US271103A - Heney f - Google Patents

Description

(No Model.)

H. BNEWBURY.

\ SAFE LOCK.

Zyl Patented Jan. Z3, 1883.

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UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

HENRY F. NEWBURY, OF BROOKLYN, NEW YORK.

SAFE-LOCK.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 271,103, dated January 23, 1883.

Application filed August 31, 1882. (No model.)

To all whom it muy concern Be it known that I, HENRY F. NEWBURY, of Brooklyn, in the county of Kings and State of New York, have invented a new and Improved Mode of Mounting Locks; and I here by declare that the following is a full, clear, and exact description of the same.

The usual mode of securing the various kinds of locks and auxiliary parts of the locking mechanism upon the inner face of the door or wall ofthe safe, vault, or other structure which they are used to guard has been to bolt them directly thereto, with no provision for permitting a movement ot' the door or wall relatively to the lock. I have discovered that when locks are thus mounted they can be displaced by a burglar without resort to force to break or penetrate the walls of the safe or vault. This can readily be eft'ected by the use of a small charge of dynamite, nitro-glycerine, or other quick explosive exploded against the outside of that portion of the door or wall to which the locking mechanism is attached. The momentum which can be communicated to a lock through the walls of a safe by reason of the suddenness with which the so-called quick7 explosives act is such as to tear the lockaway from its seat if it be rigidly fastened.

The present invention relates to an improved modeof mounting locks and the auxiliary parts of the locking mechanism in order to guard against the danger of their being displaced by a sudden and heavy shock communicated to them through the walls of the structure in which they are used; and it consists in protecting the fastening-bolts or other devices which support them by means of springs or other yielding and elastic appliances which permit a backward and forward movement relatively to each other of the locking lnechanism thus protected and the door or wall to which it is secured.

The invention is illustrated in the accompanying drawings, in which `Figures l and 2 show in elevation and plan, respectively, an ordinary combinationlock, and also a suppleplemental locking mechanism, both of which are secured to the door ,of a safe by means of protected fastenings. Fig. 2 is a section on the line x as of Fig. l, a part of the casing of the supplemental lock being broken away in l order to show the fasteningbolts and springs more distinctly.

Referring to the drawings more in detail, A is acombination-lock provided with a sliding bolt, B, which works between two anglejaws, C C, pivoted to the door D, and connected by links E E to the carrying or tie bar F.

Gr G are the ordinary door-bolts, working in the bolts-bars H H.

The lock A is secured to the door by means of four longscrew-bolts7 I I, which pass through ears on the lock case.- Spiral springs are interposed between these ears and the heads of the bolts, and also between the ears and the face of the saiedoor. The use of such springs will be found a complete protection against the unseating of thelock by any explosion or other sudden shock directed against the door of the safe less than what would be required to set the door-bolts. The action ot' the springs is to cushion the lock, and in this way they take up and absorb gradually the momentum communicated to the moving parts, and thus relieve the fastening'bolts from the strain that otherwise would be thrown upon them. When a combination or other kindred form of look is thus secured by means of yielding supports, whereby the door of the safe and the lock have a capacity of movement backward and forward relatively to each other, 4it becomes necessary to make provision also for the longitudinal play of the spindle by which the lock is operated. Such construction is illustrated in Fig. 3, which shows in horizontal section a part of the safe-door and of' the lock.

The interior end ot' the spindle J is made square, and passes entirely through an open- -ing of corresponding shape" in the hub of the This would perdriving-cam K ot' the lock. mit the spindle to move easily to and fro relatively to the lock without disturbing thelatter.

It is not intended herein to claim this construction of the spindle and the connected parts, since the present invention is not limited to locks which are operated by means of spindles passing through the safe-door, and since, also, in its special application to such locks it constitutes the subject of a separate application for Letters Patent led by me.

'Ihe angle-lever or bellcrank jaws C C are -2 t l v @1,103

to be classed among the adjuucts of the lock, or the auxiliary parts of the locking mechanism. These are necessarily made heavy in order to resist the' powerful backward thrust which may be put upon them through the me dium of the ordinary door-spindle (not shown iu the drawings) and the door-bolts. In order to prevent these heavy angle-levers or jaws from being displaced by the shock intended to unseat the lock itself', they also should be cushioned by the use of springs,or in some equivalent manner. One mode of doing this is shown in Fig. 4,' which is a horizontal section on the line e z of the lower angle-lever C of Fig. 1, and of the tie-bar F. The bolt L is made longer than would be required if the anglelever were not to have the capacity of moving ou it, and a spiral sprin gis interposed between thc head of the bolt and the jaw C. This will effectually prevent this heavy block of metal from being thrown against the head of the bolt with such force as to tear itfrom its seat.

M in Figs. 1 and 2 is a supplemental locking mechanism bolted to the safe-door in close proximity to the main lock. 1t consists of a lrecessed case, a dog or check, N, and a stop or latch, O, for holding the check N out of action. When this check or dog is raised, as shown in Fig. 1, the stud P-can enter the recess in the case M. When, however, the block N 'is dropped down, it will obstruct the stud, and thus effectually oppose the retraction of the door-bolts. The block is kept raised under -normal conditions by means of the stop 0, which takes in under the hook on the block.

If by the bending in of the safe-door under any' powerful force the head of this stop is pushed out from under the hook, the block falls, and by reason of the proximity of this supplemental mechanism to the main lock this would happen when a heavy charge of dynamite or simi- A-lar explosive is discharged against the exterior of the safe in the vicinity of the lock.

1n order to prevent the supplemental mechanism from being pnseated by the same shock, its fastenin gs should be protected by means which will permit the requisite movement between it and the door to which it is attached. This, as shown in Fig. 2, may be effected by means of long screw-bolts Q Q, and spiral -springs, the same as in the case of the main lock.

Instead of using longbolts and spiral springs to secure and cushion locks and their auxiliary devices, as above described, they may also be mounted on stout and iiexible sheets of rubber in the manner shown in Letters Patent Nos. 262,097 and 262,098, granted me on the 1st day of August, 1882. So, also, a thin elastic metal bar or strip might be used inthe manner illustrated in Letters Patent No. 262,100, granted me on the 1st day of August, 1882. 1n these several patents the flexible and elastic mounting is used in connection with timelocks, and when so used either the flexible supports must be constructed in a special man- `ner, in order-to protect the clock from injury,

or the'clock itself must have a special construction, or special supplemental safety devices must be employed, as is fully set forth in said patents.

The use of flexible and elastic supports for protecting the fastenings even of time-locks is not made the subject of claim in .any of said patents, except under the limiting conditions therein set forth. So, also, in the application for Letters Patent above referred to, the use of flexible and elastic supports for combination and kindred kinds of locks is claimed only in connection with a specified construction and arrangement-of the operating-spindle. y

The present application is designed to cover broadly the use of yielding and elastic devices for protecting the fastenings of locks and the auxiliary parts of the locking mechanism of safes, vaults, and similar structures, whether such locks are provided with chronometric mechanism or not, and, also, whether or not they have operating-spindles passing through the door.

The invention is applicable not only to locks such as' are shown and described in the application above referred to-viz., ordinary combination -locks--and in the several patents above named-that is, ordinary timelocks-but also to supplemental locking mechanisms like that shown in Fig. 1- of the accompanying drawings, and which have no connection with the exterior of the safe, and also to what is known as the spring-box;7 of automatic'bolt-work, and generally to all kinds of locking devices which, if bolted rigidly to the internal wall of a safe, would be in danger of being unseated by an explosion directed against the corresponding part of the exterior thereof.

1 am aware that it is customary with both time and non-time locks to use thinwashers of rubber between the lock and the door to which it is attached. These washers, however, are

-used for the purpose of preventing the bolts from being unscrewed by tapping or pounding against theoutside of the safe; and to secure this result the washers must be compressed `very tightly in order to force them laterally against the bolts. This practically contines the lock to the door as rigidly as if no washers were used and furnishes no protection whatever against the breaking of the bolts by asudden and heavy shock.

I am also aware that in the case of timelocks it has been proposed to cushion the clock by the use of springs interposed between the clock mechanism and the case of the lock; but as the lock-case was to be secured to the IGO IIO

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door of the safe in the ordinary way these springs furnished no protection against the unseating of the lock by a shock transmitted through the door from the exterior of the safe.

I am also aware that it has been proposed tovmount a time-lock by seating it between two upper and two lower brackets bolted to the face of the safe-door, with rubber blocks interposed between the brackets and the top and the bottom of the lock-case. Such mode ot mounting, however, would be totally inadequate as a protection against an explosion of dynamite or other similar material. The shock produced thereby would project the lock bodily inward and throw it entirely off from the brackets.

It is not intended to include the bolt-frame of the safe or vault door in the term locks and the auxiliary parts of the locking mechanism77 as above used. 1f the bolt-frame were to be supported normally by fastening-bolts provided with springs or other yielding devices that would permit a movement of the bolt-frame relatively to the door of the safe, the door could easily be opened by the use of HENRY F.l NEWBURY.

Witnesses:

SAML. A. DUNCAN, R. F. GAYLoRD. a

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