US382942A

US382942A - Luther g

Info

Publication number: US382942A
Authority: US
Publication date: 1888-05-15
Anticipated expiration: 1905-05-15

Description

(No Model.)

L. G. BIL'LINGS.

TYPE WRITER CABINET.

Patented May 15, 1888.

l I I U4 trforneg N. FETKRS. Phaln-Lilhogmphor. Washmgton, D, C.

NITED STATES PATENT Orrrca.

LUTHER G. BILLINGS, OF XVASHINGTON, DISTRICT COLUMBIA.

TYPE-WRITER CABINET.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 382,942, dated May 15, 1888.

Application filed October 24, 1887. Serial No. 253,240. (No model.)

To all whom, it may concern:

Be it known that I, LUTHER G. BILLINGS, a citizen of the United States, residing at \lVashington, in the District of Columbia, have invented a certain new and useful Improvement in Type-W'riter Cabinets, of which the following is a full, clear, and exact description.

The object of this invention is to provide a convenient and economical cabinet for supporting a type-writing machine for use, and for inclosing or coveringit and removing it from view and dust and out of the way when not in use.

I am aware that numerous inventions having a like object in view have heretofore been patented, and many ofsuch inventions, in common with mine, have embraced a shelf or platform combined with a desk and having a tilting movement to bring the typewriter into a horizontal plane for use and to drop it into the desk or cabinet out of the way when no longer needed for writing purposes.

My invention therefore consists in a typewriter cabinet having a tilting shelf of the characterjust mentioned, but of peculiar con struction and operation, as I will now pro ceed to set forth more particularly and finally claim.

In the accompanying drawings, illustrating my invention, in the several figures of which like parts are similarly designated, Figure 1 is a front elevation, partly broken out to show the catch for the shelf and the hinge for the hinged top; Fig. 2, a crosssection; Fig. 3, a perspective view of the shelf detached; and Fig. 4, a perspective view of one of the bearings detached.

The cabinet or desk A. nny be of any approved construction and design. I have shown it with a flat top, a, and two sides, b 12, provided with drawers 0 c, with a recess, 66, between these said sides, and a back, 0, extending from side to side, and, preferably, from top to bottom of the desk. The top a is provided with a hinged portion, a, covering the recess d, and capable of being folded back upon the top of one or the other of the sides.

f is the shelf or platform to receive and support the type-writing machine. (Not shown, because well known and not of this invention.) This shelf is by preference a flat piece of framed board, of a size to fi t in the recess d, and it is provided with headed lateral lugs or journals 9, which may be headed bolts or screws. These journals 9 are preferably set in recesses g in the sides of the shelf so as to have their outer surfaces flush with the extreme level of the sides of the shelf, to gain a shelf of a width substantially equal to the width of the recess, whereby lateral motion of the shelf under the operation of the type-writer is prevented, or, I

to express the fact positively, whereby the shelfis stayed laterally by the walls of the re cess. These journals 9 are arranged at one side of the center of the shelf and nearer the front thereof, so that the gravity of the shelf tends to tilt the shelf out of a horizontal plane backwardly toward the rear of the cabinet. Bearings h for the journals of the shelf are arranged upon the side walls of the recess, and these hearings, in their simplest form,are flat pieces of metal having notches z and recesses j in the rear of the notches to receive the shanks and heads of thejournals. The journals and their bearings are connected and disconnected by a vertical movement of the shelf.

The headed journals engaging the notched and recessed bearings serve an additional purpose in that they act as a brace or tie in connection with the shelf to prevent the tiers of drawers from creeping away from one another, or, in other words, from warping out of position and so binding the shelf.

It is old in a knockdown bracket to support a shelf and at the'same time bind together the sides of the bracket by means of two headed screws on eachend of the shelf engaging recessed sockets in the sides; but I limit my claim in this regard to a hinged shelf as distinguished from a rigidlyheld shelf.

The shelf is held in horizontal position by a catch, 70, set in one of the side walls of the recess and adapted to engage a keeper, Z, shown as a slotted plate countersunk in one edge of the shelf. The catch k in its simplest form is a strip of spring metal screwed at its lower end in a recess in the sidewall of the recess d and having a hook at its free end to engage automatically the keeper Z and be disengaged therefrom manually, though I do not limit my invention to this precise form of catch. The

ating it, as shown. Theshelf is allowed a fall within the recess (1 with its bearings as a center sufficient to lower the top of the typewriter below the top of the cabinet, and thus permit the hinged portion a to be placed in position to close the top of the recess, and thereby make the top of the cabinet continuous and level throughoutits length. Atthe point of lowest descent of the shelf necessary to this end is arranged a stationary shelf, m, projecting forwardly from the back of the cabinet. This shelf at, together with the tilting shelf, the back of the cabinet, the hinged top there: of, and the side walls of the same, make an inclosing case for the type-writer when not in use.

My construction of type-writer-supporting shelf, especially with respect to thejournals and bearings thereof, enables one to bodily remove the shelf without trouble, and simply by lifting up the shelf out of its bearings. This facility of removal of the shelf will be found of decided advantage and convenience when the desk is to be used as such, for example, bya penman.

Buffers n n are arranged on the side walls of the recess to aid in supporting the shelf when down. So, also, a buffer or buffers, 0, may be arranged on the back of the cabinet to receive the upper edge of the shelf when up or in horizontal position, these buffers acting as stops for the shelf. The buffers may be disks or blocks of rubber or other yielding sub stance.

The shelff serves as a lever for raising the type-writer into position for use, and it is man-.

ually operated to this end, and when so raised the catch it automatically engages the keeper Z and retains the shelf in such position. The machine is returned to the recess d when no longer needed for use by simply releasing the catch, and thus permitting gravity to act under control of the operator, the buffers n n preventing any serious jar to the shelf and machine should they slip out of control.

When the shelf is down, as indicated by dot ted lines, Fig. 2, and full lines, Fig. 1, and the top portion, a, is also brought over the recess, as indicated in both of said figures, they may be locked together by any suitable lock, 1), for example, a pianolock, and thus preserve the machine from use by unauthorized persons.

In my type-writer cabinet I dispense with all those weights and jointed levers and other like complications common to other existing cabinets for type-writers for the connection of hinged top for such recess, a shelf or platform for the machine pivoted between its ends in said recess, a catch to engage said shelf and retain it in horizontal position, and a lock to connect the hinged top and shelf in position of disuse, substantially as set forth.

2. The desk or cabinet A, having the recess d, combined with the shelff, pivoted in said recess by means of the lateral journals 9, per manently attached to said shelf and provided with heads, and the notched bearings h, secured to the sides of the recess and into which the headed journals are detachably fitted to not only allow the shelf to be swung or rotated upon itsjournals, but also to permit the shelf and its attached journals to be removed bodily from the desk at pleasure, and serving, further, to brace or tie together the sides of the desk when in place, substantially as described.

3. The desk or cabinet A, having the recess (1 and a movable top for such recess, combined with the shelff, operable independently of the top and pivoted between its ends within the said recess by means of the headed journals permanently attached to the sides of the said shelf, and the notchcd'or countersunk bearings h, secured to the sides of the recess and receiving the headed journals to tie together the parts of the desk and permitting the free movement of said-journaled shelf within and out from them, and a catch, all constructed and arranged substantially as described.

4. The desk or cabinet A, having a recess, (1, combined with a gravitating shelf, itsjournals, and bearings arranged in said recess, a catch, a stationary shelf, m, and buffers 12 and 0, substantially as described.

In testimony whereof I have hereunto set ny hand this 21st day of October, A. D. 1887.

LUTHER G. BILLINGS.

Witnesses:

WM. H. FINCKEL, HARRY Y. DAVIS.