US1834091A - Permutation lock - Google Patents

Description

Dec. 1, 1931. R. A CRUSE PE/RMUTATION LOCK FiledSept; 11, 1929 2 Sheets-Sheet 1 INVENTOR ATTORNEY Dec. 1, 1931. c us 1,834,091

PERMUTATION LOCK Filed Sept. 11, 1929 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 Patented Dec. 1, 1931 PATENT, OFFICE RAYMOND A. CRUSE, or BENLD, ILLINOIS PERMUTATION LOCK Application filed September 11, 1929. Serial No. 391,904.

Ihis invention relates to a permutation lock which is mainly designed for locking the steering wheel of a motor Vehicle and the I spare tire thereof, the general object of the invention being to provide a plurality of notched. rotary tumblers on a supporting member in the lock casing which, when in certain positions, will have their notches align with a groove in the supporting member so that the locking bolt, which is slidably arranged in the supporting member, can be moved to unlocking position, but when the tumblers are in other positions, the notches will be out of alignment with the groove,

so that the bolt is locked in projected position.

Another object of the invention is to provide the bolt with a spring pressed bar extending into the groove and having beveled teeth thereon for engaging the tumblers when the notches are out of alignment with the groove, for holdingthe bolt in locking position, said bar, with its beveled teeth, permitting the bolt to be projectedeven when the notches in the tumblers are out of alignment with the groove, and said teeth passing through the notches when the same are in alignment with the groove during the unlocking movement of the bolt.

7 Another object of the invention is to provide ring members on the supporting member for moving the tumblers, said members having combination characters on their outer circumferences which appear through a window in the casing so thatthe members can be readily turned to bring the proper combination of characters at the center of the window to align the notches in the tumblers with the groove in the'supporting member, with means whereby the attachment point of each ring member with its tumbler can be changed to change the combination.

A further object of the invention is v to so construct and arrange the parts that it will be impossible to gain access to the interior parts or remove the casing from the part to which it is attached when the bolt is in'locking position and also to provide means whereby the bolt will be bent and thus held in locking position if the lock is struck with an object in an attempt to gain access to the parts :to move the bolt to unlocking position.

A still further object of the invention is to provide means whereby the supporting member with the tumblers, their carriers and the ring members can be removed as a unit from :the casing, with means whereby the various parts can be removed from the supporting member-after the same has been removed from the casing.

1 -Thls invention .also consists in certain other features of construction and in the combination and'arrangement of the several parts, to be hereinafter fully described, illustrated] in the accompanying drawings and specifically pointed out in the appended claim. H c In describing the invention in detail, reference will be had to the accompanying drawings wherein like characters denote like or corresponding parts throughout the several views, and in which Figure 1 is a view showing the improved lock used for locking a steering wheel to the column, 7 k 7 Figure 2 is a section on line 22 of Fig-' ure 5; 7

Figure 3 is a sectionalview, with parts in elevation, the section being taken at rightangles to Figure 2.

' Figure 4 is a front view of the lock.

Figure 5 is a section on line 55 of F igure 2. p

Figure 6 is a section on line 66 of Figure 2. g

Figure 7 is a section on line 77 of Figure 2.

Figure 8 is a perspective View of the supporting member. t

Figure 9 is a perspective view of the bolt.

' Figure 10 is a perspective view of one of the ring members.

Figure 11 is a similar view of one of the tumblers.

Figure 12 is a similar view of one of the tumbler carriers.

Figure 13 is a similar view of the trunnion carrying-member.

V Figure 14 is a'similar view of a part of one-half of the casing.

Figure 15 is a similar view of the other art.

Figure 16 is a view showing the lock used enlargement 4 at its lower end, the enlargement oi? the section-1 projecting beyond the edgesv of the section, as shown atv 5, and the ends or the other enlargement. terminating short of the edges of: its section to. provide :the recesses: 6' for receiving the projecting ends& of the first enlargement. Wedges 7 are formed on the walls oftherecesses and engage the wedge sh-aped notches S in the ends'5 when the sections are placed together sothat this endof thecasing has-its sections locked together and the trout section 2 cannot be: removed from the rear section 1 unless the trout section is movedupwardly tofree the wedges from the notches. The topoi the casing is closed bythe-circular part9 formed on the upper end oi? the section 1 and the upper end of thefront section 2' engages this part. The upper part of the front section 'cated in the casing andis formed with: a cirhas an inwardly extending projection 10 thereon which has a hole 11 therein which aligns with a, hole 12 formed inthe center of the part 10, when the sections are together.

-Screws 13 fasten the upper parts of the two sections together and the rear section has the holes liltherei-n tor receiving screws or the like, so-thatthe casing can be fastened to the steering column B of a vehicle or other support. his will be'seen, when the device is assembled, the screws are enclosed by the parts of the casing and are thus inaccessible. The front/section has anelongated window 15 in its front part and the side and top-walls of this windowaretliickened' inwardly, as at 16, so that these walls are of the samethicknessas the thickened part. 46 which extends upwardly to the bottom ofthe window.

A cylindrical supporting. member 17 is locular head 18, and said member has a bore 19 passing therethrough, with a longitudinal slot20 in its body part which. communicates with the bore. Thebody part isalso formed with the spaced annular grooves 21 and with 'the vertical roove 22' which'is parallel to the slot 20 and is divided into sections by the annular grooves 21. The-front part of the head is formed with a substantially semi-circular flange 23 which rests on the flange formed by the upper part of the thickened portion 16. A ring-shaped tumber 24 engages each annular groove 21, each tumbler being formed of a large section and a small section, with the small section fitting in the large section, as. clearly shown in Figure 11. Each tumbler fits in a ringeshaped' carrier.- 25 of substantially cup shape and this carrier holds the two sections of the tumbler together, and the carrier encircles the supporting member and has. akey 26 on its inner circumference which engage's'the vertical groove 22. A combination ring 27 isplaced. above each tumbler and has a plurality of radiating notches 28 in its lower' t'ace, any one of which isadapted to; receive a key- 29. on the; tumbler. The. outer circum'lierencea of each ring 2'1 carries the combination characters: 30. and the vertical lines 31, oneof which passes through each character. These. rings 27 encirclethe supporting member. By making thetumblersin sections, they can be readily" placed in the annular grooves21 and then thecarriers25. areplaced over the tumblers to hold them in the grooves and by providing a plurality of notches 28 therings 27 the rings can be attached to the tumblers at different points so that the combination arrangementcan be changedwhen desired. After the tumblers, carriers and rings are placed on the supporting member, a sleeve 32 is placed on the lower end of the supporting member and fastened thereto by a screw 33', so thatth-is sleeve holds the parts on thesupporting. member. The sleeve 'is formed with an internal key 34 which engages. the lower part of the groove 22 and said sleeve carries the trunnions 35 which engage the bearing receses 36- formedin the part liozfi'the rear section of-thecasi-ng'. Thus after-the parts are assembled onthe supporting member, the supporting member can be placed in the rear section of the casing by placing the trunnions 35 in the recesses 36 and then pushing the upper part of the supportingmember into the rear section of the casing, with the upper endgoi the supporting member passing under a projection 37 on the section which prevents upward movement of the supporting member. As will be seen, the sleeve 32- closes the lower end of the casing and fits-snugly the parts; 4' when the front section of the casin-g is placed in engagement with the rear section. When the two sections 'ar e placed together, the thickened walls 16 abut the carriers; 25 and the'rings 27, so that some of the combination characters will appear through the window and the flange 23 on the head of the supporting member engages the flange formed by the top part of the thickened wall 16. A spring 38, arranged in a socket-'inthehead of the supporting-memher and engaging a part of the rear section ot'the casing, normally holds the parts in the position they occupy in Figure 2.

l-OQ

A locking bolt 39 passes through the bore of the supporting member and through the holes 11 and 12 in the parts 9 and 10 when the bolt is projected, the lower end of the bolt having a knob 40 thereon whereby the bolt can be moved. Said bolt has a slot 41 therein which receives the rack bar 42 and the spring 43 which normally holds the rack bar projected. The inwardly turned ends of the rack bar are connected with the bolt by the pin and slot connections 44. The teeth of the rack bar are beveled upwardly and as will be seen, the spring 43 normally holds the rack bar with its teeth in the slot 20 of the supporting member. The tumblers are formed with the internal notches 45, so that when the tumblers are positioned with these notches aligning with the slot 20, the teeth of the rack bar will pass through the notches of the tumblers during sliding movement of the locking bolt, but when the tumblers are turned to a position where their notches are out ofalignment with the slot 20, the straight walls of the teeth will contact solid portions of the tumblers and thus prevent the bolt from being moved to retracted position. By beveling the teeth,the bolt can be projected, even though the tumblers are in a position with the notches out of alignment with the slot 20, for in this case the beveled portions of the teeth, coming in contact with the solid parts of the tumblers, will cause the rack bar to move inwardly, so that the bolt can be projected.

From the foregoing it will be seen that the bolt can be moved to projected position irrespective of the position of the tumblers, but in order to move the bolt to unlocking position, it is necessary that the tumblers be so positioned that their notches 45 will be in alignment with the slot 20 of the supporting member. Thus it will be necessary for one to know the proper combination of the characters on the rings 27 before he can adjust the tumblers to unlocking position. Figure 4 shows the unlocking combination as consisting of the characters A G E H, the lines 31 on the combination rings facilitating the proper aligning of the characters. The rings can be easily turned by slight pressure eX- erted on those portions which are exposed by the window. It will also be seen that by causing the bolt to pass through the projection 10 on the front section of the casing, the two parts of the casing are locked together by the bolt, so that it is impossible to gain access to the interior parts by removing the screws 13. The thickened walls 16, the overlapping edges 3, together with the sleeve 32 and its connection with the casing, as well as the manner of connecting the lower ends of the two sections of the casing together, prevent access to the interior parts by attempting to force a tool or other object between the parts. As before stated, it will also be impossible to remove the casing from the steering column as the fastening means are enclosed by the casing. H

The upper end of the locking bolt is formed with the cuts 46 so thatif the supporting member and its associated parts are struck with a hammer or the like, in an attempt to damage the lock to render it ineffective, said member'willbe forced rearwardly against the action of the spring 88, so that the upper part of the locking bolt willbe bent at the place where it is struck, as shown in Figure 18, and thus the locking bolt will be jammed in looking position, so that it cannot be retracted.

As before stated, the combination can be changed whenever desired by removing the supporting member from the casing and then removing the ring parts thereon and reassembling the ring parts, with the keys 29 of the tumblers engaging different notches 28 of the members 27.

The above description of the invention relates to the arrangement of parts shown in Figure 1, but it will, of course, be understood that the device can be placed inother positions than that shown in said figure.

Figures 16 and 17 show the lock used to lock the plate 47 to the support 48 of a spare wheel 49. In this case, the locking bolt, when projected, passes through a keeper recess 50 in one of the bolts 51 which connect the plate 47 with the plate 48. In other respects, this form of the invention is the same as that before described.

It is thought from the foregoing description that the advantages and novel features of the invention will be readily apparent.

It is to be understood that changes may be made in the construction and in the combination and arrangement of the several parts, provided that such changes fall within the scope of the appended claim.

What I claim is Y A lock comprising a casing, including complementary semi-cylindrical sections having their adjacent edges overlapping when the sections are associated, lateral projections extending from one end of one section and having tapered notches formed therein, the

corresponding end of the other section having recesses to receive said projections, vertically disposed wedges carried by the walls of the recesses and adapted to be received in said notches whereby the sections are efl'ectively secured together, or separated by longi tudinal movement, one section with relation to the other, an end wall carried by the first mentioned section and constituting a closure for the casing when the sections are associated, an inwardly projectingextension carried by the adjacent end of the other section and arranged beneath andparallel with said end wall, a cylindrical supporting member arranged within the casing and having a longitudinal bore, tumblers on said supportmembers, and a lmkin-g boll; having means to interlock with said tumblers: and slsixelable: through said supporting member and received; by openings: formed: the sai' end wall and i'nw'amlly projecting extension, 7 7 whereby the SfitlG-HS 0f the casing: are locked ;V. together all their upper endsby sai'id bplcb and thalatter held= agamst withdrawal by said tumblers. I

In testimsny' whereof I am my signature.

RAYMOND A. GRUSE.

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