US28511A - Sash-supporter for car-windows - Google Patents

Description

UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

HENRY- K. SMITH, OF PHILADELPHIA, PENNSYLVANIA.

SASH-SUPPOR'IER FOR CAR-WINDOWS.

Specification of Letters Patent No. 28,511, dated May 29, 1860.

To all whom 'it may concern:

Be it known that I, HENRY K. SMITH, of Philadelphia, in the State of Pennsylvania, have invented a new and useful Car-lindow Supporter' or Fastener to be Used in Railroad-Cars for the Puropse of Holding Up the Vxlindows Then Raised; and I do hereby declare the following to be a correct description of the same, reference being had to the accompanying drawing and to the letters of reference marked thereon.

A great variety of contrivances for holding the sash of railroad car windows in place when raised, have been advised, but I am satisfied from long experience as a railroad superintendent that none of them possess the requisite qualities necessary in a device to perform this duty. A contrivance that would be perfectly effectual when used in a common stationary window might be entirely useless` when employed to hold up the window of a car in'rapid motion and subjected to constant and violent vibration. Hence we find that the windows of cars are very frequently thrown down by the jars to which they are liablean accident attended with inconvenience, and even with danger when any part of the person is exposed to the blow. Serious and painful injuries to the hands and arms of passengers have resulted from this cause.

My invention, though exceedingly simple, accomplishes perfectly the object desired, as I have demonstrated by practical experiment on the car windows of the Philadelphia da Germantown Road of which I am superintendent.

yIn the drawing A marks the frame of the window; B the sash; C the weighted catch; D the hook into which the lower end of catch C is received; a the arm of the earch; o the bur or pin of hook D; o a screw for securing D to the frame A; c the pivot of the catch C; z' the tooth or lower end of C.

The catch C, which is attached to the sash of the window, swings freely on its pivot c and by the operation of the weight of its arm o its lower end is kept in contact with the window frame A so as to b-e in position to fall into the notch of hook D, when descending after having been raised above it. The hook D, which is attached to the window frame by the bur o and screw o, receives the point or tooth fz' of the catch and holds it securely; and it is only by raising the window a distance equal to the depth of the notch of hook D and holding the catch back so as to clear the hook, that the window can be lowered. No jar which a car under ordinary circumstances will receive, can throw the catch out of connection with the hook and allow the window to fall.

Having thus described my invention I wish it understood that I do not claim a weighted pawl working into a notch with a horizontal face; nor do I claim any de vice for locking the sash ofa window down; but

That I claim is- The combination with the window of a railroad car of the catch C and hook D constructed and arranged for conjoint operation in the manner described and for the purpose set forth.

The above specification of my said invention, signed and witnessed this 11th day of April A. D. 1860.

HENRY K. SMITH.

Witnesses CHAS. F. STANSBURY, JOHN H. LEwAss.

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