US141446A - Improvement in carpet-stretchers - Google Patents

Description

.l. LINDSAY.

Carpet-Stretchers.

Patented August 5, 1873.

AM PH OTD'L I T H 0 GRAPH/C C0, N. 7. I'DSBUR E S PROCESS;

rrtE JAMES LINDSAY, OF NEW YORK, N. 'Y.

IMPROVEMENT IN CARPET-STRETCHERS.

Specification forming part of Letters Patent No. 141,446, dated August 5, 1873; application filed May 7, 18723.

To all whom it may concern.-

Be it known that I, JAMES LINDSAY, of the city, county, and State of New York, have invented certain Improvements in Carpet- Vises, of which the following is a specification:

This invention relates to that class of implements known as carpet vises or stretchers, and used in stretching carpets snugly upon floors preparatory to tacking, or otherwise securing the same in place. The invention consists in the combination with two elongated gripingjaws, provided on pivoted shanks, of a toggle-joint, guide-stud, and lever, the whole so arranged that the jaws will automatically open when the device is to be applied to grasp or to release the carpet when simply held or suspended by or from the said lever; also, in the combination, with the aforesaid jaws, toggle-joint, and lever, of a bearing so provided that the jaws may be forcibly closed to grasp the carpet by the outward or upward movement of the lever.

Figure 1 is a side view of a carpet-vise constructed according to my invention, showing the same as closed to gripe the carpet. Fig. 2 is a side view of the same as opened for application to the carpet.

A and B are two griping jaws, of such length, measured transverse to the length of the implement entire, as to afford a good hold upon the edge of the carpet without liability of tearing the same. The shank O of the jaw A has preferably the form of a salient and re-entrant curve, as shown in the drawings, and, except for a portion next adjacent to the jaw, is slotted throughout its length in a plane vertical to that of the jaws. The shank D of the jaw B passes through this slot and is pivoted to (J at a, the extremity of the shank D forming an arm, D. To this latter,at 0, and constituting with the said arm a toggle-joint, is pivoted the inner end of a lever, F, playing through the slot in the shank O, and having above it the bearing f. In this case, preferably, a friction-roller, turning on an axial pin passed through the extremity of 0 below the aforesaid lever, is a cross-pin or stud, g, firmly fixed in the shank 0. That portion of the lever playing 'between the bearing f and pin 9 is curved inward so as to present two inclined surfaces at its upper and lower edges. The jaw B is provided at its rear edge with an angular rabbet, i. The front edge of the jaw a plays down past the shoulder e of the other, and has at its own rear edge a shoulder, m, shutting down into the rabbet 2'. When the edge of the carpet is forcibly clamped between the jaws the fabric is, more or less, bent over across and between the salient angles presented by the two jaws as thus constructed, and the frictional hold to prevent the instrument from slipping away from the fabric is materially increased. a

By taking hold of the end of the lever F, and lifting open the same, the lower jaw 12 is allowed to drop by its own weight, the lever itself sliding, more or less, upon the stud g, which thereby prevents the upper jaw A from falling at the same time. The jaws thus opened are easily thrust above and below the carpet-edge with only one hand of the operator (the other being, if required, employed in the adjustment (of the carpet or other use) and without any inthrust to wrinkle or disarrange the same. By then pulling outward and upward upon the lever the latteris brought to bear against the bearing f, and pressing inward the adjacent end Dof the shank D tightens the jaw B toward the other to firmly grasp the carpetedge between. As the movement of the lever in thus grasping the carpet is precisely that necessarily exerted upon it in stretching or drawing the carpet to its place, it follows that the more severe the strain upon the carpet the more firmly will the vise grasp the same to insure the requisite hold until the operation is complete. I

When desired a staff, as indicated in dotted outline in Fig. '1, may be attached to the outer extremity of the lever in a manner corresponding to that in which staves have been hitherto applied to the operating-levers of other carpet-Vises.

What I claim as my invention is- 1. The combination, with the elongated gripingjaws A B, of the shanks D 0, pivoted together as described, of the toggle-joint, the lever F having a sliding movement, and its inner end forming a part of the togglejoint, and the stud or transverse pin 9, sub the whole arranged substantially as and i'm' stantially as and for the purpose specified. the purpose specified.

2. The combination with the shanks, piv- JAMES LINDSAY. oted together and carrying the elongated jaws, of the toggle-joint, the lever F having a Witnesses: sliding movement, and its inner end forming INGERSOLL Looxwoon, a part of the toggle-joint and the bearing f, WM. TUNNEY.

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