US856838A - Connection device for the frames of aerial vehicles and other structures. - Google Patents

Description

No. 856,838. PATENTED JUNE 11, 1907.

E A. G. BELL & H. P. MoNEIL. CONNECTION DEVICE FOR THE FRAMES 0F AERIAL VEHICLES AND OTHER STRUCTURES. APPLIOATIOH FILED 00124, 1908.

2 SHEETS-SHEET 1.

q/Vihwom za I I j I I I No. 856,838. '7 I v PATENTED JUNE 11, 1907.

A. G. BELL & HUI. MONEIL. CONNECTION DEVICE FOR THE FRAMES 0F AERIAL VEHICLES AND OTHER STRUCTURES. nrmonmx FILED 00-1224. 1900.

2 SHEETS-SHEET 2.

Svwcu Tow M 1 1 fis 6 UNITED s Aras PATENT OFFICE.

ALEXANDER GRAHAM BELL AND HECTOR P. MoNEIL, OF WASHINGTON,-

DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA.

CONNECTION DEVICE FOR THE FRAMES F AERIAL VEHICLES AND OTHER STRUCTURES.

noqesassa.

Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented June 11, 1907.

' To all whom/it may concern.-

Be it known that we, ALEXANDER GRA- HAM BELL and HECTOR P. MCNEIL, of Washington, District of Columbia, have invented a new and useful Improvement in Connection Devices for the Frames of Aerial Vehicles and other Structures, which improvement is fully set forth in the following specification.

United States Letters-Patent No. 770,626, granted to Alexander Graham Bell, on the 20th day of September, 1904, discloses improvements in aerial vehicles and other structures, in which a number of elements, cells, or units, each in the form of a tetrahedral frame, are built up and directly connected at their corners. to form compound structures adaptable to a great variety of structural uses.

, Our present invention is particularly designed to provide a cheap, light and easily applied joint or connection-devicefor securing .together' the meeting ends of bars or strips constituting. such tetrahedral frames, and for directlyconnecting the corners of a number of frames in forminga compound structure, moreparticularly in constructing multicellular aerial Vehicles, such-as the wellknown tetrahedral kite.

Our invention can best be explained in conjunction with the accompanying drawings, illustrating its preferred embodiment as applied to tetrahedral frames used in the construction of multioellular tetrahedral kites, in which drawings,

Figure 1 1s a perspective view from beneath;a tetrahedral kite in the position it ordinarily takes when in flight; Fig. 2 is a top view of parts shown at the top of Fig. 1; Fig. 3 is a detai perspective view of the corner of one of the tetrahedral frames; Fig. 4 illustrates the manner of stacking winged tetrahedral elements or frames for transportationand' storage; Fig. 5 is a view of our improved connection-de'vice', and Fig. 6 shows a blank from which the same is formed.

The aerial vehicle or kite shown in Fig.1 is

composed of four similar winged tetrahedral ce'llsa, b, e, (Z, connected at their adjacent corners in such manner that the compound structure itself has the outline of a tetrahedron. Referring for example to Winged cell c, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14 and 15 are six bars or 16 and 17 diverging upward from the bar 111 and connected at their upper corners by the bar 13. The frame as thus covered on two sides, constitutes what is known as a As shown, two of the triangles forined wlnged element or a winged tetrahedral cell. three of the six bars 10-15, come together at each of the four corners of the frame or element 0 where they are secured together by a connection-device of our presentinvention. Saidconnection-device may be read ily made from a blank, such as illustrated in Fig. 6, of suitable sheet-metal,- such as steel. The wing-like edges of the three arms of this blank are bent upward along the dotted lines, "Fig. 6, and the blank is doubled on itself along transverse dotted line-c, and otherwise bent to the shape shown in Fig 5. As shown in the latter figure, the connection-device finished and ready for application to the bars to be joined, comprises three diverging troughits upturned side flanges a tooth, spur, or nib .23, and a projecting perforated lug, ear or flange 24 from which the three arms diverge. Lug 24 projects in line with arm 20, as clearly shown in the several views of the drawings.

In D a plyin this connection-device, the ends of the t ree bars, 10, 12 and 13,for example, in Fig. 3, *are placed one after another in their respective trough-like arms As clearly shown, the ends of' like arms 20, 21, 22, each having on each of 22, 21 and 20, the spurs or nibs are bent or driven inwardly until their points enter or I are indentedintd the wooden bars. By the 'thefour corners of each tetrahedral frame,

element or unit. In assembling a number of such frames in a compound structur as shown in Fig. 1, the lugs 24 of .connection-de-' vices atadjacent corners of frames, will come together, being preferably overlapped, and

use of afsuitable punch, we then preferably gether.

afford means by which the frames may be easily and securely fastened together, as for exargi ple, by assing a piece of copper wire 26 1g. lugs and 2) t ough the perforations of the twisting the ends of the wire to- The lugs 24 Will overlap in different directions according to the relative positioning of the elements. As shown in Fig. 2, for example, they overlap longitudinally, whereas in all the connections at the middle of Fig. 1, they overla transversely.

Fig. 4 shows a num er of winged tetrahedral elements, constructed with our connection-device, stacked upon each other, illustrating the facility with which such elements may be compacted into a small space for transportation or storage.

Our invention is not of course restricted to the particular form of frames shown in the drawings, nor to the use of such frames in the.

construction of winged elements for aerial vehicles or kites.

What we claim is: j v

1. The combination with the meeting ends of a plurality of bars or strips at the cornerof a frame, of a connecting device having arms or branches one for securing the end of each bar, and a lug adapted to be juxta osed to a similar lug at a corner of another rame to join said frames corner to corner. 2. The combination with the meeting ends of a plurality of bars or strips atone corner of a polyhedral frame or element, of a con necting device having a plurality of arms or branches one for securing the end of each bar, and a lug adapted to be juXta osed to a similar lug at a corner of another ame tov Y join said frames corner to corner.

3. The combination with the meeting ends of a plurality of bars or strips at one corner of a polyhedral frame or element, of a connecting device made of a single piece of sheet metal and having a plurality of arms or branches one for securin the end of each bar, and a lug adapted to e juxtaposed to a similar lug at a corner of another frame to join said frames corner to corner.

4; The combination with the meeting ends of three bars or strips at one corner of a tetrahedral' frame or element, of a connecting device having three arms or branches one for securing the end of each bar, and a lug adapt: ed to be juxtaposed to a similar lug at a corssesse ner of another frame or element to join said frames or elements corner to corner.

' 5. The combination with the'meeting ends of a plurality of bars or strips at the corner of a frame, of a connecting device having trough-like arms or branches one for embracing and securing the end of each bar.

6( The combination with the meeting ends of a plurality of bars or strips at the corner of a frame, of a connecting device having trough-like arms or branches one for embracing and securing the end of each bar,

and a lug by which connection may be made to another frame.

7. The combination with the meeting ends of three-bars or stri s at one corner of a tetrahedral frame or e ement, of a connecting device having three trough-like arms or branches one for embracing and securing the end of each bar, and a lug by which connection may'be made to another frame or element.

8. As an article of manufacture, a connecting device having a plurality of diverging trough-like arms each adapted to embrace and secure the end ofa bar,and a projecting lug at the junction of said arms.

9..As an article of manufacture, a connecting device having a plurality of diverging trough-like arms each adapted to embrace and secure the end of a bar, and a projecting lug at the junction of said arms, said trough-like arms and lug being integrally formed from a single piece of sheet metal.

10. A com ound structure formed of a plurality of e ements or frames, each frame consisting of a plurality of bars or strips, con necting devices for joining the meeting ends of the bars of each frame at the corners'of the

Images