US391710A - Letter-box - Google Patents

Description

(No Mcdel.)

E. G. HELLER.

LETTER BOX. No. 391,710. Patented Oct. 23, 1888.

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ELI GEORGE HELLER, OF HASTINGS, NEBRASKA.

LETTER -BOX.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 391,710, dated October 23, 1888.

Application filed January 16, 1888. Serial No. 260,834. (No model.)

To all whom it may concern.-

Be it known that I, ELI GEORGE HELLER, a citizen of the United States, residing at Hastings, in the county of Adams and State of Nebraska, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Mail-Boxes; and I do hereby declare the following to be a full, clear, and exact description of the invention, such as will enable others skilled in the art to which it appertains to make and use the same.

This invention relates to letter-boxes which are ordinarily placed at the doors of rooms, halls, or offices, and especially to boxes of this sort which are constructed and arranged to be opened by the opening of the hall-door or the room-door, but to remain closed so long as said door is closed.

The object of my invention is to provide for inverting the box at will, so that either end may become the open top, each end being also constructed to receive and hold a plate,which closes it when said end is used as the bottom.

Figure 1 represents a perspective view from within the room of an open door,a door-frame, and a letter-box embodying my invention. Fig. 2 represents an enlarged detail perspec tive View of the box, taken from behind, the plate which closes the top or bottom being removed. Fig. 3 represents a detail view of this plate. Fig. 4: represents a vertical section of the box,taken on a plane through the two lugs for holding said movable plate,and looking toward the closed side of the box, the movable plate being at the bottom thereof. Fig. 5represents a horizontal section on the line 00 m of Fig. 4..

A designates a door; B, the jamb, to which it is hung; 0, theletter'box, which is stamped from a single sheetof metal,or cast from metal, and provided at its corners with flat perforated lugs c, for allowing said box to be fastened to said jarnb by screws d. Said box is closed in front and at one side, e, but open at the rear, where the jamb acts as a wall, and at the other side, f, the latter being presented toward the door, so as to be closed thereby so long as the door is not opened. The opening of the door allows access to the interior of the box through the open side f thereof. The top and bottom of said box consist of a plate, 9, and a plate, h, which extend from the front of the box part of the way back to the jamb, leaving an opening, i or j, in each instance next to the latter. WVhen a door opening inward to the left is used, as shown in Fig. 1, the opening 2 is the upper one, through which letters and other mail matter are dropped into the box. The lower opening, j, is closed by a removable plate, E, which fits under a lug, k, formed on the inner face of the front of the box just above the bottom thereof. The inner edge of said removable plate may be in the outline of an isosceles triangle, broad in the base and truncated at the point, where it fits under said lug 76, as shown, or it may extend through a hole in the box at the same point designated for the lug it; but this shape is not essential, it "being necessary only that the removable plate should cover the opening 7' and be reliably held in position to do so. To insure this last, a flange, Z, is turned upward at the edge of lower plate, It, forming the bottom of the box, and the removable plate E is made to fit against the front of the box, the closed side 6, and the said flange Z, as well as the jamb B. The plate g is provided with a similar downwardly-facing flange, m, and the upper end of the front of the box is provided with a lug, arranged like lug 7c. The removable plate E slips under this lug 7s, and is held thereby when the box is inverted, the flange m, then upwardly facing, aiding said lug and the front and closed side of said box, in holding said removable plate E in place, so that it will close the lower opening, 2', the opening j, then at the top, allowing the mail to be dropped through it into said box. WVhen the box is in this latter position, it is attached to the other doorjamb and used with a door opening to the left, the similar construction of the box at top and bottom making it easily reversible without change of parts.

The box being outside of the room or hall which the door gives access to, the mail-carrier can easily drop in the mail through the opening 6 or 9', which is uppermost, and cards or other small articles may be similarly deposited; but no one can have access to the contents of the box without opening the roomdoor or hall-door B, whether that door opens to the right or the left, and in either case the box is opened as soon as the door'is.

Having thus described my invention, what I hall-door which closes said side opening when claim as new,

and desire to secure by Letters said door is closed and opens it when said door :5 Patent, is is opened, substantially as set forth.

1. A letter-box having an opening at top 3. A letter-box having at each end an openand another at the bottom, in combination ing. a lug, kor 7c, and a flange, Z or m,in com- With a removable plate adapted to close either i bination with a plate, E, arranged substanof the openings, as shown, the box being pro- 1 tially as set forth. Vided with fixed lugs for holding said platein In testimony whereof I affix my signature in place, substantially as set forth. presence of two witnesses.

2. A letter-box having an opening at top ELI GEORGE HELLER. and bottom and an opening in one side, in combination with a plate which closes either] the top or bottom at will, and a room-door or Witnesses:

T. J. Down, FRANK DEFENDORF.

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