US2498271A - Desk pedestal locking structure - Google Patents

Description

Feb. 21, 1950 T. A. HEARN 2,498,271

DESK PEDESTAL LOCKING STRUCTURE Filed Feb. 28, 1947 I N VEN TOR. 71 10445 4 Haw/v.

ATTORNEYS.

Patented Feb. 21, 1950 Thomas A. Hearn, Ludlow, Ky assignor to The Globe.-Wernicke-Co., Norwood, Ohio, a comic-- ration of Ohio Application February 28, 1947, Serial No. 731,675

8 Claims.

This invention. relates to a structure for looking the drawers in a pedestal type desk when the center drawer is closed. It has been conventional in. pedestal type desks to provide a lock on the center drawer and to provide means whereby the pedestal drawers are locked by the act of closing the center drawer, so that a single lock would sufiice to lock the entire desk.

Numerous arrangements and structures have been provided for this purpose in the past, and

it is an object of my present invention to prov vide a structure which is simpler than an with which I am familiar. It is another object of my invention to provide a structure of the class set forth, which is extremely inexpensive to construct and has a minimum ofinoving parts, so that it is less likely to wear out or get out of order, than other structures now available.

These and other objects of my invention, which I shallpoint out in more detail hereinafter, or which will be apparent to one skilled in the art upon reading these specifications, I accomplish by that certain construction and arrangement of parts of which I shall now describe an exemplary embodiment.

Reference is made to the drawings. forming a part hereof and in which:

Fig. l is a front elevation. of a desk to which my invention may be applied.

Fig. 2 is a plan View of the same with a part of the. top removed. and. with the center drawer slightly withdrawn.

Fig. 3 is a. partial cross sectional view taken on the line 3-3 of Fig. on enlarged scale.

Fig. 4 is a partial cross sectional view taken on the line 4-4 of Fig. 3.

Fig. 5 is a fragmentary plan view as seen from the line 5-5 of Fig. 3 on a still further enlarged scale. i

Fig. 6 is a cross sectional view on the same scale as Fig- 5- takenon thev line 6--5 OiFig. 3.

Fig. 7 is a perspective view of the locking rod with its associated pawls and spring.

Fig. 8 is a cross sectional view on an enlarged .scale taken. on the line 38 of Fig. 7.

Fig. 9' is a View similar to- Fig. 8, but showing a modified construction.

Fig. 10 is a perspective view of the spring memher.

The well known type of desk to which my invention may be applied has one or two drawer containing pedestals. The pedestals generally have corner frame members which are connected by thedrawerrunners on the inside and which are connected on the outside by a sheet of. metal forming an outer wall of the pedestal. According to. my invention I provide a rod vertically disposed along corner frame members. at the front of the pedestal and having a number'of pawls. Each of the drawers has an abutment positioned to be engaged by the respective pawls by thev pawls. when. the rod is rotated a slight amount axially... A. spring is provided to normally urge: the rod to a. position where the pawls will clear the drawer abutments. The rod has a portion which extends beyond. the pedestal wall to a. position inwhich. it isahutted by the drawer front of the center drawer just before it is com.- pletely closed, so. that the: final. closing move.- ment of the center drawer will rotate the rod axially against the ,force of the. spring to the position in which the pawls willv be engaged by the drawer abutments to. lock the drawers against withdrawaL InFig. .1 I, have. shown a well known type of pedestal. desk having. the. pedestals indicated generally at H] and. II and; having a top 1.2. The. desk may or may not have a skirt member [.3 extending. across. the .knee hole, portion at the side opposite. that at which. the user sits. Each pedestal contains a number of drawers indicated generally at l4. and above the upper most drawer there may be the usual writing shelf l5. In the knee hole portion therev is provided a center drawer indicated generally at it having. a front wall projecting laterally, beyond the drawer, as indicated at H.

The pedestals. themselves comprise corner frame members indicated generally at It! from which the drawer runners IS may be hung. In the. particular embodiment shown the runners themselves are provided with tongues 20 engaging in slots 21 in. the members l8,v but this particular construction forms no limitation. on my present invention. The. outer wall of the pedestal. is indicated at 22 and it is fastened by spot welding or the like to the corner frame members l8. In the particular embodiment shown the outer wall ;22 has, the upper flange 23,. but this likewise is not. a limitation upon my invention. The pedestal is also provided with a bottom panel 24 and strengthening members 25, spot welded thereto to. provide for stiffness.

The. locking device' itself comprises a rod '26. The rod. 26 is positioned in the pedestal vertically adjacent the corner frame member l8 and is retained against the member l8 and against the drawer runners 19 by fingers 21 struck out from the member [8. These fingers are preferably bent over. as at 28, so as to retain the rod 26' on two sides,while it. is retained by the member [8 and the runnersv [9 on: the other two sides.

In position the rod. rests on the panel 24 and is retained by three of the fingers 2,! in thepresent illustration. It will be clear, of course, more or less. fingers 21' could be provided if it was felt. to be" desirable.

. In each drawer space there is. provided on the when the rod is in one position and to be cleared Y rod 26 a pawl, indicated generally at 29 The pawls' 2!] are fixed to the rod 26-, so that they will move with the rod if it is rotated axially. In Figs. 8 and 9 I have shown two ways in which the pawls may be attached to the rod 26. The preferred structure is shown in Fig. 8 where a strip of sheet metal is bent upon itself and spot welded as indicated at 39 to provide a loop portion 3| of a size to accommodate the rod 26. A portion of the loop 3] is flat as indicated at 32 and has a threaded hole to accommodate the set screw 33. The set screw 33 has a relatively sharp point, so that when it is tightened by means of a screw driver it bites into the metal of the rod 26, as clearly shown in Fig. 8.

According to the structure of Fig. 9 the pawl is simply clamped to the rod 26 by means of a screw 34 passing through a hole in the longer arm of the pawl and threaded into a hole in the shorter arm 35. The shorter arm 35 is bent at 36 and it will be clear that tightening the screw tightly around the rod 26.

Each of the drawers is provided with an abutment on its side which can be engaged by the respective pawls, and such an abutment is clearly shown at 31 in Fig. 6. As shown there it may be a strip of sheet metal bent to the form shown and spot welded to the drawer side 38. It will be clear, of course, that any desired construction can be used and that it is only important that an abutment be provided which can engage a pawl 29 when rocked to its counterclockwise limit, as seen in Figs. and 6. The rod 26 adjacent its upper end is provided with an offset 39 and terminates in a hook portion 40. A spring 4!, shown in perspective in Fig. 10, is disposed with its end Ma engaged about the rod 26 above the oifset portion 39 and with its other end Mb engaged in a hole in the shelf support 23. It will be clear from a consideration of the figures that this spring will tend to rock the rod 26 axially in a clockwise direction bringing the pawls 29 to the position shown in solid lines in Figs. 5 and 6, so that they will clear the abutments 31.

The hook portion 49 passes over the top of the outer wall 22 to a position where it can be engaged by the drawer front I! as it is closed. As shown in Fig. 5, if the wall 22 is provided with the top flange 23, this flange must be cut away as shown at 2311 to permit passage of the member 40. It will also be noted that the hook portion 40 is disposed at a slight angle in relation to the offset portion 39, so as to give better leverage.

From a consideration of Fig. 5, it will be clear that as the center drawer I6 is closed the portion ll thereof will abut the member 49 just before the drawer is completely closed and with final closing movement of the. center drawer, the rod 25 will be rocked axially in a counterclockwise direction against the force of the spring 4|, so as to bring the pawls 29 to the position shown in broken lines in Fig. 6. With the pawls in this position the pedestal drawers cannot be opened. As soon as the center drawer is withdrawn a suiiicient amount to permit the portion 40 to return to the position of Fig. 5 under the influence of the spring 4 I, the pawls 29 are returned to their solid line positions and the pedestal drawers may be pulled out.

;- claims which follow.-

- Having now fully describedmy invention, what I claim as new and desire to secure by Letters Pa e t 5? ,34 will cause the loop portion 31a to be clamped 1. In combination with a'desk having a drawer pedestal and a center drawer disposed adjacent thereto, said pedestal having corner frame members; drawer runners extending between said corner frame members on the inside thereof, and

an outer wall extending between said corner frame members on the outside thereof, a locking device for the drawers in said pedestal comprising a rod vertically disposed between said drawer .runners and said outer wall, a number of pawls carried by said rod and disposed opposite the respective drawers, an abutment on each of said drawers engageable by said pawls when said rod is rocked axially in one direction and cleared by said pawls when said rod is rocked axially in the other direction, spring means urging said rod axially in said other direction, said rod having an offset therein adjacent the upper end thereof, and having a portion extending outside said outer wall in a position to be abutted by the center drawer front just before it is completely closed, whereby in the final closing movement of said center drawer said rod is rocked axially against the force of said spring in said first direction, locking the drawers in said pedestal against withdrawal.

2. The structure of claim 1, in which said pedestal has a bottom panel, and in which said rod rests on said bottom panel.

3. The structure of claim 2, in which a number of fingers are struck out from a corner frame member, said rod being disposed against said corner frame member and being retained on one side by said corner frame member, on an adjacent side by said drawer runners, and on another side by said fingers.

4. The structure of claim 3, in which said fingers are bent to retain said rod on the sides opposite said corner frame member and said drawer runners.

5. The structure of claim 4, in which said spring means is a tension spring secured at one end to the offset portion of said rod, and at the other end to said corner frame member.

6. The structure of claim 5, in which the upper end of said rod is provided with a hook portion which extends over the top of said outer wall and into the path of said drawer front.

'7. The structure of claim 1, in which each of said pawls comprises a strip of metal banded about said rod and spot welded together, and a set screw passing through said strip and biting into said rod.

8. The structure of claim 1, in which each of said pawls comprises a strip of metal bent upon itself and spot welded together to form a loop of a size to accommodate said rod, said loop having a flat portion having a threaded hole, a pointed set screw in said threaded hole, said set screw biting into said rod to hold said pawl against rotation relative to said rod.

THOMAS A. HEARN.

REFERENCES CITED The following references are of record in the file of this patent:

UNITED STATES PATENTS Number Name Date 1,695,896 Holden Dec. 18, 1928 1,744,645 Kurten Jan. 21, 1930 1,744,646 Kurten Jan. 21, 1930 1,928,265 Rand Sept. 26, 1933 2,180,639 Hearn Nov. 21, 1939

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