US742989A - Window-shade fixture. - Google Patents

Description

PATENTBD NOV. 3; 1903.

D. HOIYT.

WINDOW SHADE FIXTURE.

APPLICATION FILED JAN. 26, 1903.

T0 at whom it may concern:

NITED STATES Patented November 3, 1903.

PATENT OFFICE.

DANIEL HOYT, OF SOUTH NORWALK, CONNECTICUT, ASSIGNOR OF ONE- HALF TO NATIONAL LOCK WASHER COMPANY, OF NEWARK, NEW

JERSEY.

-W|NDOW-SHAD E FIXTU RE.

$PEGIFICATION forming part of Le ttersPatent No. 742,989, dated November 3, 1903.

Application filed January 26, 1903. Serial No. 140,503. (No model.)

Be it known that I, DANIEL HOYT, a citizen of the United States, and a resident of South Norwalk, in the county of Fairfield and State of Connecticut, have invented a certain new and useful Window-Shade Fixture, of which the following is a specification.

This invention relates to window-shade fixtures in which a tension-roller is employed.

in operating the same.

The object of my invention is to provide a window-shade fixture which allows the curtain to be easily raised or lowered, yet held firmly at any elevation, and which is adaptable to closed or open cars, and maybe operated from the outside as readily as from the inside of the car, and which provides at all times a strong even tension on the shade that insures a smooth-setting curtain and also prevents it from bellying easily when exposed to the wind, and maintains at all times the bottom of the shade in a horizontal position parallel to the spring-roller.

In the present invention I provide a fixture which can be cheaply and readily made and applied andwhich will not easily get out of order and which while rendered easy to remove from the guides cannot be thrown therefrom in the act of operating the shade.

The invention consists in the construct-ion and combination of instrumentalities to effect these purposes, which I will first proceed to describe in connection with the accompanying drawings and subsequently to point out the novel characteristics in the appended claims.

In the drawings the essential parts are referred to in the several figures, the corresponding parts being designated by similar numbers of reference.

Figure 1 represents a front elevation,partly in section, of a window-frame with shade attached; and Fig. 2, a vertical section of Fig. 1, taken on the line 2 2. Fig. 3 is a horizontal section of the shade and holding-fixture on the line 3 3, Fig. 1. Fig. 4 is a side view 22 a spring-roller journaled in the bracket 23 to the window-frame.

24 represents traveling heads which slide upon the guiderods 25 or within guidegrooves, as shown in Fig. 5.

26 is a stick or bar connected with and near the base of the shade and extends the width of the shade. Within or attached to the respective ends of this bar 26 a removable and adjustable hollow casing is placed,which carries the head 24. The head 24 is provided with a tang 28, integral therewith and projecting horizontally and about centrally therefrom. This tang 28 fits the interior of the hollow casing 27 and has a free endwise movement in said casing. At the inner end of the tang 28 a rod or bolt 29 of less diameter and fixed to the tang is extended through the hollow casing 27 and provided with a thread at its end and an adjusting-nut 29', that bears upon the annular ring 30, secured in the inner end of the casing 27 by any convenient means. The rod 29 passes freely through the ring 30, and between the shoulder of the tang 28 and the ring 30 and surrounding the rod 29 a coiled spring 31 is placed. The compression of the spring 31 and the extent of the sliding movement of the justable casing'27. This spring 31 forms a yielding bearing for the thrust of the head ,24 and may be madelight or heavy, according to the friction-pressure required on the head.

In Fig. 1 the parts referred to are shown in relative position with the tang 28 of the head 24 moved inwardly to compress the spring 31 to produce a degree of friction of the head 24 upon its guide-rod 25 that will retain the head and attached shade after moving the tang 28 of the head 24 is regulated by the ad- This invention, so far as described, may be used in connection with any known kind of tension-roller, the novel feature of the construction described consisting in the separate, adjustable, and yielding fixtures located upon the opposite sides of the shade.

I am well aware that many kinds of friction-heads actuated by spring-pressure are used in this class of devices; but the shadestick which extends across the bottom of the shade is included with the operative mechanism of the spring-pressure head-and forms an elementof the mechanism, and each shadestick, therefore, is made in accordance with the width of the shade, while in my invention the fixtures are independent of the shadestick in their action and can be attached to the ends of any shade-stick and can be readily adjusted and applied to any width of shade and made at less cost. The fixtures are selfcontained and are made only of sufiicient length to include the parts that effect the yielding thrust movement of the head 24, the device in itself operating entirely independent of the shade-stick. It will thus be seen that each fixture is made complete in itself and capable of ready attachment to a shadestick of any length or size. The invention, however, embodies a further improvement, in which the spring-roller has practically an even tension throughout during the entire travel of the shade and which tension is balanced by counteracting means that will permit an easy and rapid movement of the shade and yet maintain a proper tension upon the shade itself and at the same time not affect the action of the holding-fixtures. This operation of my invention is accomplished by the employment of a long spring 33in the operating-roller 22, whereby the degree of tension during the limited movement of the shade is of less variation than in the use of a' shorter spring or one designed in its extreme operation in length commensurate only with a definite movement of the shade. In combination with the long and stronger spring referred to I attach a bar at the bottom of the shade (shown at 26) of such predetermined weight as to balance the tension of the spring in the roller 22 and maintain a tension upon the shade when set and also when raising or lowering the shade.

In use the ordinary shade operated by a spring-roller has a travel of about forty inches, which requires about twelve revolutions of the roller. This roller is given a capacity of about twenty-four revolutions, commencing with no tension upon the spring. After twenty-four revolutions the roller has a very strong tension, which increases very fast with each revolution. Thus if you start with the roller wound up ten revolutions and the shade is at its highest position when you pull it down twelve revolutions more you increase the tension very fast, so that when the shade is all the way up you have but little tension and when all the way down a very strong tension. The roller and spring which I use has preferably a capacity of about forty-eight turns to obtain the same tension the ordinary spring-roller obtains with twenty-four turns. In all other respects this roller is the same as the roller in general use. With my invention when the shade is way up the roller involves about twenty-eight turns and when way down about forty turns,which produces at all times a strong tension. As forty-eight turns produces a spring tension only equal to the ordinary roller with twenty-four turns, each turn of the roller embodied in my invention causes but slight variation in its tension. With the present invention when the shade is about half-way of its travel or at thirtyfour turns of the roller and there is, say, a five-pound tension on the shade, I use a counterbalance at the bottom of the shade equal to the tension of the spring-roller which exactly balances the shade at this point. It follows, therefore, if you raise the shade way up you slightly decrease the tension of the roller, and the counterbalance would consequently gradually pull the shade down to thirty-four turns. If you pull the curtain way down to forty turns, the tension would be slightly increased, and in this position the tension would gradually draw the counterbalance up to thirty-four turns, where it just balances. To overcome this slight variation of the tension and to hold the shade firmly at the bottom, I use the spring-actuated friction fixture heretofore described, which runs on a guideway in or on the window-frame on each side of the curtain. The spring-pressure of these fixtures must be of less holding power against the casing than the tension of the spring-roller or the weight of the counterbalance. Thus when you push up one side of the shade-bar the tension of the roller is all transferred to the opposite friction-head, which draws that up as fast as you lift the other, and vice versa in pulling down the shade, thus maintaining the bottom of the curtain at all times in a horizontal position. To manipulate the shade, you simply have to push it up or pull it down, taking hold of the bottom at any place inside or outside of a car. The only force necessaryis to overcome the light friction of the fixture in its guides. In connection with-this balancing feature of my invention I wish it to be understood that I do not confine myself to the particular kind of devices herein shown and described for guiding or holding the shade, as other wellknown devices at present in use may be substituted, the appended claims referring to such balancing device being expressed and intended to cover in combination therewith any suitable fixtures for guiding and main taining the shade at any part of its traverse.

Having thus fully described my invention, what I claim, and desire to secure by Letters Patent, is

1. In combination with a window-shade, a connected roller provided with a spring of practically even tension within the limit of movement of the shade; a counterweight attached near the base of the shade to balance the tension of the roller, and suitable fixtures connected with the shade to guide and maintain the shade in any desired position of its traverse, as set forth.

2. In combination with a window-shade a connected roller provided with a coiled spring of increased length to provide an increased range of action; a weight attached to the free end of the shade to balance the tension of the roller-spring, and a suitable fixture connected with the shade to guide and maintain the same in any desired position of its traverse, as set forth.

3. In combination with a window-shade, a connected roller provided with a spring of practically even tension within the limit of movement of the shade; a weight attached to the free end of the shade consisting of a rigid bar or equivalent and suitable fixtures connected with the respective ends of the weight to guide or maintain the shade at any desired position of its traverse, as set forth.

4. In combination with a Window-shade, a tension-roller; a shade-stick, and self-contained holding-fixtures separately attached to the shade-stick and having a longitudinal adjustment therewith and capable of a yielding thrust movement operating independently of the shade-stick, as set forth.

5. A window-shade provided with a tensionroller; a rigid bar or tube extending the width of the shade and holding-fixtures separately attached to the respective ends of the bar or tube, having a'longitudinal adjustment therewith and capable of a yielding thrust movement operating independently of the bar or tube, as set forth.

6. A Window-shade provided with a tensionroller; a shade-stick, and self-contained guiding and holding fixtures separately attached to the shade-stick upon opposite ends thereof, said fixtures being composed respectively, of an adjustable casing and a guiding-head having a part projecting into said casing capable of a yielding thrust movementoperating independently of the shade-stick, as set forth.

Signed at New York, in the county of New York and State of New York, this 24th day of January, A. D. 1903.

DANIEL HOYT.

Witnesses:

CHAS. W. FORBES, CHARLES HANIMANN.

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