US323379A - Balance-door for stoves and grates - Google Patents

Description

2 Sheets-Sheet I.

(NoModeL) G. WELLHOUSE. BALANCE DOORFOR STOVES AND GRATES.

Pztented 11113128, 1885.

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(No Model.) I 2 Sheets-Sheet 2.

. G. WELLHOUSE.

BALANCE DOOR FOR STOVES AND GRATES. v No. 323,379. atented July 28, 1885.

WITNESSES IIVVE/VTOR lJNrrEn stares PATENT @rricn.

GEORGE \VELLHOUSE, OF AKRON, OHIO.

BALANCE-DOOR FOR. STOVES AND GRATES.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 323,379, dated July 28, 1885.

Application filed November 3, 1884. (No model.)

To aZZ whom it may concern.-

Be' it known that I, Gnonen WnLLHoUsn, of Akron, in the county of Summit and State of Ohio, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in BalanceDoors for Stoves and Grates; and I do hereby declare the following to be a full, clear, and exact description of the invention, such as will enable others skilled in the art to which it pertains to make and use the same.

My invention relates to improvements in balance-doors for open stoves and grate-fronts, the object being to provide a front plate offset rearwardly to accommodate the balanceweights above the doorway and to give greater strength and durability to the front plate.

A further object is-to arrange the parts so that the door is supported directly from the arms of the balance-weights, and without con neetingrods or otherintermediate mechanism.

A further object is to provide inclined, and preferably curved, ways to engage the lugs that support the door, and so arranged that the lugs during the first part of the movement, either in opening or closing the door, will act on a downgrade and cause the door to start easily, and will act on an upgrade toward the end of the stroke, and more or less check the momentum and retard the movement of the door.

A further object is to provide a single guiding-pin operating in a vertical slot to guide the door, to the end that the warping of parts is not likely to interfere with the free working of the door.

A further object is to support the guidingplate from the lugs on which the balanceweights are pivoted, and so arranged that the guideplate serves as an abutment to hold the weights in position.

A further object is to simplify the construction generally, to the end that the initial cost is lessened thereby.

it-h these objects in view my invention consists in certain features ofconstruction, and in combination of parts hereinafter described,- and pointed out in the claims.

This invention is designed as an improvement on a device on which I have already obtained Letters Patent of the United States No. 303,082, dated August 5, 1884.

In the accompanying drawings, Figure 1 is a front view in elevation of a stove embodying my invention, showing the door open. Fig. 2 is a front view in elevation of the stove, with the ornamental plates removed, and showing the door closed. Fig. 3 is a front view in elevation, with the door and ornamental plate removed, showing the guide-plate and balanceweights, the latter being in the posit-ion required to supportthe door wide open. Fig. 4: is a view in perspective of the front plate, so called, showing the offsets in the plate and the depressions or recesses where the weights are located. Fig. 5 is a view in perspective of the door. Fig. 6 is a rear view in elevation of the balance-weights, showing them in their relative position to each other, but detached from the stove. Fig. 7 is a transverse vertical section of the front plate on the line of 00 a), Fig. 4. Fig. 8 is a view in elevation of the guide-plate, and Fig. 9 is an enlarged view in perspective of a set of lugs, a and a, and the adjacent part of the front plate.

A represents the so-called front plate of the stove, although it is usually more or less covered by ornamental worksuch, for instance, as the plates 13 and b. Above the door-opening this plate is offset rearward, forming recesses or depressions A, in which the weights G and G operate. Near the center of the plate is a flatvertical part, A somewhat in advance of the adjacent depressions, and from which project forward two bosses, a, that are circular in cross-section, and form the bearing on which the weights are respectively pivoted. The front ends of these bosses are reduced in size at a, and form lugs that support the guideplate D. These oifsets greatly strengthen the plate A and render it less liable to crack and warp, and at the same time the depressions or pockets thus formed furnish snug quarters for the weights, that by reason of them are located behind the ornamental plate B, in what would otherwise be waste room over the doorway. The weights have circular openings and lit over and are pivoted on the respective lugs a, and have segmental teeth 0, that interlock and cause the weights and attachments to move in unison, and have arms 0 and c, that extend in opposite directions. The former passes behind the latter, but is curved forward near the end, so that the two lugs 0 that extend forward from the ends of the re- (1 in osition on the lu s to and these latter may be cut away where the pins pass through to lessen the amount of drilling required for the pin-hole. (See Fig. 7.)

E is a vertically-moving door, that is usually of some ornamental pattern, and provided with openings and means for securing isinglass over the same.- The door has a neck, that is curved rearward, and extends through the slot 1) and forms a guide-pin,

and has near the end lugs E that extend laterally behind the plate D and hold the part E from withdrawing from the slot. In placing the door in position, or in removing it by turning the door at an angle with the plate 1), the lugs E may be passed through the slot 1). The door has ears 6, extending outward and upward, as shown more clearly in Fig. 5, that have slots 6, in which operate the pins or lugs c of the arms of the balanceweights. These slots 6 are inclined, as shown, and are also curved, so that the incline of the slot is steeper as it approaches the inner and lower end. The lugs 0 in supporting the door, of course engage the upper walls, respectively, of the slots 0, that form ways 0 along which these lugs slide as the door is moved vertically.

The arrangement of parts is such that when the door is mid way of its vertical movement the arms of the weights are distended in a horizontal position, with the four lugs to and c in line, and in this position the lugs 0 are at the outer end of the respective slots 0. As the ends of these arms move in circular lines, with their respective axes at the respective lugs to, the lugs 0 must approach each other as they sweep upward or downward from the horizontal line just mentioned. In operating the doors, therefore, at either terminus-that is, when the door is closed or is wide openthe lugs 0 will be at their inner ends, respectively, of the slots 0. As the door is moved from either terminus, the lugs slide out on the ways (or in the slots) until the door is midway of its throw, and during the remainder of the stroke the lugs travel back over the ways to the inner end or place of beginning. The movement of the lugs c on the ways is the same whether the door is moved upward or downward, and in either case during the first part of the stroke the lugs move outward, and with the ways inclined as shown, and the door resting on the lugs, this outward movement.

is, in effect, on a downgrade, and when the door has passed its center of motion the said lugs return inward and encounter in effect an upgrade. By means, then, of these inclined ways, the door starts and moves easily during the first half of its throw and is retarded during the last half.

A hot stovedoor is likely to be manipulated in haste, and with some violence it the resistance is considerable, and a door that moves hard is much more liable to be broken than one that moves easily, the "breakage usually occurring at the end of the throw. My improved balancedoor starts so easily (requiring only a touch) that usually not much speed ormomentum is acquired, and the resistance on the inner end of the ways or inclines near the end of the stroke is such that the termini are approached gently, and frequently the door has to be helped along a trifle to fullyopen or close it. The ways 6 are preferably curved, as shown, so that while near the inner end the incline is about as steep as will admit of the door remaining at the termini. Toward the outer end the ways more nearly approach a horizontal line. Of course, if the ways were too steep, the lugs 0 would always remain at the outer end of the slots and the door would always stand half-way open.

The shape of the lower walls of the slots is of no consequence, so that there is room for the lugs c to operate. The lugs c are provided with washers m and pins n, by means of which the door is held in position on the said lugs 0 The parts are few in number and require little or no fitting, and the device can therefore be made at a comparatively small initial cost.

\Vhat I claim is l. The combination, with theplate A,having depressions A, and part A having lugs to a, of the weights pivoted upon said lugs and a door suspended from said weights.

2. The combination, with a supporting-plate and counterbalance-weights pivotally secured to the rear face thereof and provided with arms, the latter having laterally-projecting lugs, of a vertically-movable door-having oblong closed slots therein, in which the lugs on the arms of the counterbalance-weights rest.

3. The combination, with a supportingplate and pivoted counterbalance weights having intermeshing teeth and projecting arms, the latter provided with laterally-projectin g lugs, of a vertically-movable door having oblong slots, in which the lugs on the.

arms of the counterbalance-weights rest.

4:. The combination, with asupportingplate and the counterbalance-weights pivoted to said plate and provided with arms having laterally-projecting lugs, of a vertically-movable door having inclined ways, in which said lugs rest.

5. The combination, with a supporting-plate and counterbalance-weights pivoted thereto,

and provided wit-h arms crossing each other -IOO in opposite directions, the said arms having laterally-projecting logs, of the verticallylnovehle door having inclined ways, in which said lugs rest.

6. Thecombination, with a supporting-plate having lugs the counterbalance-Weights pivotally secured on said lugs, a guide secured on said lugs to the rear of the weights, and a vertically-movable door, ofa guide-pin secured to the door and moving within the guide.

7. The combination, with asupporting-plate and counterbalance-weights pivoted thereto, of a vertically-movable door connected to said weights, a stationary guide located in front of the door in a vertical line passin g through the

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