US432765A - Box-lifter - Google Patents

Description

B. PLATEN & W. W. BENNETT.

BOX LIFTER.

No. 432,765. Patented July 22,1890.

WWW/Mm s UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

HUGO B. PLATEN AND lVlLLlAM \VESLEY BENNETT, OF SAVANNAH, GEORGIA.

BOX-LIFTER.

SPECIFICATION formingpart of Letters Patent No. 432,765, dated July 22, 1890.

Application filed July 17,1889. Serial No. 317.818. (N model.)

To all whom, it may concern: shelf, the device may be turned, its edge 01' Be it known that we, HUGO l3. PLATEN and back applied against the box and sufficient lVILLIAM lVEsLEY BENNETT, citizens of the force applied to push the box back. So if United States, residing in Savannah, in the when the box is to be taken down it is found 5 county of Chatham, in the State of Georgia, to rest too far inward or back upon the shelf,

have invented a certain new and useful Imthe device may be applied in the reversed poprovement in Box'liifters, of which the folsition, with its spur projecting idly forward, lowing is a full and exact description. so as to be of no effect, and in this position The object of the invention is to provide the tip may be engaged under the overhanglo convenient means for taking down and puting edge of the cover and the device drawn ting up boxes in stores and analogous situaforward, bringing the box forward with'it. tions without requiring a step-ladder. It is Now our device being reversed, the spur is intended more especially for past-eboard boxes brought to bear under the bottom, and in conof considerable depth and containing light cert with the engagement of the tip under (5 material, as ruffles, laces, and the like; but the cover lifts the box and allows it to be it may be used with success for handling lowered or transported to any other shelf as boxes relatively shallow and heavily loaded. required. Our experiments have been mainly with deep In what we esteem the most complete form boxes containing shoes. Itis important that of the invention we provide for easily shift- 20 the boxes have covers which overlap the ing the position of what we have here called bodies and extend down alittle, afterthe usual the spur, meaning a short thin shelf eX- fashion of pasteboard boxes. we provide a tending out at about right angles to the rod, rod, of wood or other material, of sufficient shifting it upward to adapt it to serve with length and thickness and having one end shallow boxes and downward to adapt it to 25 flattened and adapted to be thrust upward serve with deep boxes. \Ve propose somefrom below into the space between the box timesto make the upper end of the device and the cover. We equip such rod with a andthe spur entirely of metal, while the main flat horizontal spur a sufficient distance berod is simply a square-sectioned rod of wood. low the upper end. Supposing the boX of WVe can furnish the metal parts ready to be 8o 30 shoes or other articles to lie with its front end applied on wooden rods of square or other or side flush with the edge of a high shelf on sections. which it rests, or, as is usually practiced, some- The accompanying drawings form a part of what overhanging such shelf, the operator dethisspecification and represent several forms siring to take it down reaches up our device in which the invention may be carried out. 8 5 3 5 and engages the flat upper end between the Figure 1 is an outline showing 011 a small cover and the body and engages the horiscale the manner of using our lifter in conzontal spur under the bottom of the body. nection witha set of shelves. The remaining Now the rod being lifted and drawn forward figures are on a larger scale. Fig. 2 is a face brings the box, and it may be lowered and view, and Fig. 3 an edge view, of the upper 9 o disengaged without difficulty, and when ready end of our lifter, and Fig. 4 is a face View, it may be returned by a reversion of the op- Fig. 5 an edge view, and Fig. 6 a cross-seceration. To disengage our device after the tion on the line a: 00, of a modification. boX is again in place on the shelf, the lower Similar letters of reference indicate correend of our rod is moved forward or away from sponding parts in all the figures where they 5 the tier of shelves or is moved to one side, or occur.

both these movements are combined, and the A is a flat rod of steel, having a row of holes upper end being by one or both these move a a and a socket A, the latter adapted to rements disengaged from its hold under the ceive a rod of wood A with which it is seedge of the cover, the device is free. If the curely engaged by screws in an obvious man- 10c 50 box is thus liberated with its front too much ner.

overhanging beyond the front edge of the B is a slide of iron or other strong material,

having lips B, which loosely embrace the edges of the rod A, with liberty to be moved up and down thereon.

D is a bell-crank lever hinged to the slide 13, its lower arm D having a tip which'is turned squarely inward and adapted to engage in any one of the holes in the series a.

, The upper arm of this lever (marked D serves as the spur above referred to, being, by its form and position when adjusted for use, adapted to be thrust under the body of a box and to support it vertically, while the top of the rod A stands just within the cover and holds the box against-being tilted. The two together hold the box stiiily by one edge and allow it to be lifted and drawn out from its place on a shelf and lowered and raised as required.

To engage our device with a box, the top is thrust up into the narrow space between the hanging rim of the cover and the top of the box-body. If the joint is not sufficien tly open, the material of the body or of the cover, orof both, can always yield to make room for the thin flat top of the rod A, and the spur D is thrust under the box-body, between such body and the shelf on which it rests. In case the box. overhangs beyond the front edge of the shelf this spur is set in position without effort. In any case it is not difficult. Now the box is lifted, drawn forward, lowered, disengaged, opened, and used as required, and when it is to be replaced it is returned to the shelf by a reversion of the movements.

To adapt the device to handle deeper boxes it is important to lower the spurD relatively to the rod A. This is done at pleasure by simply turning the bell-crank lever D by raising the spur D so much as will detach the arm D from its hole 0. Then the slide B and its attached lever D may be lowered, and the bent end of the arm 1) is engaged in the next lower hole a, or in any of the holes a which may be preferred, correspondingly changing the height at which the spur D stands adjusted on the rod A. The adjustment is easy and instantaneous.

Figs. 4, 5, and 6 show a modification in which there is less metal. In this a rod of ash or other suitable wood is provided of sufficient length with its upper end tapered wedgewise. One of the faces of this wedge part is faced wit-h an iron plate which is wider than the rod and projects on each side. This plate is folded upon itself and extends over the top and down the back and is secured by rivets or screws. The front part being wider than the rod presents its edges to serve as means for engaging with the slide. The slide may be held by any other efiicient means.

The box to be lifted by our device is marked M. The shelf is marked G, and the boxcover M.

Further modifications may be made without departing from the principle or sacrificing the advantages of the invention.

We propose to prepare the metal parts as an 4 article of trade adapted for convenient shipment and allow the purchaser to add as long or short a pole .or rod A as maybe required for the special situation in which it is to be used. Obviously the rod A may be made in lengths applied together, like the sections of a fishin g-pole, and thus shipped with the metal parts, if preferred. It is well to locate the holes a a to exactly match the several depths of the usual sizes of boxes; but this is not material.

Two or more boxes lying one upon another maybe taken down or put up together by applying our device to the lowest.

lrVe claim as our invention 1. The thin-ended rod A, combined with a slide B, sleeved on said rod, and a.bell-crank lever D, carried by the said slide, with its lower end constructed to engage holding means of the rod, substantially as specified.

2. The thin -ended rod A, apertured, as shown, combined with the slide B, sleeved on said rod, and a bell-crank lever fulcrumed at its elbow on said slide, with the end of its lower arm bent square inward and constructed to engage the apertures in the rod A, substantially as shown and described.

In testimony whereof we have hereunto set our hands, at Savannah, Georgia, this 12th day of June, 1889, in the presence of two subscribing witnesses.

HUGO B. PLATEN. WILLIAM wEsLEY BENNETT.

Witnesses:

H. F. lVIOLINA, EMILE A. GRADO'II.

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