US742781A - Spring-actuated take-up. - Google Patents

Description

No. 742,781. PATENTBDIOCT. 27, 1903. H. FORSYTH.

SPRING AGTUATED TAKE-UP.

APPLIOATION FILED SEPT. 21.- 1900. N0 MODEL. 3 SHEETS-SHEET 1- in: mums Paul: 90.. mam-man. wumuomm n. c

No. 742,781. PATENTED OUT. 27, 1903. G. H. PORSYTH.

SPRING AGTUATED TAKE-UP.

APPLICATION FILED SEPT. 21, 1900. N0 MODEL. 3 SHEETS-SHEET 3.

UNITED STATES Patented October 2'7, 1903.

PATENT OFFICE.

SPRlNG-ACTUATED TAKE-UP.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters 2 Application filed September 21, 1900. Serial No. 30,671.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, GEORGE H. FORSYTH, of Chicago, county of Cook, and State of Illinois, have invented certain new and useful Im- 'provements in Spring-Actuated Take-Ups, of

which the following is a specification.

Generally stated, my invention relates to means adapted to stretch and hold in a taut and smooth condition an object to be suspended, extended, or moved through the agency of two relatively rotatable parts connected with opposite ends of the object to be acted upon and connected with each other by an elastic medium which tends to produce rotative movements of said parts in opposite directions, whereby said object is held at any adjusted position and is prevented from getting out of alinement or bending when being moved.

My invention is more especially adapted to use in connection with a flexible shade or ourtain, being in the nature of an elastic take-up device therefor.

It consists in the parts and combinations of parts in a device of this character and for this purpose, substantially as hereinafter described and claimed.

In the accompanying drawings, Figure 1 is a front elevation of a Window-shade mounted as above suggested. Fig. 2 is a longitudinal sectional view of the shade-roller, showing its spindle and spring, the pulleys, and the journals of the shade-roller. Fig. 3 is a detail of an extensible spindle. Figs. 4 and 5 5 are cross-sectional views on the lines 44and 5 5 of Fig. 2. Fig. 6 is an end view of the roller, showing the operating-chains and ourtain in edge view. Figs. 7 and 8 show, respectively, in side and end elevation a modified construction.

First describing the embodiment of my invention shown in Figs. 1 to 6, inclusive, lot 10 represent a window-shade, one end of which is secured to a sheath 11, which may be a wooden or metal tube, such as is commonly employed for spring-actuated shade-rollers, and in which is fitted collars 12.

13 represents a spindle which may be made in two sections having the annular heads or flattened ends 14, as

atent No. 742,781, dated October 27, 1903.

(No model.)

shown in Figs. 2, 3, and 5, to adapt them to be overlapped and to enable the spindle to be extended or adjusted as to length to fit windows of varying width. This spindleis an ordinary wooden roller-,as shown. The sheath 11 may also be constructed in two sections telescoped together, as shown at 15 in Fig. 2. The ends of the spindles are carried in sockets 16, which are shouldered to confine the annular-heads 12 of the sheath and have tubular extensions 17 to receive the journals or pins 18, which are provided with securingplates 19. This construction of the sheath and the spindle permits relative rotary movement of the parts, and this rotary movement is availed of in some adaptations of the invention. The spindle may be secured within its socketagainst endwise separation by the pin 20, and an additional pin 21 may be employed resting in a groove in the end of the spindle to prevent rotation of the spindle with reference to its socket. The last-named pin also affords means against the inner side of the head 12 of the sheath. The tubular extensions 17 have secured thereto sprocket-wheels 23. A coiled spring 24 has one end thereof fastened to the spindle, preferably by being let into the wood thereof and having an end upturned, as shown at 25, through an aperture in the socket 16. The opposite end of the spring is secured to an annular block or filling-ring 26, which is secured with the sheath 11. Obviously the spindle and the sheath or roller will ordinarily turn as one piece; but they are capable of independent rotative movement. The shadestick 27 is secured, preferably in a removable manner, by means of the stirrups 27 and pins 27 to the chains or other flexible operatingstrands 28, which pass over the. pulleys 23, carried by the spindle, and around pulleys 29, journaled at the bottom of the windowframe. These pulleys 29 may be journaled in hangers or yokes 30 and may have a tensiondevice applied thereto, such tension device comprising a sliding bolt or spindle 31, connected with the yoke 30 and extending through a spring 32, mounted within a confining-frame 33, the latter being secured to the window-sill.

for holding a collar 22' The operation of myinvention as embodied in a shade mechanism is as follows: When the shade is pulled down, the chains will run with the lower pulleys, while the upper pulleys will revolve vtogether with the spindle and sheath, the spring serving to keep the curtain properly extended or stretched between the roller and shade-stick. When the shade is rolled up by taking hold of the chains or the lower edge of the shade-stick, the spring likewise keeps the shade taut. Obviously the diameter of the shade-roller and the shade wound thereon varies as the shade is rolled or unrolled, and necessarily, therefore, some compensating this varying diameter. By making the shade-roller proper movable with reference to the spindle this variation of diameter is compensated for by'the elasticity of the spring, whose coils will compensatingly vary in diameter. In the operation obviously the spring acts with equal force upon the spindle, and the sheath or roller tendingv to turn them in opposite directions, these tendencies exactly offsetting or counterbalancing each other, so that there is no tendency to either wind up the shade or to unwind it, the tension of the spring being exerted to keep the shade taut. The device presents, therefore, a perfectly-balanced mechanism, and the elasticity of the spring, as before stated, variation in diameter of the turns of the shade upon the shade-roller. The connection of the spring at its opposite ends to the shade-roller and to the spindle is, in eifect, the same as though the ends of the spring were posite ends of the shade, and the result is to keep the shade taut, while its lower end is held in parallelism with the shade-roller and It will be mechanism the fricis also prevented from flapping. understood that in this tion of the chains passing over the pulleys is not depended upon to hold the shade in In a curtain-operat- 1ng mechanism I prefer to employ chains and sprocket-wheels as means for moving the curprovision must be made for 1 connected to opnular heads, of an annular ring secured within the roller, a spindle conemployed, although it spindle, and thereby j preserve a practically uniform tension upon 1 or curtains the which is made fast to the curtain-stick, and the other end, after passing around pulleys 35, is secured to and woundupon a drum 36, mounted upon the projection 37 of the spindle, so as to turn therewith. The spring 24 is employed, as in the previously-described construction, and the operation of the device is practically the same.

I claim 1. In a spring-actuated take-up for sheets or curtains, the combination with a hollow roller having annular heads closing the ends thereof, of socket-pieces mounted in said annular heads, a spindle mounted at its ends in said socket-pieces, means for confining the spindle against rotation in its sockets, a spring surrounding said spindle and connected at one end thereto and at its other end to the inclosing roller, means for rotating said spindle connected to said socket-pieces, said latter means and the roller being adapted respcctively for connection to an object to be extended or supported, substantially as described. 1

2. In a spring-actuated. take-up for sheets or curtains, the combination with a hollow roller having annular heads closing the ends thereof, of socket-pieces mounted in said annular heads, said socket-pieces having tubular extensions whereby the roller is journaled, a spindle mounted at its ends in said socket-pieces, means for confining the spindle against both endwise and rotary movement therein, a spring surrounding said spindle and connected at one end thereto and at its other end to the inclosing roller, pulleys for rotating said spindle mounted on said tubular extensions of the socket-pieces, and end less cords passing over said pulleys and adapted to be secured to one end of a shade or ourtain whose opposite end is adapted to be secured to the roller, substantially as described.

3. In a spring-actuated take-up for sheets or curtains, the combination with a hollow roller constructed in sections telescoping upon each other and having itsends closed by anblock or fillingstructed in extens'iblesections and fixedly secured in said annular heads, said spindle passing through and being supported in said filling-ring, a spring encircling said spindle and connected at one end thereto and at its other end to said filling-ring and means for rotating the spindle, said latter means and the containing-roller being adapted for connection to opposite ends respectively of a shade or curtain to maintain the same taut throughthe flexibility of the spring, substantially as described.

4. In a spring-actuated take-up for sheets combination with a hollow,

a longitudimounted in the spindle longitudinally-extensible roller, nally-extensible spindle loosely a spring connecting the roller,

and roller, a shade and means for connecting roller, a shade and means comprising a band the spindle with the shade independent of the connected to the lower margin of the shade 1o roller. and to the spindle for rotating the spindle.

5. In a sprin -actuated take-up for shades 5 or curtains the combination with a hollow, GEORGE FORSYTH' longitudinally-extensible roller, a longitndi- Witnesses: nally-extensible spindle loosely mounted in C. O. LINTHIOUM,

the roller, a spring connecting the spindle and FREDERICK G. GOODWIN.

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