US353878A - Street-car - Google Patents

Description

(No Model.) 3 Sheets-Sheet 1.

W. H. NELSON.

STREET GAR.

No 353,878. Patented Dec. 7, 1886.

WITNESSES v LN'VEJV'TOR madam, KI Mum WZZLQJAJM Attorney 8,

(No Model.) a Sheets-Shet w. H. NELSON.

STREET GAR.

No. 353,878. Patented Dec. '7, 1886.

- INVENTOH Me K A TT OH/IIE Y UN TED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

WILLIAM H. NELSON, OF ALEXANDRIA, VIRGINIA.

STREET-CAR.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 353,878, dated December 7, 1886.

Application filed June 7, 1856. Serial No. 204,402.

to the accompanying drawings, and to the letters of reference marked thereon.

This invention relates to improvements in streetcars, the object being to construct a car that in summer may have open sides, with the seats situated transversely to the car-body, and in winter may have the seats situated longitudinally to the same, with their backs arranged to form a substitute for the car-sides,

the windows being above the upper edges of the backs, so that the car is effectually closed.

The invention consists, mainly, in so constructing the seats and their attachments that the former may be securely held in either of the above-mentioned positions, and in forming recesses or receptacles in the backs of the seats to receive the sashes when lowered, each sash when raised resting upon a suitable flange or bead upon the upper edge of the corresponding seat back, as shown in Fig. 4, this being the normal closed position of the sash.

The invention further consists in the construction and novel arrangement of certain parts hereinafter described, illustrated in the accompanying drawings, and pointed out in the claims hereto appended.

In the drawings, Figure 1 represents a vertical longitudinal section of a portion of a street-car having the invention applied thereto with the seats arranged transversely. Fig.2 represents a side view of a portion of a streetcar having the seats arranged longitudinally, the back of one seat being cut away to show its attachment to the body of the car. Fig. 3 is a transverse section of the street-car shown in Fig. 1, on the line X X thereof, and properly broken away to show the attachment of the seat. Fig. 4 represents the side view of a seat with the sash raised from the casing thereof and in position to close the space above the seat. Fig. 5 represents a perspective view of one of theseats with all the attachments thereupon, and Fig. 6 a detached perspective View of the eyebolt E and the arm D engaged therewith.

against which the seat rests.

(No model.)

Referring to the accompanying drawings by letter, A, Figs. 1, 2, and 3, designates the carbody resting on the wheels at, which body is provided with the end platforms, at a, the step a on each side, and the roof of, supported by the side standards, B, the said parts being substantially similar to the corresponding parts of the well-known open-sided summer-car. The invention differs from the latter, however, in having its ends closed, the said ends being each provided with, as shown in Fig. 3, a door, b, and windows I) b on each side of the same, like the closed car used principally in winter.

O C are the seats, two of which, when placed end to end, are of just sufficient length to cross the floor of the car-body from side to side, as shown in Fig.3. Arranged thusin pairs, they form a suitable number of rows of transverse seats, as shown in Fig. 1, which are held in position by means hereinafter described. The rear surface, 0, of theback of each seat conforms in contour to that of the inner surface of the standards B, and the back of the seat is ofj ust sufficient length to extend from the middle line of any one standard to the middle line of either of the adjacent ones, the standards a being equidistant, as shown in Figs. 1 and 2. Consequently when the seats are arranged longitudinally, with their backs against the standards, the lower portions of the spaces between the standards will be effectually closed.

Each seat has on the lower end of its back a rail or clip, 0', Figs. 1, 4, and 5, which rests upon the car-floor and enters and fits between the standards against which the seat rests, so as to aid in retaining thelatter in place. The upper edge of the back of each seat inclines downwardly from front to rear, or from within outwardly when the seats are arranged against the standards, and is provided with a flange, 0', having the same inclination. The end of said flange bears against the shoulders 0 made on the inner surfaces of the standards The bearing of the flange against said shoulders aids in bolding the seat down on the floor and keeping it in position. Each seat has secured to its under surface a bolt-hook, D, Figs. 1, 2, 3, and 6, the vertical arm of which screws into the center of said surface, or into a re-enforcing strip secured thereon, while the horizontal situated in relation to a seat that when the latter is moved into the position shown in Fig. l the arm 61 of the hook-boltD of the seat will have entered to its full extent in the eyeboltE.

E E are eyebolts screwed into the car-floor, with their eyes at right angles to those of the bolts-E, as shown in Fig. 1. These eyebolts E are so situated that when the seat is moved back against two adjacent standards the long arm d is entered to its full extent. WVhen the horizontal arm 01 of the ring-bolt D of each one of the seats is engaged with the eyebolt E, as shown'in Fig. 1, the latter will be arranged in equidistant transverse rows, and the sides of the car will be open between the standards B. The ring-bolt E, besides holding the seats .down to the car-floor, prevents them moving laterally, so that their meeting ends cannot separate, and thus a continuous seat is made across the car, and more seating room afforded.

Common staples or other equivalent devices may be substituted for the eyebolt, if desired or more convenient.

F F are the window-sash, with the panes therein. Each sash slides down into a receptacle or casing,f, Fig. 5, made to receive it, in the back of a seat, and when within the casing its lower edge rests upon stops f f, Fig. l, secured within the back of the seat.

The upper edge of the sash projects sufficientl y above the back of the seat to allow a hand hold secured to its upper rail to be easily grasped when it is necessary to close the window. When the sash is being raised, its side edgesslide upward in rabbcts f f, Fig. 1, made for their accom'tnodation in the edges of the inside surfaces of the standards B, against which the sash rests, and when the sash is entirely up its upper edge enters a groove, f made in the lower edge of a side piece, f depending from the roof of the car. After the sash has thus engaged in the said groove its lower edge is moved outward, so as to rest upon the inclined flange c on the top of the back of the car-seat, as shown in Fig. 4. When all of the side windows have been thus closed and the windows in the end of the car also closed, the latter is virtually a car with closed sides. The manner of arranging the seats to adapt the car either for summeror winter use is' evident from the foregoing description.

I am aware that cars have been made in which the seats were so constructed that they could be either arranged transversely or lon gitudinally in relation to the car-body, and therefore I make no claim to embody that construction alone; but,

Having thus fully described my invention, what I claim as new, and desire to secure by Letters Patent, is I 1. In'a street-car having its floor and its roof connected by vertical standards, a suitable number of similar seats of proper size arranged and detachably secured in transverse rows to the car-floor, and arranged and detachably secured to the car-floor against the car --standards in two opposite longitudinal rows, and having in their backs casings for the reception of window-sashes of proper size to close when raisedthe portions of the spaces between the car-standards above the back of the seats, substantially as specified.

2. In a street-car, the combination of the equidistant vertical standards connecting the roof and the floor thereof, the car-seats having casings for the window-sashes made in their backs, the window-sashes entering said casings when lowered and closing the spaces above the back of the seats and between the standards when raised, and means, substantially as described, whereby the seats may be detachably secured to the carfloor in transverse rows or in longitudinal rows, with their sashes F, entering and retained in said casing ILO and closing when raised the portion of the space between the standards B above the seats, and means,substantially as described, whereby the seats may be detachably secured to the carfioor in transverse equidistant rows, or in longitudinal rows, with their backs against the standards B, substantially as specified.

This specification signed and witnessed this 12th day of March,'1886.

WM. H. NELSON.

WVitnesses:

vJAMEs ELLIOTT, R. T. LUCAS, Jr.

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