US485801A - klenha - Google Patents

Description

(No Model.) 2 Sheets-Sheet 1. V. KLENHA.

UNDLBRTAKER'S CONVERTIBLE STAND. No. 485,801. Patented Nov. 8, 1892.

1 in m Wil w W w (No Model.) 2 Shew-Sheet 2. V. KLENHA. UNDBRTAKERS GONVERTIBLE STAND.

No. 485,801. Patented NOV. 8, 1892.

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UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

VACLAV KLENHA, OF CHICAGO, ILLINOIS, ASSIGNOR OF TVVO-THIRDS TO MATTHEW BRENNAN AND J AROSLAV LENOCI-I, OF SAME PLACE.

UNDERTAKERS CONVERTIBLE STAND.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 485,801, dated November 8, 1892.

Application filed April 26,1892. Serial No. 430,741. (No model.)

To all whom it may concern.-

Be it known that I, VAOLAV KLENHA, a citizen of the United States, residing at Ohicago, in the county of Cook and State of Illinois, have invented a new and useful Improvement in Undertakers Convertible Stands, of which the following is a specification.

The primary object of my improvement is to provide an undertakers stand adapted more especially for supporting a coffin containing a corpse after the latter has been prepared for burial, the construction of which stand shall render it convenient for transportation and readily convertible into a pcculiarly-convenient stair-carriage to facilitate carrying the coffin on stairways.

It is furthermore my object to provide a construction of the stand for the purposes named, which shall also adapt it to be readily converted into a corpse-cooling board.

My invention is illustrated in the accompanying drawings, in which- Figure l is a view in perspective of myimproved convertible device, showing it as arranged for a stand. Fig. 2 is a view in side elevation of the same, adapted for and applied as a stair-carriage. Fig. 3 is a similar view of the same,adapted for a corpse-cooling board. Fig. 4 is a perspective view of the runner-base of the device in its folded condition. Fig. 5 is a perspective edge view of the table portion of the device folded.

The leading features of my improved device are a folding runner -base having at least one end, and preferably both ends, inclined downward and outward from the top, and a table hinged on the top of the runnerbase, whereby it may be propped to render it stable, and thus adapt the device for use as a stand, but be allowed to swing on its hinge to incline on an oblique end of the base, and thereby be caused to retain a horizontal position when the device is used as a stair-carriage for supporting a coffin while being moved on the runner-base on a stairway.

The other conversion of which my device is susceptible is that of a cooling-board, for which the hinged ends of the table portion are adapted to be adjusted, the one as an oblique brace for the head portion on which a pillow is to be applied and the other as an extension of the table.

To adapt my improvement to be converted the most conveniently into either of the several articles referred to, the table should have folding ends, and these, furthermore, serve the purpose of enabling the table portion to be compacted for the more ready handling thereof in transporting the device, for which, also, the runner-base is constructed to fold and unfold.

A is the runner-base, which I construct of two triangular pieces, preferably in the form of bars, each bent into a triangle with a flat apex, from which it is braced by a pair of vertical parallel bars 0", the two being connected near the angles at their opposite ends by pivotal jointed bars g, each formed in two sections, joined together by being both pivoted to a link q, embraced by the bifurcated ends of the sections, whereby the bars may be folded inward from their straight position, wherein they brace the triangular pieces. The length of the bottom rails of the runnerbase should be sufficient to adapt it to reach across at least two steps of the stairway, and to facilitate transportation the bottom rails may have rollers 13 in their bases.

B is the table, which I prefer to form with a frame 0, braced transversely across its center by a cross-piece 0 with wire-cloth 0 or other suitable material covering the space between the rails of the frame, to the opposite ends of which are hinged substantially rectangular frames n and m, forming folding end sections. At opposite sides of the base near its top and flanking the slots between the brace-bars 'r are coincident eyes h for supporting a shaft k, on which the table B is pivotally supported by the shaft being embraced between ears Z, depending from opposite edges of the table at the ends of its cross-piece 0' and confined by cotter-pins t", Fig. 3, the perforated ends of the shaft, which is underneath the cross-piece of the table, being extended 5 the place of its use the table B is readily separable from the runner-base A on withdrawing the cotter-pins 2', when the ends n and m may be folded underneath into the positions in which they are shown in Fig. 5, and the runner-base may be folded into the condition represented in Fig. 4 by collapsing the jointed brace-bars q.

At the place of use of the device a stand 0, Fig. 1, may be readily formed by straightening the jointed braces q and separating the triangular pieces forming the runner-base, then fastening thetable B at its shaft 70 between the eyes It, and turning down the hinged end sections n and m into the positions they are shown to occupy in Fig. 1, wherein they afford legs to prop the table at its opposite ends.

To convert the stand into a stair-carriage D, Fig. 2, the end frames or sections 11. and mare turned upward into the vertical positions illustrated Wherein they form end'stops against slipping of the coffin in either direction. Then of course the table is free to swing on its shaft 70 and be retained in a horizontal position when the runner-base A is being moved down, say, a stairway, to which it may have been conveniently moved by rolling in on its rollers 19. A coffin-laden stair-carriage of the described construction may be easily and safely handled by a single person taking his position at an end of the carriage to control it.

If a corpse-cooling board E, Fig. 3, is required, the device may be readily formed or converted into the same by turning an end section 1?. of the table inward to rest against the adjacent inclined end of the runner-base, at which it may be retained by tongues 9 unfolded, like a table-leaf support, to project from the adjacent rails of the base A. Thus the table is inclined from the head end (on which a pillow fis to be adjusted by inserting pins 6 on its base into holes in the end rail of the table-frame) to the opposite end at which the hinged end section m is then caused to form an extension.

It is not essential that the various details of the construction of the runner-base and table shall be exactly as shown and described, as they may be variously changed, and some even entirely omitted without thereby materially, if at all, impairing the utility of the structure. Hence I do not wish to be understood as limiting my invention to such details, except in those of the appended claims, in which they are specifically set forth. .Thus, for example, it is-not indispensably necessary that the base shall have two inclining sides like a triangle, as one such side may suffice in a measure at least, nor that there shall be provided the particular brace-bars '2", nor that the folding connections q between the triangular pieces of the base shall be of the construction illustrated.

What I claim as new, and desire to secure by Letters Patent, is V, V

1. An undertakefis convertible stand comprising, in combination, a runner-base formed of triangular pieces having an interposed folding connection whereby the base may be compacted to or about to the combined width of the triangular pieces, a table on the apex of the base, provided with folding end sections, and means separably pivoting the table on the base, whereby they may be readily separated for compacting and transportation, substantially as described.

2. An undertakers convertible stand comprising, in combination, a runner-base A, formed of triangular pieces having an interposed folding connection whereby the base may be compacted to or about to the combined width of the triangular pieces, bracebars 4" on the said triangular pieces carrying eyes h, a table B, provided with folding end sections n m, and a shaft on the table and loosely confined between ears Z, depending from opposite edges thereof near its center,

said shaft extending at its opposite ends between the eyes it and being separably fastened thereto, substantially as described.

3. An undertakers convertible stand comprising, in combination, a triangular runnerbase A, provided with tongues g, a table B, provided with folding end sections 17. m and pivotally and separably supported on the apex of the said base to adapt an end section to be adjusted as a brace against an end of the base and held by the said tongues, and a pillowf, removably adjusted on the table, substantially as described.

VAOLAV KLENl-IA.

In presence of M. J. FROST, J. N. HANSON.

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