads 17. Also, there preferably is secured over the screen 15, by the molding 16 and brads 17 or by any other suitable securing means, a grille 18, which may be of any suitable design and type of construction, but which I prefer to cast, stamp or otherwise form of metal, with a plurality of openings therein, each of which is too small to permit the passage of a human hand of ordinary size therethrough.

The opposed faces of the two stiles 10 and 11 are each rabbeted so as to form two adja cent grooves or runways 19 and 20, the former of which is near the front or outer face of the stile, while the latter is at the back or inner face of the stile, and has one of its walls formed by a molding 21 which is secured to the stile by brads 22. In each of the runways 20 is placed a guide-strip 23, preferably of oak or other fine-grained hard wood, which is held in place by two flat springs 24 and 25, each secured to the stile by a screw 26, and to the guide-strip by a screw 27. In a pocket 28, formed in the stile behind each of the fiat springs 24 and 25, is placed a cam 29, which has a plurality of similar flat faces, and is fixed upon a pin 30 that extends loosely through the molding 21, and has secured at its outer end a wing-nut 31 by which the pin 30 and the cam 29 may be turned manually.

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The outer face of each of the guide-strips 23 is rabbeted so as to form a runway conforming in shape and dimensions with the rabbeted surface 19, and a window-sash 32, having its side members similarly rabbeted, and carrying either a plurality of panes oi glass or a single pane, as may be preferred, is mounted for slid-able movement in said runways. lilanitestly, a slidable shutter, 01 either wood or metal, may be substituted for the windmv-sash it desired, without departure from the intended scope of my invention. For convenience in moving the window-sash (or shutter) manually, I provide at each side one or more buttons or other form of handles 33.

From the foregoing description, taken in connection with the accompanying drawings, the preferred manner of constructing and using my convertible screen door readily will be understood. W hen the window-sash is in its uppermost position (see 1), it is held securely in place in the runways 19, behind the screen and the grille 18, and terms a water-tight, and substantially airtight, closure for the upper portion of the door, and the door therefore becomes, to all intents and purposes, of the so-called solid type. lVhen it is desired to lower the window-sash, so as to convert the door into one of the screened type, it is only necessary to turn the wingnuts 31 so as to move the cams 29 to ap n'oximately the position indicated in dotted lines in Fig. 5, and thereby permit the springs 2d and to move the guide-strips 23 toward the stiles sutliciently so that the window-sash may be shifted manually from the runways 19 to runways 20,-whereupon the sash may be moved slidahly downward, either to its lowermost position, as indicated in Fig. 2, or to any desired intermediate position. hen the cams 29 are in the positions indicated in full lines in Fig. 5, the sash is held firmly in place by the pressure of the springs 24 and 25 upon the guide-strips 23, and there is thus no tendency of the sash either to rattle or to become displaced from its intended position. 3y the use of cams which, instead of having curvilinear s pring-engaging surfaces, are provided with a plurality of flat faces, accidental or other unintended displacement of the cams, as by the jarring of the door, is guarded against.

It should be noted that the design of my improved torm of convertible screen door is such that the stiles or the rails need none of them be of double or hollow construction; the window-sash is at all times adjacent an outer surface of the door; and the over-all thickness of the door need be little, if any, greater than it it were not of the convertible type.

Various n'iodiiications of minor details of the improvements disclosed herein doubtless readily w, l suggest themselves to those skilled in this art, but such modifications fall within the scope of my inventive rights, and my invention not to be constructed as being limited to any details not specifically set out in the appended claims.

Having now fully disclosed the invention, what I claim as new, and seek to secure by Letters Patent, is

1. The combination with opposed stiles ot a door, each stile having a. pair of rabbets e21- tending longitudinally therein, one rabbet extending longitudinally therein, one rabhet being of greater depth than the other, of a rabbeted guide strip in each of the deeper rabbets in the stiles, means for holding said guide strips projected toward each other to retain a window sash or the like within the shallmv rabhes, springs for retracting the guide strips to re e: e the sash for movement from position between the shallow rabbets to position be tween the rabbets in the guide strips, said holding means being shittable to move the guide strips into engagement with the sash therebetween, and means secured to the stiles and cooperating therewith to hold the sash against movement irom engagement with the guide strips.

The combination with a door having opstiles each having rabbets of different xtending longitudinally therein, and sh or the like removably seated in of least depth, of rabbeted guide str' springs for holding said strips normalrerracted into the deeper rabbets in the stiles, thereby to release the sash for removal from the shallow rabbets to position between the rabbets in the guide strips, means for shi ting the springs to move the guide strips 'd each other to engage the sash when pos .tioned therebetween and to hold the sash against: displacement when positioned in the shallow rabbets in the stiles, and means cured to the stiles for holding the sash against dis placement relative to the guide strips while engaged thereby.

In witness of the foregoing, l atlix my signature. 7

JESSE L. GARRIGAN.

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