Quick release window guard

An external steel grating has seven vertical bars welded at their ends to upper and lower horizontal hollow cross bars, end portions of which cross bars are bent rearwardly and secured to a building so that the grating overlies a window opening and protects it against illegal entry. One end of the grating has a loosely hinged connection with the building and the cross bars are jointed near the opposite end of the grating and locked in assembled relation by a hidden bolt in one of the cross bars. A cable from said bolt extends through the last mentioned cross bar to the interior of said building, which cable, when pulled, withdraws the bolt from its locking position and frees the joints for separation by gravity allowing the major hinged portion of the grating to swing freely outwardly and affording a ready escape from the building through said window.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION 
The mounting of gratings on buildings which overlie the windows thereof to 
protect against illegal entry through a window is an ancient practice 
which is currently being resumed as a defense against the rising wave of 
crime. Attention has been drawn to the hazards thus incurred in case of 
fire by several instances where the presence of such gratings prevented 
dwellers escaping from a burning building thus resulting in their death. 
Warnings have been issued by fire departments against the use of window 
gratings for protection against burglary unless having a means for readily 
displacing these in the event of fire. 
Inasmuch as the need to have windows protected against illegal entry is 
today very urgent, it is a primary object of the present invention to 
provide a window grating effective for this purpose yet having means 
operable only from inside the building equipped therewith to quickly 
displace the grating and allow escape through said window in the event of 
fire. 
Another object of the invention is to provide such a window protecting 
grating which may be readily restored to its capacity for blocking illegal 
entry through the window covered thereby.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT 
The quick release window guard 15 of the invention is adapted to be mounted 
on a building 16 in protective relation with a window opening 17 which is 
formed in a wall 18 of the building. While under normal circumstances the 
opening 17 would be provided with a glassed window, this is not shown in 
the drawing for purposes of simplification of the disclosure. The 
preferred embodiment of the invention 15 includes four wall bracket plates 
19, 20, 21 and 22, the first two of which are on the left side of window 
opening 17 and the latter two of which are on the right side of said 
opening. The plates 19 and 20 are plain rectangular flat plates and the 
plates 21 and 22 are similar plates but have welded thereto U-shaped hinge 
boxes 23, upper and lower walls of which are provided with slots 24. The 
guard 15 also includes a grating 25 including upper and lower hollow 
square section tubular cross bars 30 and 31, the left end portions 32 and 
33 of which are bent rearwardly and welded respectively to wall bracket 
plates 19 and 20. The right hand end portions 34 and 35 of cross bars 30 
and 31 respectively are bent rearwardly to extend between the upper and 
lower walls of hinge boxes 23 and have welded thereto vertical pins 36 and 
37 which extend through slots 24 of boxes 23 so as to allow both pivotal 
swinging and lateral slippage of the right hand portion of the grating 25 
as will be made clear hereafter. 
The upper cross bar 30 and lower cross bar 31 are rigidly joined together 
by seven vertical half-inch steel bars 38, 39, 40, 45, 46, 47, and 48. At 
a point 49 (see FIGS. 9 and 10) located midway between bars 38 and 39, 
both upper and lower cross bars 30 and 31 are divided by an oblique cut 
which completely separates the left end portions 32 and 33 of said cross 
bars from the right end portions 34 and 35 thereof. A pair of U-shaped 
hoods 50 and 51 are welded on left end cross bar portions 32 and 33 so as 
to overlie equally the left cross bar end portions 32 and 33 and the right 
cross bar end portions 34 and 35 when the latter are shifted from the 
positions in which they are shown in FIG. 10 upwardly into alignment with 
said cross bar left end portions, as shown in FIG. 9. Left end portion 33 
is provided with a stop lug 53. The right end portion 35 of cross bar 31 
has a stop lug 54 and also has a slot 55, the purposes of which will be 
made clear hereinafter. 
Fitting slideably in the lower cross bar 31 so as to operate therein 
between the limits fixed by stop lugs 53 and 54 is a cylindrical bolt 60 
which is axially bored to receive therein one end of a wire cable 61 which 
is secured to said bolt by set screws 62. The cable 61 is concealed within 
the lower cross bar 31 and is also threaded through a hole 63 provided in 
wall 18 from which said cable enters the upper end of the cavity 64 
provided in the cable housing 65 fixed to the inner surface of the wall 18 
as shown in FIGS. 2 and 4. The cable housing is thus secured by screws 66 
to said wall and terminates at the lower end in a lug 67 which snugly 
overlies and holds in place a handle 68 which is secured to the inside 
terminal end of the cable 61. When bolt 60 is located as shown in FIGS. 7 
and 8, handle 68 is positioned as shown in full lines in FIG. 4. 
OPERATION 
FIGS. 1, 2, 3, 7 and 8 illustrate the invention as installed in place over 
a window opening 17 and locked in fully assembled relation so as to guard 
said window opening against illegal entry. At this time the bolt 60 is 
positioned as shown in FIGS. 7 and 8 after the two right end portions 34 
and 35 of cross bars 30 and 31 have been lifted upward into the open 
bottom ends of hoods 50 and 51 so as to rigidly align and unite said right 
end portions 34 and 35 to the left end portions 32 and 33 of said cross 
bars. When the cross bars 30 and 31 of the grating 25 are thus rigidly 
assembled and held in this condition by the bolt 60, the handle 68 on the 
inner end of the wire cable 61 is drawn upwardly against the lower end of 
the cable housing 65 so as to be snugly held in place under the lug 67 
while at the same time being free to move downwardly when pressure is 
applied to this handle manually and which of course is only intentionally 
done, as in an emergency when it is desired to release the window guard 15 
from covering relation with the window opening 17 to permit people in the 
building to escape from a fire, or to facilitate cleaning windows. 
Withdrawal of the bolt 60 from the locking position in which this is shown 
in FIGS. 7 and 8 to its unlocking position as shown in FIGS. 9 and 10 
immediately releases the right end portions 34 and 35 of the grating cross 
bars 30 and 31 from support by the left end portions 32 and 33 of said 
cross bars. As the vertical pins 36 and 37 welded to the right end 
portions 34 and 35 of cross bars 30 and 31 have freedom to move in slots 
24 provided in the hinge boxes 23, the pulling on handle 68 and the 
rightward shifting of bolt 60 as illustrated in FIG. 9 immediately causes 
the downward gravitation of the right portion of the grating 25 from the 
left portion thereof with a resulting positioning of these two portions in 
offset relation to each other as shown in FIG. 5, thereby permitting 
immediate outward swinging of the right hand portion of the grating 
through the full line position of this shown in FIG. 6 to the dotted line 
position shown in this view which completely removes the grating 25 from 
barring escape through the window opening 17 of any of the persons within 
the building 16, such as would be necessitated by a fire occurring in said 
building. 
The function of the stop plugs 53 and 54 are clearly shown in FIGS. 7, 8, 9 
and 10 as being to limit endwise movement of the bolt 60 in the operation 
of the device. The reason for providing the slot 55 in the bottom wall of 
right end portion 35 of the lower cross bar 31 is the need for having 
access to the space at the right hand end of the bolt 60 for relocking the 
grating 25 in assembled relation after it has been unlocked to permit 
occupants of building 16 to escape through the window opening 17. The slot 
55 is of just sufficient width to permit the entry of a thin instrument 
such as the blade of a knife into engagement with the right hand end of 
the bolt 60 while the latter is positioned as shown in FIG. 10 and after 
the right hand portions of the grating 25 has been lifted to bring the 
right and left portions of the cross bars 30 and 31 into alignment as 
shown in FIG. 9 at which point pressure against the right hand end of the 
bolt 60 will force this into the left end portion of lower cross bar 31 as 
shown in FIG. 8 until it is stopped by stop lug 53. This movement of the 
bolt 60 will also pull the wire cable 61 into the grating 25 so as to 
raise the handle 68 from the broken line position in which this is shown 
in FIG. 4 to the full line position of this handle shown in said view. 
While not essential to the invention, it has been disclosed in the drawing 
as including an X-shaped scroll 69 made of quarter inch by half inch steel 
bars bent as shown and welded to vertical bars 40, 45 and 46. The scroll 
69 is at once ornamental and constitutes a bracing of the grating 25 which 
warrants its inclusion in the design. 
It is to be noted that the seven vertical bars of the grating 25 are 
distributed across this so as to assign vertical bar 38 to the narrow left 
portion of said grating thereby giving substantial reinforcement 
structurally to said narrow grating portion while it is separated from the 
wider right portion of the grating. 
The handle 68 is positioned close to the floor 70 and thus relatively 
remote from window opening 17 to prevent access being had to said handle 
from outside the building 16.