US194923A - Improvement in street-car awnings - Google Patents

Description

F. P. McINT-YRE. STREET-CAR AWNING.

No. 194,923, Patented Sept. 4,1877.

INVENTUB M197 WITNESSES ATTORNEYS.

PEYERS, PHOTO-LITHOGRAPHER, WASHINGTON. D C.

UNITED STATES FFIQ If r IMPROVEMENT IN STREET-CAR AWN INGS Specification forming part of Letters Patent No. 194,9 2 3, dated September 4, 1877 application filed April 20,1877.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that 1, FRANK P. MOINTYRE, of the city and county of Philadelphia and State of Pennsylvania, have invented a new and Improved Awning for Street-Oars; and I do hereby declare that the following is a full, clear, and exact description of the same, reference being had to the accompanying drawing, forming part of this specification, in which- Figure 1 is avertical longitudinal section of a street-car, showing the application of the awning. Fig. 2 is a plan view.

The object of my invention is to provide an awning forstreet-cars designed to extend over the horses and protect them from the excessive and exhausting heat of summer.

The invention consists in a horizontal longitudinal supporting-rod, arranged in or upon the top of the car, and extending the whole length of the same and a sufficient distance in front to cover the horses, which rod is hooked at its outer end, and supports a U-shaped marginal rod, the inner arms or branches of which are detachably fastened to the car; which devices, together with a transverse brace, hereinafter described, constitute the supporting-frame of the awning.

In the drawing, A represents a street-car of the ordinary construction, to which my improved awning is shown applied. B is the longitudinal supporting-rod, G the U-shaped marginal rod extending the canvas of the awning, and D are the brace-rods, which together constitute the frame of the awning.

The longitudinal supporting-rod B runs the whole length of the car, and extends in front of the same, above the horses, to a distance of about two feet beyond the horses heads, having, at its forward extremity, a downward bend and a hook, a, which supports the outer end of the U-shaped rod.

This rod B, for the sake of lightness and strength, is made of gas-pipe preferably, about two inches in diameter, and it is arranged on or upon the top of the car in bearings, so as to slide longitudinally. In cars having roofs that will permit it, the said rod will be arranged in the roof, as shown, but in adapting the devices to certain construction of cars having differently-arranged roofs, the rods may be arranged upon the top of the roof in special bearings placed upon the same. The Ushaped rod 0 is madein a single continuous piece, extending as far forward as the hook of the supporting-rod, and bent in such manner as to have suitable transverse dimensions, to fully protect one or two horses, as the case may be. This rod is made of halfinch gas-pipe, and its branches next to the car have hooked ends, which fit into and are supported by staples or eyes b, firmly fastened to the front end of the car, near the roof. In the eyes or staples behind each hook a rubber cushion is placed, which prevents the hooks from becoming accidentally detached by the wind or jar of the car, and which also prevents the additional rattle and noise which the attachment might involve.

To prevent the front end of the U-shaped rod 0 from swaying or swinging, and to hold it firmly in its place in the hook a. without dislodgment, the braces D are used. These braces consist of short sections of gas-pipe, which are secured in a T-coupling on the sides of the bent U-shaped rod 0, and in a coupling upon the supporting-rod B. Over the frame, as thus described, the canvas is placed, and secured by suitable means.

When the awning is not required to be used, the short sections of the braces D are taken out, the bent front end of the rod 0 is lifted from the hook of the supporting-rod, the inner terminal hooks of the said rod 0 are removed from their eyes upon the car, and the supporting-rod B is then slid back in its bearings, either into or upon the car, as the case may be.

When the devices are to be applied to cars that reverse, or run in both directions, eyes b are arranged upon both ends of the car, and the rods B and O are removed and applied to the opposite end, when desired, their detachable character being such as to readily permit this change in adjustment.

Instead of fastening the ends of the U- shaped rod by hooks and eyes, as described, I may, as a modification of my invention, dispense with the same, and extend the branches of the bent rod through hearings in the car,

as shown in dotted lines, and in that case the bent rod 0, instead of being taken out, is sim ply slid into the car together with the rod B.

The device which has thus been described as applying to a street-car, may also, in some cases, be employed to advantage in connection with wagons or other vehicles drawn by horses.

In defining more clearly my invention I would state that 1 am aware that bent U shaped rods, corresponding to my rod 0, have been applied to a street-car, with a view to sustaining an awning. but they were not braced in vertical directions, as in my invention, by means of the rod B and braces D, and hence they possessed little or no strength .or stiffness to resist the flapping of the awning occasioned by the jolt of the car or the passage of the wind. The main rod B and braces D constitute, therefore, the essentially novel features of ,my invention, and I therefore limit my invention to the same when combined with the bent marginal rod, as shown and described.

Having thus described my invention, what I claim as new is- 1. The combination, in a street-oar,-of the sliding supporting-rod B, extending from end to end of the car, and above the horses, with the U-shaped rod 0, detachably fastened to the car at its inner ends, and supported at its outer end by the rod B, substantially as described. V

2. The combination, with the street-car, of the sliding rod B, the U-shaped rod 0, and the braces D, substantially as described, and for the purpose set forth.

1?. P. MOJINTYRE. Witnesses:

' EDW. W. BYRN,

SoLoN O. KEMON.

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