US389119A - Trunk-fixture - Google Patents

Description

(No Model.) O. A. TAYLOR.

TRUNK FIXTURE.

Patented Sept. 4, 1888.

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UNITED STATES PATENT I OFFICEO CHARLES A. TAYLOR, OF CHICAGO, ILLINOIS, ASSIGNOR 'lO JOHN H. SESSIONS, OF BRISTOL, CONNECTICUT.

TRUNK-FIXTURE.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 389,119, dated September 4, 1888.

Application filed March 5, IBFB. Serial No. 266.270.

To (LZZ whom it may concern:

Be it known that 1, CHARLES A. TAYLOR, of Chicago, in the county of Cook and State of Illinois, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Trunk'Fixtures, of which the following is a full, clear, and exact description, reference being had to the accompanying drawings, and to the letters of reference marked thereon.

The object of my invention is to provide a simple and economical fixture for trunk-trays, whereby said tray can be closed into the lid ofthe trunk and maintained there when the lid is open, and which automatically releases said tray when the lid of the trunk is closed onto the body thereof, substantially as hereinafter fully described, and as illustrated in the drawings, in which Figure 1 shows a transverse vertical section of the top of atrunk in which the tray is located, showing my improvements applied thereto. 2 is a front view of my improved fixture. Fig. 3 is a side elevation thereof, and Figs. at and 5 show side views of modifications of the same.

Referring to the drawings, A represents the body of a trunk, 13 the lid thereof, and C the tray, set within said trunk, resting on cleats or ledges in the body of the same, hinged in the usual manner at the rear to the upper edge of said body, and of such height that its upper half is within thelid when the trunk is closed.

The front horizontal edges of the bodies of trunks are generally re-enforced by placing a longitudinal strip, a, along the inner surface thereof flush with and parallel to said edge, and the front surface of trays that arise above the horizontal plane of the upper edges of the bodies of the trunks are beveled from the up per edge and the lower edge toward and to the horizontal line intersected by and on the same plane as the upper edges of the bodies. This beveling is intended to facilitate the opening or swinging of the tray up out of the body and toward or into the lid of a trunk. This common construction affords me the opportunity of using the spring D, which consists, preferably, of a strip of flat spring metal of a length less than the height of the tray and provided with a suitable hole, I), in its upper half and with a horizontal slot, 0, preferably midway (No model.)

between its side edges above said hole 0 and near the upper end of said spring 1). This spring is bent and curved outward, so that its normal shape in profile is substantially that shown in Fig. 3, and it is secured vertically, preferably at about the center of length, to the tray, so that one half is above and the other below the vertex of the double bevel of the front surface thereof. It (the spring) is secured at its lower end to said tray by suitable means, and its upper end is held to the same by a suitable nail, screw, or rivet, d, which passes through slot 0, and the head of which is greater in diameter than the width of said slot.

When a tray with my improved spring D is closed into the body ofa trunk, the said spring is depressed against the tray by striking and moving down past the re-enforcing strip a. This depressing of the spring or straightening out of its normal curvature causes its upper end to move vertically toward the upper edge of the tray. This vertical movement is accommodated by the slot 0. \Vhen, however, the tray is lifted, or, rather, oscillated, out of the body of the trunk, the said spring bulges outward, as shown in Fig. 3, and when closed into the lid of the trunk is caught by the lug e, se cured to and projecting in from the inner surface of said lid, slipping into said hole b, thus preventing the tray from falling out of said lid while the same is open. By pressing the spring inward, or by closing the lid down upon the body of the trunk, said spring is moved off of the lug e, and thus releases the said tray from said lid.

Instead of making the slot 0 in the said spring, its upper end could be placed through and moved in a suit-able staple projecting from the tray.

Fig. 4 shows a modification of my improved spring-fixture, and consists, brief] y speaking, of asuitably-curved wire spring, E, which, instead of being secured to the front of the tray, is secured to the side thereof contiguous to the front surface, so that its curved length bulges out past the plane of the front surface and is provided with a shoulder or offset, f, which, when closed into the lid, snaps into a suitable recess made in register therewith in the inner surface thereof.

Fig. 5 is substantially the same as the modifications shown in Fig. 4, except that, instead of being made of wire, it is made of cast metal, the upper end of the casting E being forced outward by the constant pressure of a spring, and the curved extension g having a shoulder which snaps into a suitable recess the same as does the wire extension of the device shown in Fig. 4 when closed into the lid.

What I claim is- 1. The conibinatiomwith the body of a trunk having strip a secured against the inner surface of the front upper edge thereof and alid, of a tray resting within and hinged at the rear to said body and arising into the lid of said trunk, and a spring having a shoulder formed therein secured to said tray, which catches upon shoulder of the lid when the same is open, and which automatically releases itself from said lid when oscillated into said body part of the trunk.

2. The combination,with the body ofa trunk having a strip, a, seen red to the upper inner of the same, of the tray hinged at the rear to said body, a spring, D, secured to the front of said tray, so as to engage in vertical register with said lug, having an opening, b, and a slot, 0, and a rivet, d, as and for the purpose set forth.

CHARLES A. TAYLOR.

\Vitnesses:

FRANK D. THOMASON, THOMAS A. SMYTH.

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