US532463A - Office-indicator - Google Patents

Description

(No Model.) I I 2 Sheets-Sheet 1.

" G. H. IRELAND.

OFFICE INDICATOR.

No. 532,463. Patented Jan. 15, 1895.

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(NOMOdGL) 2 Sheets-Sheet 2.

G. H. IRELAND.

OFFIGE INDICATOR.

No. 532,463. Patented Jan. 15, 1895.

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- UNITED STATES PATENT O FI E.

GEORGE H. IRELAND, OF SPRINGFIELD, MASSACHUSETTS.

'OFFICE-INDICATO R.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 532,463, dated January 15, 1895.

Application filed September 18, 1894. Serial N 0. 523,370 (No model.)

To all whom it may concern.-

Be it known that I, GEORGE H. IRELAND, a citizen of the United States of America, residing at Springfield, in the county of Hampden and State of Massachusetts, have invented new and useful Improvements in Alarm-Indicators for Offices and Similar Localities, of which the following is a specification.

This invention relates to indicators for offices and similar localities, the object being to provide improved means whereby the exit or entrance of an occupant or employee is announced by an audible alarm, and whereby the hour when the individual left the office, or other place, and at what hour he will return, and where he may be found, may be indicated' for any one having occasion to know the same; and the invention consists in the novel construction and arrangement of the various parts of the device, all as hereinafter fully described and more particularly pointed out in the claims.

In the drawings forming part of this specification,Figure 1 is a perspective view of the rear end of a case or group of individual drawers having alarm and indicating devices ap-.

plied thereto embodying my invention. Fig. 2 is a front perspective view of said group bf drawers. Fig. 3 is a perspective view of one of said drawers showing the indicator devices therein, this figure illustrating an alarm device of modified construction actuated by the change of position of said drawer.

In the drawings each of said drawers is indicated by B. A is the case in which said drawers are held and adapted to slide inthe usual manner for opening and shutting, or for moving them out and in. Each drawer is provided with dials and pointers (preferably three) as shown. One dial, D, contains on its face the names of certain localities, as Bank, Post office, Club, or other places, arranged substantially as shown, and

a pointer, e, is pivoted on said dial, which may be turned by the person'to whom the drawer may be assigned, to indicate where he may be found. I Said dials may be stamped, or 0th erwise formed, on the inner side of the drawerbottom, and the pointers be pivoted directly to the latter. Two other dials, F, F, bear the hours of the day on their faces, and on each thereofis pivoted an hour hand, f, and a minute hand, f These hour and minute hands may be set when a person leaves an office, or other place, to indicate the hour of departure and return.

The name of the person to whom each drawer is assigned is placed on one end of the drawer.

It is obvious that any other desired announcements than the above mentioned ones may be made by the addition of other dials, or suitable indicating means.

Said drawers are each provided with knobs G and h, on each end conveniently located for engagement with any one of the levers, q, and are constructed to be reversible so that either end may be outward. To this end, the name of the person to whom a drawer is appropriated is affixed to both ends, as illustrated in Figs. 1 and 2, by the names D. Allen and J. Thomas.

In order to provide a visible outward indication that any one of the persons whose names are on the drawers is out, a distinctive color, as for instance, red, is applied to one end of the drawers, and when a person goes out he-pulls out his own drawer, turns it end for end and replaces it, and does the same when he re-enters.

The drawer in Fig. 2 bearing the name A. Davis, illustrates by the shade-lines thereon, the distinctive appearance which is imparted to a drawer-end by the application of a red or other bright color thereto, as aforesaid.

As shown in Fig. 1, a bell, J, is attached to the rear of the drawer-case, A, and a bellhammer, is, is suspended in proximity to said bell, on a spring-stem, 'n. Means are provided, as below described, for causing said bell to be rung, and an alarm to be thereby given. when any one of said group of drawers is either drawn out or pushed in, whereby an attendant in an office, or other place, where the within described device is placed, is notitied that some person has passed in or out, and said attendant may, upon being so notified, ascertain by examination of the said dials in the drawers,what person has left and at what hour, and where he has gone, and at what hour he will return. The knobs on the drawers, as aforesaid, are indicated by O and h, the latter being on the front end. Said bell-ringing means consist of a rock-shaft, m, supported in the lower part of the rear end of the case, A; an arm, 0, secured by one end to said shaft extending upward near said bell-hammer, and having'a slipping-01f engagement with the latter, which is permitted by said spring-stem, 'n, on which the hammer hangs. Apost, w, is fixed opposite the rear end of a drawer or a group thereof on which is pivoted said lever, g, or several thereof having opposite said drawerend, a curved end under which one of the knobs of a drawer may slide and become engaged therewith, as shown in Fig. 1. The

said lever, or levers, q, are held normally in the positions shown in Fig. 1, by a spring, 8, acting against an arm, '1", fixed on said rockshat't, m. Said arm, 0', has its extremity engaging with the upper end of a slot, d, in the lower end of a slide-bar, t, whose upper and lower ends enter, and have a sliding engagement with, two grooved stands, m, 00. The result of the lifting action of said spring, or springs, 8, (there beingtwo of them) under the arms, 1', on said rock-shaft, m, is to hold the two slide bars, t, upward, as shown in Fig. l. The rear extremities of said levers, q, thus engage with the lower ends of slots in said slide bars, and thereby the curved forward ends of the levers, q, are held engaged with the upper sides of the drawer-knobs, C or h, and thus retain the drawers, B, while they are pushed in, by spring action.

\Vhen a drawer is pulled out, the movement of the knob, O or h, thereon,under the curved end of the lever, q, raises said curved end and causes the rear end thereof to be thrown downward and to move the slide-bar, t, in the same direction, and as said slide-bar carries said arm, o downward with it, said shaft, m, is thereby rocked, and arm, 0, thereon throws the bell-hammer, k, outwardly, and said hammer then slipping off from said arm, is thrown by its spring-arm against the bell, thereby ringing an alarm. Since the lower arm, (1, of

the group rests directly upon the extremity of arm, 4, the slide-bar, t, is not necessarily moved downward as aforesaid, when the lower drawer is moved, but said slide acts as stated when any drawer above the bottom one is moved out, or in.

Fig. 3 illustrates electrical means for ringing an alarm hell by the movements of said drawers, which may be employed if preferred, and said electrical means, or devices, are constructed and arranged as follows: A metallic circuit-connecting plate, 3, is fixed on a side of the drawer, 13. Two circuit-wire contactplates, 4, 4, are fixed in a convenient position on the adjoining inner side of the drawercase, A, from which two conducting wires, 5, run, one to a battery, 6, and one through an ordinary electric bell, 7, and thence to said battery. WVhen the drawer is moved outwardly, the plate, 3, in passing by the plates, 1, 4, completes a circuit therebetween causing the boil, 7, to ring, and when the drawer is pushed in the same alarm is rung.

WVhat I claim, and desire to secure by Letters Patent, is-

1. An alarm-indicator for oiiices and an alogous localities, consisting of one or more individual drawers, each containing dials and pointers to indicate the movements and location of a person, combined with an alarm-bell, a rock-shaft having an arm thereon for en gagement with the hammer of said bell, a sec ond arm on said rock-shaft, a slide-bar, t, ongaged by said second arm, a pivoted lever for each of said drawers normally engaging by one end therewith and engaged by the opposite end thereof by said slide-bar, and a spring in engagement with said second arm whereby said shaft is rocked and said slide -bar is moved upwardly, substantially as set forth.

2. In an alarm'indicat-ing device for ofiiccs and analogous localities, a drawer-case, one or more reversible drawers in said case, each drawer bearing on one end thereof a colorindication and the name of a person, combined with an alarm-bell, and mechanism in termediate of said drawer and bell, actuated by the movement of said drawer in opening and shutting the same, whereby said bell is caused to be rung, substantially as set forth.

GEORGE II. IRELAND.

\Vitnesses:

H. A. CHAPIN, K. I. CLEMONS.

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