US552062A - Adjustable shelf-bracket - Google Patents

Description

D LLHUNT ADJUSTABLE- SHELF (No Model.)

BRACKET.

No. 552,052. Patented Dec. 24,1895.

UNITED raras AATENT rricne DAVID E. HUNTER, OF CAMBRIDGE, MASSACHUSETTS.

ADJUSTABLE SHELF-BRACKET.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 552,062, dated December 24, 1895.

Application filed April 9, 1895. Serial No. 545,094. (No model.) Y

To all whom t may concern.-

Be it known that I, DAVID E. HUNTER, of Cambridge, county of Middlesex, Massachusetts, have invented an Improvement in Adjustable Shelf-Brackets, of which the following description, in connection with the accompanying drawings, is a specification, like letters on the drawings representing like parts.

This invention relates to adjustable brackets for library and other shelves, and has particular reference to the means for retaining` or clamping said brackets in vertically-adj usted position.

Prior to my invention brackets of this class have been made to slide in or on suitable vertical standards, and have been provided at their inner ends, adjacent the standards, with suitable clamping devices, usually set-screws, by which to clamp the brackets in adjusted position upon the standards. lVhen brackets of this class are used in connection with book-supporting shelves, and the latter are filled with books, it becomes necessary to remove part or all of the same to gain access to the clamping devices or screws at the inner ends of the brackets, adjacent the standards, in order to manipulate the same to permit adjustment of the brackets. In any event an adjusting device arranged at the inner ends of the brackets and accessible only at or near the said inner ends is of necessity more or less inconvenient because of the inaccessibility of the same.

The object of my invention is-to provide a bracket with adjusting mechanism accessible for manipulation from the outside ,without the necessity of removing the books or adjacent shelves.

The principle of the invention may be stated generally as comprehending a shelf-support, adjustable upon a standard and supplied with a device for fixing the support and shelf in such adjusted position, such device being extended to the front and outer edge of the shelf.

Having thus stated the principle of my invention, I will proceed now to set forth the best inode in which I have contemplated applying that principle, and then will particularly point out and distinctly claim the part, improvement or combination which I claim is my invention.

standard being shown in section; and Fig. 2,

a horizontal section taken on the dotted line x oc, Fig. l.

In the particular construction selected as an illustration of my invention and shown in the drawings, A is a suitable supportingstandard, shown as provided at its opposite sides with usual dovetailed grooves o a for the reception of the dovetailed ears or heads on the inner end of the vertically-adjustable supporting-bracket B, said bracket being adapted to slide vertically in one of the grooves a.

The bracket is provided with a suitable or usual shelf-support, herein shown as an inwardly-extended flange h.

The adjusting or clamping device is herein shown as a screw c, having its acting end c threaded and screwed into a suitable lug on the inner end of the bracket, it being herein shown as screwed into and through the lower dovetailed lug b, said screw c having its shank extended longitudinally of the bracket for nearly or quite the entire length of the latter and having a suitable bearing, as c2, at or near the front end of the bracket, the eX- treme outer end of the screw o, constituting its operating end, being preferably squared at c3 or otherwise adapted for the reception of a suitable operating key or device d. While the screw may be slotted as usual for the reception of an ordinary screwdriver, yet in the preferred construction it is made square or otherwise specially adapted to receive an operating device more in the form of a key, as shown.

In the preferred construction the bracket is provided with a shield b2, surrounding and preferably slightly in front of the operating end cS of the screw, to shield or protect the same, the operating device d being inserted through this shield in its application to the clamping device.

It is evident that were the shelf in position iilled with books, and with the books upon the shelf beneath reaching nearly or quite to the shelf upon the bracket, the clampingscrew of the latter is fully accessible from the IOO front of the bracket and easily manipulated v to permit slight adjustment of the shelf without requiring the removal of any of the books except so far as the operator is incapable of controlling the adjustment with the load of books upon the bracket. The adjustment of the bracket is thus accomplished with greater freedom and ease than' is possible with the former constructions wherein the clamping device is accessible only at the inner end of the bracket and is only possible by the removal of a portion of the books at that side of the shelf at which the clamping device is arranged.

It is obvious that within the scope of my claim the details of construction may be varied.

I claim- The combination with a standard, of a vertically adjustable shelf supporting bracket thereon, the same projecting in the direction of its length at the front of said standard and at substantially right angles to the line of the shelf, a shelf support on one side of said bracket in front of said standard to sustain the end of the shelf with said end substantially parallel with the length of the bracket, and an adjusting device on and adjustable with the said bracket, with its acting end adjacent the standard and the inner edge of the shelf, said adjusting device being extended longitudinally of the bracket and transversely of the shelf to at or near the front end of the bracket and front edge of the shelf and fitted at said front end for the reception of a suitable operating device, whereby said adjusting device is accessible for adjustment when the adjacent shelves are filled with books, Without removal of any of the said books, substantially as described.

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

DAVID E. HUNTER. 'Iitiiesses:

FREDERICK L. EMERY, JOHN C. EDWARDS.

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