US2892010A - Built-in battery container for illuminated bathroom scale - Google Patents

Description

M. A. PROV! June 23, 1959 BUILT-IN BATTERY CONTAINER FOR ILLUMINA'IED BATHROOM SCALE Filed Dec. 28. 1953 V as an NV 9w WWI m m- LN a 1| mm as h 0% o NM 1% Mike A.Pro1/6 United States Patent BUILT-IN BATTERY CONTAINER FOR ILLUMINATED BATHROOM SCALE Mike A. Provi, Rockford, Ill., assignor to The Brearley Company, Rockford, 11]., a corporation of Illinois Application December 28, 1953, Serial No. 400,566

6 Claims. (Cl. 174-58) This invention relates to bathroom scales and is more particularly concerned with one having an electric light built in to illuminate the dial and thus facilitate reading the indicated weight, the light being automatically turned on only when the platform is depressed.

I am aware that it is old to provide bathroom scales with means for illuminating the dial. However, in the prior constructions, the light was usually located without sufiicient regard to the best possible illumination of the dial and in some instances the light was incorporated as though it had been added as an afterthought, because the associated scale construction did not appear to have been planned around it at the outset and especially designed for it. For example, in such scales, if the light bulb or the battery required replacement, neither was so arranged that the replacement could be taken care of without substantially dismantling the scale, and, as a result, in a large percentage of cases the purchaser would not know how to attend to it and had to be content with very little, if any, service out of the lighting means, assuming the light operated at all after he put the scale into'use. It is, therefore, the principal object of my invention to provide a built-in battery container for a bathroom scale designed and constructed to avoid the objections referred to.

More specifically stated, the scale of my invention in accordance with the above object includes the following features:

(1) Both the light bulb and battery are easily accessible, each upon removal of a single easily removable cover plate, so that a burned out or defective bulb can be easily replaced and a worn out or defective battery can likewise be easily removed and replaced.

(a) The battery housing, except for the small switch terminal bracket fastened to one end thereof in insulated rela- .tionship thereto, is of one-piece sheet metal skeleton boxlike construction having four legs at the four corners to straddle fromthe inside of the scale an opening provided in the base, so that a battery may be inserted into the housing through this opening when a cover plate closing the opening is removed, the four legs of the housing being designed for interlocking engagement at their ends in notches provided in the base on opposite sides of the opening, and the cover plate being designed for quick and easy removal and replacement and interlocking engagement with the base at one end of the opening and to be fastened to the base by means of'a single screw at the other end of the opening, while at same time serving by engagement at its opposite .ends with the four legs of the battery housing to keep 'ice them in interlocked engagement with the base, so that there is never any possibility of the battery housing getting loose and shifting its position to the slightest extent and thereby interfering with proper operation of the light switch in response to movement of the wishbone lever.

The invention is illustrated in the accompanying drawings, in which- Fig. 1 is a longitudinal section through a bathroom scale embodying the improvements of my invention;

Fig. 2 is a section on the broken line 2--2 of Fig. 4 showing the battery substantially full size and the retaining housing therefor and removable cover plate;

Fig. 3 is a bottom view of Fig. 2 with the cover plate removed so as to indicate the accessibility of the battery through the opening in the base plate for easy removal and replacement of a battery;

Fig. 4 is a view similar to Fig. 3 showing the cover plate applied, and

Figs. 5 and 6 are sectional details on the lines 55 and 6-6 of Fig. 4.

The same reference numerals are applied to corresponding parts throughout the views.

Referring first mainly to Fig. 1, the reference numeral 15 designates the generally rectangular sheet metal base of the scale, and 16 the generally rectangular sheet metal platform supported on said base by means of a pair of wishbone levers 17 and 18. The latter are made in accordance with the disclosure in my copending application, Serial No. 733,582, filed March 10, 1947. The main wishbone lever 17 is generally triangular shaped and fulcrumed at the base portion of the triangle on a pair of brackets 19 extending upwardly from the rear portion of the base 15, and this lever supports the rear portion of the platform 16 by means of a pair of downwardly projecting brackets 20 that engage at their lower ends in hangers 21 fulcrumed on the lever 17 in forwardly spaced relation to the brackets 19. At the front end of the scale the lever 17 is connected to the lower end of the weighing spring 22 that is suspended by means of a screw 23 in the upper end of an inverted U-shaped bracket 24 supported on the base 15, an adjusting nut 25 being threaded on the screw 23 and resting on top of the bracket 24 to provide an adjustable support for the screw on the bracket and thus enable adjusting the scale back to zero in the well-known way. The other and smaller lever 18 is wishbone or U-shaped and has its cross-portion 26 supported on top of the main lever 17 by means of a downwardly projecting lug 27 which engages a hanger 28 supported on lever 17, the lever 18 having its arms supported on the front end of base 15 on brackets 29 and serving to support thereon the front end portion of the platform 16 by means of downwardly projecting brackets 30 that engage in hangers 31 supported on the arms of the lever 18 in rearwardly spaced relation to the brackets 29.

The weight indicating dial 32 is connected with a pinion 33 by means of a spindle 34 suitably formed integral with the pinion. A rack 34 meshes with the pinion 33 and is pivotally connected at its forward end to the lower end of an arm 36 of a bell-crank lever 37 pivoted by means of a cross-pin 38 to a bracket 39 supported on the base 15. This bell-crank lever 37 has a finger 40 resting on an arch 41 carried on the front 3 end portion of the lever 17 immediately behind the spring 22, so that when the lever 17 is depressed by weight applied to the platform 16 the bell-crank lever 37 will swing in a clockwise direction as viewed in Fig. 1 under the action of a light coiled tension spring 42 that is connected to the rear end of the rack 35 and has its rear end attached to a lug 43 extending upwardly from the base 15. The heavier the weight the more the levers 17 and 18 are depressed against resistance of the weighing spring 22 and the farther the rack 35 is moved under action of spring 42 to turn the dial 32 away from its zero position, all as clearly disclosed in my copending ap plication, Serial No. 330,824, filed January 12, 1953, now Patent No. 2,788,963. r vAs further disclosed in the last mentioned copending application, the dial 32 has graduations annularly of the top thereof, and a slight opening is provided in a circular upwardly embossed portion 46 of the platform 16 over the front half portion of the dial so that a reading may be taken of the indicated Weight by a person standing on the platform. A magnification lens 47 gives sufficient enlargement so that the figures and graduation lines are easily seen from eye level above the platform, especially when the dial 32 is illuminated, as hereinafter described. The lens 47 has a rim portion 48 resting on top of the embossed portion 46 of the platform and fits in a circular hole 49 provided therefor in an escutcheon plate 50 that is suitably secured to the platform 16, as by means of a lug 51 on the rear end of the plate and a screw 52 at the front end of the plate. A slot 53 in the front end of the plate 50 affords access therethrough to the rim portion of the nut 25 previously mentioned in setting the scale back to zero. A double hairline member 54 is set in slots 55 provided in the platform 16 on diametrically opposite sides of the sight opening and is held in place on the embossed portion 46 of the platform by the rim portion '48 of the lens. The upper hairline portion of the member 54 is in closely spaced relation to the bottom of the lens, and the lower hairline portion of member 54 is in closely spaced relation to the dial 32, and the two portions together determine the vertical plane of sight for accurate reading of the indicated weight, as described in said last mentioned copending application.

A small electric light bulb 56 is mounted in a socket 57 disposed in an opening 58 provided in the platform 16 immediately behind the upwardly embossed portion 46 on which the lens 47 is supported, the socket 57 being disposed on the longitudinal center line of the platform, and having a downward and forward inclination in the opening 58 so as to direct the light on a line ed, as shown in Fig. 1, forwardly and downwardly across the top of the dial 32 in the fore and aft vertical plane of the double hairline member 54, so that there will be no shadows cast by any portion of this hairline member and the light will be concentrated on the dial for easier reading of the indicated weight. The dial 32, it will be noticed, has a recessed central hub portion 59, and the bulb 56 is disposed over this hub and projects to some extent into the recess, especially when the platform 16 is depressed under weight. The arrangement, therefore, enables substantially the same close spacing of the platform 16 in relation to the dial 32 as where no light bulb was provided, without danger of any interference by reason of insufficient clearance. The socket 57 for the bulb is mounted on a small sheet metal bracket that is fastened to the platform 16 in such a way that one side of the filament of the bulb 56 is grounded to the metal platform 16 and through its metalto-metal contacts with the base also to the base 15, to which the shell of the battery 66 is also grounded, as will soon appear. A conductor wire 67, which is electrically connected with the other side of the filament of the bulb 56 extends to and is connected with an insulated terminal 68 provided on the battery retaining housing 69 that is grounded to the base 15, so that a circuit will be completed through bulb 56 from the battery 66 when a switch indicated generally by the reference numeral 70 is closed, this switch being automatically closed when a sulficient load is placed on the platform 16 to cause the supporting levers 17 and 18 to be depressed.

The switch 70 includes a bracket 71 that is mounted on one end of the skeleton box-like housing 69 is insulated relationship thereto by means of a rivet 72 that serves as a terminal and has contact with the central post or terminal of the battery 66, as clearly appears in Fig. 2. A screw 73 threaded in the hole in the bracket 71 has a coiled compression spring 74 surrounding the shank thereof under the head of the screw and compressed between the head and the bracket 71 to hold the screw under tension in adjusted position. The protruding end 75 of the screw, therefore, serves as an adjustably fixed contact which, when engaged by the movable contact 76 provided in the form of an outwardly bent lug on one end of an elongated switch lever 77, engages contact 75 and causes the light bulb 56 to be turned on. The lever 77 is fulcrumed intermediate its ends in the forked portion of a lug 78 projecting from and forming a part of one end wall of the housing 69. This lever 77 has an upwardly projecting hooked front end 79 extending through a slot 80 provided in the front end portion of the lever 17 and engaging the top of said lever so that the lever 77 will swing downwardly with the lever 17 partly under gravity and partly under the light pressure of a wire spring 81 that is suitably fixed at two points along its length to the base 15 and has its free end portion engaging in a notch 82 provided in the upper edge of the lever 77, as clearly appears in Fig. l. The screw 73 is carefully adjusted at the factory when the scale is assembled to provide a pre determined clearance between the end 75 of the screw and the lug 76 so that a predetermined movement of lever 17 is required to close the contacts 75 and 76 and complete a circuit through bulb 56. In that way there is no danger of the light being turned on accidentally and cansing the battery 66 to be worn out prematurely, and yet at the same time the operation is sufficiently positive to in-, sure turning on of the light each time the scale is used in weighing a person standing on the platform. Elongating the lever 77 to the extent shown and operating its free end by connection with the lever 17 near its front end and adding the light spring pressure at 81 makes the operation so easy that there is no perceptible effect one way or the other on the accuracy of weighing.

The light bulb 56 may be easily removed and replaced by removing only a single screw 52 so that the escutcheon plate 50 can be removed and the bulb 56 made accessible for removal and replacement. In like manner, it is only necessary to remove a single screw 83 in order to permit removal of a cover plate 84 closing an opening 85 in the base 15, in order to expose the battery 66 for removal and replacement, the battery 66 being then easily accw sible as indicated in Fig. 3 and free to be dropped out when the scale is turned over.

The cover plate 84, as will now be described, not only closes the opening 85 but serves to anchor the ends of the two pairs of legs 86 and 87 on opposite ends of the housing 69 that are disposed in interlocking engagement in notches 86' and 87' provided in the opposite sides of the opening 86. The legs 86 and 87 are wider than the notches 86' and 87' but are notched out on one side, as indicated at 88 in Fig. 2, to permit entry into notches 86 and 87' laterally. In other words, the legs 86 and 87, which have a certain amount of resilience and are normally spaced apart to the extent indicated in dotted lines in Figs. 5 and 6, are pressed together enough to pass through the opening 85 so that their notches 88 register with notches'86' and 87', whereupon they are allowed to spread again under their inherent spring tension to interlock the notched ends lo! the legs 86 and 87 in the notches 86" and 87". "In that way, even when the cover plate 84 is removed, there is no likelihood of the housing 69 being loose cnough to become disconnected accidentally from the base 15. However, to insure positively that the notched ends of the legs 86 and 87 will remain interlocked with the base 15 in the notches 86' and 87' regardless of how roughly the scale may be handled, I prefer to provide channeled edge portions 89 extending along opposite sides of the plate 84 from one end where a hook-shaped extension 90 is provided, the channel-shaped edge portions 89 being arranged to receive the extremity of legs 86 in the channels of the edge portions 89 at the same time that the hook-shaped extension 90 is hooked onto the top of the base 15 at the same end of the opening 85, thereby securing the legs 86 against displacement from notches 86. The other end portion of plate 84 is narrower and, in fact, is no wider than the opening 85, as indicated at 91 in Fig. 4, so that the edge portions 91 serve by abutment with the inner sides of the legs 87 to hold these legs in notches 87' when the screw 83 has fastened the plate 84 to the base 15. Downwardly embossed feet 92 are provided on base 15 at the four corners thereof to rest on the floor and these keep the base 15 in elevated relation to the floor enough to provide ample clearance for those portions of plate 84 that lie below the plane of the plate 15, as shown in Figs. 1 and 2. When the screw 83 is removed, plate 84 may be easily removed and the battery 66 can be dropped out by turning the scale over to its normal operative position, whereupon a new battery can then be inserted and the plate 84 replaced and fastened by screw 83.

It is believed the foregoing description conveys a good understanding of the objects and advantages of my invention. The appended claims have been drawn to cover all legitimate modifications and adaptations.

I claim:

1. In an electrically operated device utilizing a cylindrical storage battery for the current source, the combination with a wall of said device adapted to serve as a battery support, of a box-like housing having side walls and that is U-shaped in cross-section defining an opening between the ends of the legs of the U to receive the battery, the open side of said housing registering with an opening provided in the wall of said device, the legs of the U defining the opposite side walls of said housing being normally farther apart at their ends than the width of said opening in the wall of said device and being sprung toward one another to enter said opening, said side walls having portions thereof formed for interlocking engagement with the wall of said device alongside said opening, whereby said housing is held interlocked with said wall under spring tension inherent in the material of said housing, and a cover plate removably secured to the wall of said device to close said opening and retain a battery in said housing while engaging between the side walls of said housing to prevent disconnection thereof from the wall of said device.

2. In an electrically operated device utilizing a cylindrical storage battery for the current source, the combination with a Wall of said device adapted to serve as a battery support, of a rectangular box-like housing that is open on one side to receive the battery said housing being U-shaped in cross-section at both ends to define a pair of legs at each end spaced to receive the end portions of the battery therebetween, there being a rectangular opening provided in the wall of said device, the legs at the four corners of the housing tending normally to diverge to a greater width at their ends than the width of said opening and being formed for interlocking engagement in notches provided at the four corners of the opening, the legs being sprung toward each other to enter said notches and being therefore held in place in said notches under spring tension inherent in the legs, and a rectangular cover plate removably secured to the Wall of said device to close said opening and retain a battery in said housing while engaging the inner sides of the end "6 positions of said legs to retain the same in engagement in said notches.

3. In an electrically operated device utilizing a cylindrical storage battery for the current source, the combination with a wall of said device adapted to serve as a battery support, of a rectangular box-like housing that is open on one side to receive the battery, the open side of said housing registering with a rectangular opening provided in the wall of said device, said housing having legs at the four corners of the housing the ends of which are formed for interlocking engagement in notches provided at the four corners of the opening, and a rectangular cover plate removably secured to the wall of said device to close said opening and retain a battery in said housing, said plate having channeled edge portions in which the ends of legs interlockingly engaged in said notches are received to hold the same in assembled position.

4. In an electrically operated device utilizing a cylindrical storage battery for the current source, the combination with a wall of said device adapted to serve as a battery support, of a rectangular box-like housing that is open on one side to receive the battery, the open side of said housing registering with a rectangular opening provided in the wall of said device, said housing having legs at the four corners of the housing the ends of which are formed for interlocking engagement in notches provided at the four corners of the opening, and a rectangular cover plate removably secured to the wall of said device to close said opening and retain a battery in said housing, said plate having channeled edge portions at one end cooperating with the ends of two of the legs interlockingly engaged in two of the notches by engagement of said ends in the channels to prevent disconnection thereof,

said plate having the other end thereof extending between the other pair of legs to prevent displacement thereof from the notches.

5. In a device utilizing a storage battery as a source of electrical current supply, the combination with a wall of said device having an opening provided therein, of a boxlike housing having side walls, said housing being U-shaped in cross-section defining an opening between the ends of the legs of the U to receive the battery, the open side of said housing registering with the aforesaid opening in said wall and the end portions of the legs of the U defining the opposite side walls of said housing projecting through the aforesaid opening and having portions thereof formed for interlocking engagement with the wall of said device alongside said opening, and a cover plate having channels to close said opening and retain a battery in said housing, said cover plate having edge portions in which channels are provided to receive the projecting ends of the aforesaid legs to hold the same in assembled position with respect to the wall of said device, said plate having on one end portion a shoulder to engage the inner side of the wall of said device adjacent the opening therein, and means for fastening the other end of said plate remote from said shoulder to the outer side of said wall adjacent the opening therein.

6. In a device utilizing a storage battery for a source of electrical current supply, the combination with a wall of said device having a rectangular opening provided therein, of a rectangular housing that is open on one side to receive the battery and register with the aforesaid opening in the wall of said device, said housing having legs at the four corners thereof, the end portions of which are formed for interlocking engagement in and projection through notches provided at the four corners of the aforesaid opening, and a rectangular cover plate to close said opening and retain a battery in said housing, said plate having channeled edge portions at one end receiving the projecting ends of two of the legs to retain the same in the notches and having at the same end a projection engaging the inner side of said wall adjacent the opening therein, said plate having the other end thereof extending between the-other pair of legs to prevent displacement thereof from the notches, and having means 011 that end for detachably securing the same to'the wall of said device.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS Rittenhouse Dec. 25, 1928 Benedict Nov. 13, 1917 Hodges Mar. 13, 1928 Frank Oct. 29, 1929 UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE CERTIFICATE OF CORRECTIQN- Patent No. 2,892,010 June 23, 1959 Mike A. Provi It is hereby certified that error appears in the printed specification of the above numbered patent requiring correction and that the said Letters Patent should read as corrected below.

Column 5, line 61, after "battery" insert a comma; column 6, line 1, for "positions" read portions Signed and sealed this 19th day of July 1960.

(SEAL) Attest:

KARL H- .AXLINE ROBERT C. WATSON Commissioner of Patents Attesting Officer UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE CERTIFICATE OF CORRECTION Patent No. 2,892,010

June 23, 1959 Mike A. Provi It is hereby certified that error appears in the printed specification tion and that the said Letters of the above numbered patent requiring correc Patent should read as corrected below.

Column 5, line 61, after "battery" insert a comma; column 6, line 1, for "positions" read portions Signed and sealed this 19th day of July 1960.

(SEAL) Attest:

KARL HrAXLlNE ROBERT C. WATSON Commissioner of Patents Attesting ()ificer

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