US393350A - Spring-hinge - Google Patents

Description

(Model.)

F. R. BARTLETT.

, SPRING HINGE.

No. 398,350. Patented Nov. 27, 1888.

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` UNITnn STATES PATENT Fries.

FREDERIC R. BARTLETT, on FREEPORT, ILLINOIS.

SPRING-HINGE.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 393,350, dated November 27, 1888.

Application filed January 3, 1887. Serial No. 923,184. (Model.)

T0 all wir/0772, t may concern..e

Be it known that I, FREDERIC R. BARTLETT, a resident of Freeport, in the county of` Stephenson and State of Illinois,have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Spring- Hinges; 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.

The novelty in my invention lies in means for rendering a hinge both right and left hand, although the ears of one leaf both lie upon the same side of the corresponding ears of the other leaf, and in certain minor details of construction.

Figure I of the accompanying drawings shows a spring-hinge embodying my invention, seen perpcndicularly to its outer surface. Fig. 2 is a section on the line a: y, looking in the direction of the arrow a. Fig. 3 shows the saine parts as Fig. 2, one leaf having been revolved one hundred and eighty degrees, asin opening the door. Fig. 4 is a detail view, eX-

Fig. 5 is a section made by a plane parallel to the plane of the leaves and passing through the axis of the coil.

In the drawings, A Aare hinge-leaves provided with ears B B and connected by means of short pintles or gudgeons C, preferably integral with the outer ears and resting in slots in the inner ears. In the space between the inner ears of the connected leaves is a coiled spring, E, supported and connected with the hinge-leaves by four spring hooks or plates, DD D D', all of which are hooked to suitable lugs or pins, F F', on the hinge-leaves. The four hooks are connected and held in line by an arbor or pintle, H, and the construction of the hooks and the arbor and their mechanical connection constitute material parts of this invention, and are fully set forth in a later portion of this specification.

It is evident that in the hinge shown, when it is used as a right-hand hinge-that is, when the leaf A is attached to the door and the leaf A to the jamb or casing-the door will be supported by theliinge, even if the spring E, with its pintle H,be removed, for the ears upon the leaf A must rest upon the ears upon the leaf A. Itis equally evident that if the other leaf,

A, be attached to the door the latter will not be supported without other devices, for the leaves upon the leafA would lie below those upon the opposite leaf. In other language, the hinge is evidently right-hand only unless other parts be added. It has been customary to overcome this difficulty by connecting the spring hooks or plates in pairs with rigid bars to prevent their approach toward each other, and to allow the frame so formed to receive the pressure tending to separate the leaves when a hinge like the one shown was used for left-hand doors. That plan is, however, objectionable in adding to the expense of constru ction,to the difficulty of inserting the coil, and in certain other respects.

In my improved hinge the coil is attached directly to both the inner spring-hooks by placing its ends respectively in grooves m, Fig. 2, the spring being slightly compressed longitudinally, and thus hold the ends in the grooves by its elasticity, The inner springhooks are each provided with a boss, J, to receive the spring-coil and keep its ends in position. The inner faces of the outer springhooks are also provided with bosses I, which enter corresponding depressions in the inner spring-hooks, as shown in Fig. 5. Theboss is also shown in Fig. 4, the view being the same as in Fig. 2,the spring-hook D being indicated in position by dotted lines.

The spring pintle or arbor II is provided with terminal disks K,which lie outside ofthe outer spring-hooks and prevent undue spreading of the parts through the elasticity of the spring. The force ofthe spring presses the inner hooks downward or toward the plane of the leaves with great force, and the consequent tendency of the spring to rotate about the loops F F', supporting these hooks, is transmitted from the hooks D to the hooks D through the pintle H, and thence to the other leaf, Whose rigidity counteracts it. Now, it being desirable to cast the spring-pintle and the hooks through which it passes, the object of the boss I becomes apparent. There are always slight and nearly constant variations in cast-work, and these are sufficient to spoil a small bearing, while the same variation in a larger bearing would be immaterial; hence the boss I, which transmits great force,

is practically a great improvement, while it adds nothing to the cost of the hinge. It also secures the outer hook from disengagement by a blow when the spring with its hooks is disengaged from the leaves.

The heads K are of any size larger than the gudgeon C, Fig. 3, and project slightly beyond the outer hooks, the total length of the springpintle being equal, approximately, to the distance between the inner ears upon the hingeleaves.

The ordinary hinge, having its leaves con strueted as shown, can only be used upon a right-hand door, or one swinging to the right, as it is pushed open, and the leaf A must be fastened to the jamb or casing if the top of the hinge be the end toward which the arrow a, Fig. l, is directed, for if the leaf A be secured to the jamb and the leaf A to the door neither of the ears B B of the leaf A' has any support whatever until it has fallen below its proper position. W'hen the door is closed, the door with the attached leaf sinks bodily, the springpintle following the retreating lower gudgeon, C, until stopped by the spring when it has reached its limit of longitudinal compression. The springpintle has usually been made a little shorter than the distance from the lower leaf of the upper pair to t-he upper leaf of the lower pair, and in one style of this hinge the spring-pintle has been provided with a head at each end for retaining the hooks I) D or corresponding links. \Vhen such construction has been employed, the closed door falls a less distance, because the pintles head prc vents its following the gudgeon C through the lower of the ears T3; but even in this case the practical result is the same, for as the door opens the spring-pintle moves laterally away from the axis of rotation ofthe hinge and passes without the circumference of the lower 0f the ears B, when, being no lon gersupported thereby, it falls a further amount precisely as before. Vere the other end of the hinge made the top by reversal, the hinge would still be right hand and would equally fail to support the door; but the opposite leaf must be secured to the jamb.

For obvious reasons I prefer that the head K should lie i n a depression in the outer springhook; butthis is not essential. The fonrhooks are made with oblique slots equal in width to the diameter of the spring-pintle, and these are upon the lower side of each and oppositely inclined in each pair, so that the hooks must be removed or placed upon the pintle one at a time. Owing to the opposite inclination of the slots, the pintle could not drop out in any position of the leaves, even if not retained by the head K when the latter lies in a depression, as shown. When formed in this Inanner, the four hooks and the pintle are cast separately without cores, and may be put together without fitting or machinework-a novel result.

Having now shown and described my invention, what I claim as new, and desire to secure by Letters Patent, is-

1. In a spring-hinge, the combination, with two articulated leaves having the ears of one above the corresponding cars of the other, of

a spring-pintle pivotally connected to eachv leaf, extending from the lower to tbeupper pair of ears and provided at each end with a head parallel to the contiguous ear, the sum of the radii of each head and adjacent car being greater than the greatest distance between the hingeaxis and the axis of the spring-pintle, whereby the springpintle may in all positions of the door serve as a strut between the pairs of ears, and thus permit the use of the hinge as either right or left hand, substantially as set forth.

2. In a spring-hinge of the class described, a pair of double hooks at each end ofthe spring connecting, respectively, a hinge-leaf and the springvpintle, one of said hooks having a boss concentric with said pintlefittingacorresponding depression in the opposite hook, substantially as set forth.

In testimony whereof I have signed this specification in the presence of two subscribing witnesses.

FREDERIC R. BAR'lLETl.

Vitnesses:

Oscar; TAYLOR, WM. J. HALL.

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