US622599A

US622599A - Franklin w

Info

Publication number: US622599A
Authority: US
Publication date: 1899-04-04
Anticipated expiration: 1916-04-04

Description

Patented Apr; 4, I899.

F W. BRUOKS.

S E A L (Applicatioh filed Jan. 23, 1999.

(No Model.)

STATES PATENT FRANKLIN \V. BROOKS, OF NEIV YORK, N. Y., ASSIGNOR TO THE COLUMBIA SEAL LOCK COMPANY, OF WVASI-IINGTON, DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA.

SEAL.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 622,599, dated April 4, 1899. Appliontionfiled January 23, 1899. Serial No. 703,159. (No model.)

To aZZ whom it may concern.-

Be it known that I, FRANKLIN W. BROOKS,

a citizen of the United States, residingin the city, county, and State of New York, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Seals for Cars, Baggage, &c., of which the following is a specification.

My invention is an improvement upon the seal which is the subject of my Letters Patent No. 580,763, of April 13, 1897.

The improvements are designed to simplify and cheapen the construction of the seal itself and to provide means which will permit station-marks or other identifying-marks to be readily impressed upon the body of the seal at the time it is applied and put into use.

The improvements will first be described in connection with the drawings accompanying and forming part of this specification, and will then be more particularly pointed out in the claims.

In the drawings, Figure 1 is a perspective View of the seal complete. Fig. 2 is a face view of the same, showing in dotted lines the position and arrangement of the parts contained within the casing when the shackle is in locked position. Fig. 3 is a back View of the device with the cover'or back plate B broken away to expose the interior parts. Fig. 4 is a section on line 4 4, Fig. 2. Fig. 5 is a perspective View of the shackle detached.

The sheet-metal casing A is combined with a cover or back plate B. In it is crimped the central longitudinal rib D, and it is also provided with passages a, one on each side of the rib D, for the entrance of the shackle F, provided at its ends with locking-hooks b, adapted to engage and interlock with the ends of the locking spring or device E, which lie one on each side of the rib D. In all these respects the sealin a broad sense is the same as that described and claimed in my aforesaid Letters Patent. 1 have, however, improved the construction and arrangement of its parts in the following particulars: The casing A is crimped or struck up with a circumscribing flat flange m, upon and around which is bent and crimped the overlapping edge 12 of the cover or back plate B. In this way the two parts are readily and securely united,while the finished casing, composed of the two parts thus united, is provided with a circumscribing stiffening flange, which strengthens the device, serves measurably to protect the same, and at the same time provides a surface which will serve as a guide to the ends of the shackle in the operation of entering the same into the passages a of the casing.

The rib D, which divides the casing A 6o lengthwise into two passages .9, stops a little short of the top of the casing,where the openings a are formed, leaving within the casing a constricted passage 1) at the top, which is located at a point between the shackle-openings a and opens into and joins the two 1011- gitudinal passages 8. By this construction I am enabled to use as a locking device a simple spring-metal strip or wire E, which is merely bent into the form of a bow, as shown. The bend of the bow is contained in the constricted passage 19, passing over the upper end of the rib D, between it and the top of the casing, while its legs extend down, one on each side of the rib D, into the side passages s in such position that when the shackle F is in place in the casing they will engage the hooks b on the shackle.

The set of the spring-acting legs of the bent strip E is such that the legs spread apart and normally stand in the path of the ends of the shackle. When the shackle is pushed into the casing, its ends meet the legs of the springstrip E and. push them inwardly or toward the rib D, this continuing until the hooks b, which are formed on the interior opposite edges of the legs of the shackle, come opposite to the ends of the spring-strip, which ends then spring outwardlyinto engagement with the hooks, thus locking the shackle in place. 0

The shackle itself I prefer to form of flat sheet metal, as shown. It is scored at the points 25, where it is to be broken when it is (le sired to remove the seal, and, as before said, the hooks b are cut or formed on the interior opposite edges of its legs, at or near the lower end thereof.

The rib D extends part way only of the length of the case, so as to leave at the bot tomof the case or that part of the case at the roe opposite end from where the shackle enters an independent portion g, upon which can be impressed any such marks as it may be desired to apply at the time the seal is put into use. At this point there is interposed between the front and back walls of the case a filling or wad h of some material-such, for example, as paper or pasteboardwhich will offer a yielding resistance to the tool or handstamping device used to impress the mark upon the case. lhe filling is necessary, because without it the walls of the case would break down under the pressure of the indenting or markingtool; but at the same time the filling material'must be measurably yielding, so as to permit the marks to be indented into the sheet metal of which the case is composed. In this Way the station-master, with a simple hand-indenting device or stamp, can impress the desired station-mark or other identifying-mark into the sheet metal of the case itself at the time of applying the seal, thus avoiding the use of any auxiliary tags for the purpose or the application to the seal of lead or other soft-metal extraneous material to furnish a marking-surface. In Fig. 2 this portion of the seal is shown by way of illustration as indented with the stationmark 21.

Having described my improvement and the best Way'now known to me of carrying the same into effect, what I claim herein as new, and desire-t0 secure by Letters Patent, is as follows:

1. The sheet-metal casing A and cover or back plate B crimped together, the casing having a circumscribing flange m, shackleopenings at, and rib D, stopping short of the top of the casin g to form the side passages S on the prolongation of the shackle-openings a, and top communicating passage 19 intermediate of said shackle-openings, and the bowed spring locking-strip E, passing over the top of the rib D, with its legs extendingjdown on each side thereof one into each passage 3, in position to engage the hooked ends of the shackle, substantially as and for the purposes hereinbefore set forth.

2. The sheet-metal lock-case provided with shackle-openings and passages and a spring lockin g device for the ends of the shackle as described, and provided also with an interspace g, and a filling or wad h, therefor composed of a material which will offer yielding resistance to pressure, substantially as and for the purposes hereinbefore set forth.

In testimony whereof I have hereunto set my hand this 23d day of January, 1899.

a FRANKLIN \V. BROOKS.

Vitnesses:

EWELL A. DICK, E. HUME TALBERT.