US2721470A

US2721470A - Mortise lock having wards

Info

Publication number: US2721470A
Application number: US444879A
Authority: US
Inventors: Hensel Erich
Original assignee: Individual
Current assignee: Individual
Priority date: 1954-07-21
Filing date: 1954-07-21
Publication date: 1955-10-25
Anticipated expiration: 1972-10-25

Description

INVENTOR. ERICH HENSEL ATTORNEY Mo 3 l 1 may a a l l. A A

E. HENSEL MORTISE LOCK HAVING WARDS Filed July 21, 1954 Oct. 25, 1955 United States Patent O MORTISE LOCK HAVING WARDS Erich Hensel, Doberlug-Kirchhain, Germany Application July 21, 1954, Serial No. 444,879

3 Claims. (Cl. 70-346) This invention relates to locks, and more particularly to mortise locks, preferably for use in articles of furniture.

The ribs or guides of hitherto known mortise locks for guiding the ward of a key during a rotation thereof in the lock are attached to the casing of the lock, so that they cannot be readily exchanged. If it is desired to change the guides of a lock so as to make it operable by a key having a differently shaped ward, it is necessary to disassemble the lock. This is of disadvantage to a cabinet-maker who at the time of attaching hitherto known mortise locks to an article of furniture does not know whether the user of the articles of furniture prefer the use of one and the same key or the use of a plurality of keys with different wards for the various locks on one and the same or different articles and, therefore, cannot select mortise locks equipped with guides suitable to the requirements of a user. On the other hand, the user of articles of furniture provided with hitherto known mortise locks may encounter the inconvenience of, for example, carrying around thirty diiferent keys for eight different articles of furniture or of being compelled to leave the keys in the locks of the articles if he does not wish to carry around the keys. Furthermore, if a key is lost, the lock becomes mostly useless, as it is rarely possible to obtain another key which fits. If, then, the original lock shall be replaced by a new lock, in most cases the socket of the new lock does not conform with the socket of the original lock, so that the door may be damaged by making the mortise fit for receiving the socket of the new lock.

An object of the invention is to provide a mortise lock of such a construction that any person, even a nonskilled person, may readily replace the guides for the key by new guides at any time without disassembling the lock mechanism per se.

Another object of the invention is to provide a mortise lock, which may be readily equipped with dilferent guides without change of the cross-section of its casing.

A further object of the invention is to improve on the construction of mortise locks as now ordinarily made.

Other objects and structural details of the invention will be apparent from the following description when read in conjunction with the accompanying drawings forming part of this specification, wherein:

Fig. 1 is a side elevational view of a mortise lock according to the invention,

Fig. 2 is a front elevational view of the mortise lock shown in Fig. 1,

Fig. 3 is an elevational view of the inner end of the front guiding sleeve for the key,

Fig. 4 is a sectional view of the mortise lock, taken on line A--B of Fig. 2, wherein, however, the bolt is in advanced locking position and the guiding sleeves for the key are omitted,

Fig. 5 is an elevational view of the key,

Fig. 6 is a sectional view of the mortise lock taken on the line OD of Fig. 1, and

Fig. 7 is an elevational view of the inner end of the rear guiding sleeve for the key.

Referring now to the drawings, the mortise lock according to the invention comprises a casing 1 having an aperture 7 slidably engaged with a reciprocable locking 2,721,470 Patented Oct. 25, 1955 bolt 2. A front guiding sleeve 3' for the key and a rear guiding sleeve 3" for the key are inserted into a bore 4 of the casing 1. The concentric ribs or guides 8' and 8" of the guiding

sleeves

3 and 3 being arranged on the inner sides thereof for cooperation with the steps of the ward or bitting 9 of the key 10 face each other, as best shown in Fig. 6. The guiding

sleeves

3 and 3" are prevented from rotation by means of a nose 6' and 6" respectively which is engaged with a

longitudinal groove

5 and 5" respectively in the wall of the bore 4. The guiding sleeve 3 has a suitably shaped passage 11 for the ward 9 of the key and the guiding sleeve 3" has a stud 12 for engagement with a bore 13 of the shank of the key 10.

Before the lock according to the invention is mounted on a door or the like, the guiding sleeves 3' and 3" are inserted into the bore 4 of the casing 1. Then the lock is pressed into a slot, which has been made in the door by means of a slot boring machine in accordance with the cross-section of the lock. As the total width of the pair of guiding sleeves 3' and 3" corresponds to the width of the casing 1 of the lock, the guiding

sleeves

3 and 3" being flush with the outer surface of the casing 1 are prevented from axial displacement by means of the walls of the slot of the door receiving the lock.

The guiding sleeves 3' and 3 may be inserted into the casing 1 of the lock in the manner as shown in Fig. 6 or in a reversed arrangement wherein the guiding sleeve 3 is on the right hand side and the guiding sleeve 3 is on the left hand side. Depending on the arrangement of the guiding sleeves 3' and 3" in the casing 1, the lock may be used either for right hand doors or for left hand doors.

If it is desired to replace the guides of the lock by guides of different shape so as to make same fit for a key with a different Ward, the guiding sleeves 3' and 3" can be readily taken out for replacement by guiding sleeves with guides of a difierent shape. Thus, the locks of various articles of furniture in an apartment can be readily changed in such a manner that a single key may be used for all of them.

I have described preferred embodiments of my invention, but it is understood that this disclosure is for the purpose of illustration and that various omissions or changes in shape, proportion and arrangements of parts, as well as the substitution of equivalent elements for those herein shown and described may be made without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention as set forth in the appended claims.

What I claim is:

1. A mortise lock having wards comprising: a casing, said casing having a bore, a pair of guiding sleeves for a key inserted into said bore, and concentric guides for cooperation with the ward of the key arranged on the inner sides of said guiding sleeves.

2. In a mortise lock having wards as claimed in claim 1, means associated with said guiding sleeves and said casing for preventing a rotation of said guiding sleeves relative to said casing.

3. In a mortise lock having wards as claimed in claim 1, said guiding sleeves being in engagement with each other, and the outer surfaces of said guiding sleeves being substantially flush with said casing.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS 118,986 Towne Sept. 12, 1871 408,688 Burgess Aug. 13, 1889 506,792 Nixholm Oct. 17, 1893 1,074,418 Doughty Sept. 30, 1913 1,253,678 Frain Jan. 15, 1918 1,261,181 Tamburini Apr. 2, 1918