A protective enclosure for a human being is constructed of a series of rigid panels resistant to earthquake forces. A person can crawl into the enclosure through an access opening, after which the person can pull a flexible roll-type door downwardly across the access opening to achieve a protective housing fully surrounding the person. Interior surfaces of the enclosure are lined with a resilient cushions material so that if the person's body should impact the housing interior surfaces the impact forces will be at least partially absorbed or relieved by the cushioner material. The enclosure includes compartments for storage of emergency items, such as a flashlight or a battery-operated beeper usable to alert persons in the general area that a person is within the enclosure.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 
1. Field of the Invention 
This invention relates to an earthquake-resistant protective enclosure for 
a human being. In its preferred form the enclosure is constructed as an 
integral part of a furniture item, e.g. a desk or table. 
2. Prior Developmens 
U.S. Pat. No. 4,782,541, issued to David Tuchman on Nov. 8, 1988, discloses 
a bed construction designed to protect the bed occupant from falling 
debris that might be generated during an earthquake. A steel mesh canopy 
is supported by four corner posts that telescope into four tubular legs 
constituting part of the bed frame work; coil springs are located within 
the tubular legs so that if heavy debris should fall onto the canopy the 
coil springs can resiliently support the debris-laden canopy, thereby 
protecting the person lying on the bed. 
U.S. Pat. No. 4,490,864, granted to Roy Wicker on Jan. 1, 1985 discloses a 
sleeping bed having steel skirting anchored to the floor of a room to form 
a sheltered space beneath the mattress-support platform. A person can roll 
or slide along the room floor into the sheltered space for protection 
during a tornado or hurricane. 
U.S. Pat. No. 2,607,047, issued to Frank Posey on Aug. 19, 1952, shows a 
combination bed and shelter designed to protect human beings during an air 
raid or earthquake. The bed frame comprises a horizontal platform that 
includes a layer of concrete sandwiched between upper and lower panels, to 
provide protection against falling debris. The space below the platform is 
enclosed by an array of higned closures. The space within the defined 
enclosure contains upper and lower mattresses that can be accessed by 
opening the hinged closures. 
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION 
The present invention is directed to a protective enclosure for a single 
human being during an earthquake. The enclosure is preferably constructed 
as an integral part of an item of furniture, e.g. a kneehole desk or a 
table. 
In its preferred form the protective enclosure comprises a rectangular 
housing defined by a series of flat earthquake-resistant panels; the 
panels may be rigidly connected together by welding or by dowels and 
screws. One face of the rectangular housing is left open for human access 
purposes; a flexible roll top door spans the access opening for shielding 
the person while he or she is within the housing. 
Interior surfaces of the housing are lined with a resilient cushioner 
material, so that if the housing should overturn or shift suddenly, the 
body of the person within the housing will strike a relatively soft padded 
surface rather than a hard non-resilient surface. 
The housing will preferably include one or more compartments for 
containment of emergency items, e.g. a flashlight, a battery-operated 
beeper, first aid supplies, matches, water, dry food and small tools. 
The protective enclosure may be used as the primary support mechanism for 
an otherwise conventional item of furniture, such as a table or kneehole 
desk. When incorporated into a table the protective enclosure can serve as 
a hollow pedestal for supporting the table top. When incorporated into a 
kneehole desk the protective enclosure can be located within the kneehole 
space, with side compartments of the enclosure underlying the drawer 
sections of the desk; the side compartments thus serve as support 
pedestals for the desk.

DESCRIPTION OF A PREFERRED EMBODIMENT OF THE INVENTION 
FIG. 1 is a front elevational view of a kneehole desk that is, for the most 
part, of standardized construction. As shown, the desk comprises a flat 
top 10 and two spaced side sections 12; each side section includes three 
drawers 14. A shallow drawer 15 is located below top 10 in the space 
between the two sets of drawers 14. 
The desk, as thus far described, has two flat lower surfaces 16 at the 
lower ends of the side sections, and an elevated lower surface 17 below 
central drawer 15. A protective enclosure 19 of the present invention is 
arranged below the desk to serve as a support mechanism for the desk. 
As shown generally in FIG. 1, the protective enclosure comprises a 
rectangular housing 21 having an upper flat surface engaged with the 
central desk undersurface surface 17, and two side compartment structures 
22 having upper surfaces thereof engaged with the flat lower surfaces 16 
of the desk drawer sections. The protective enclosure thus acts as a 
support device for the desk structure. 
The outer desk structure can be formed of wood e.g., veneer or thin sheet 
metal according to conventional practice. Protective enclosure 19 may be 
formed of thicker rigid panels resistant to earthquake forces. During an 
earthquake event, even though the desk structure might be bent, damaged, 
or deformed, the protective enclosure 19 will remain intact. 
Preferably, the interior structure can e.g., be made of heavy gauge steel 
which will unite integrally with the outer and the compartment structures. 
The construction of enclosure 19 is better shown in FIGS. 2 through 5. As 
there shown, the enclosure comprises a rectangular housing that includes a 
floor panel 23, an upstanding rear panel 25, and two side panels 27. The 
upper edges of panels 25 and 27 are rigidly attached to a roof wall (or 
panel) 29. 
The front edges of side walls (panels) 27 are spaced apart to define a 
vertical access opening, designated generally by numeral 31. Two L-shaped 
tracks extend along the upper edges and front edges of side walls 27 for 
rollably (slidably) supporting a flexible door 33. Each L-shaped track 
comprises a horizontal rail 35 extending along the inner surface of each 
side wall 27 near its upper edge, and a vertical rail 37 extending along 
the inner surface of each side wall 27 near its front edge; a short curved 
rail 39 interconnects the two rails 35 and 37 along the inner surface of 
each side wall 27. Each L-shaped track further comprises a vertical bar 41 
secured to the front edge of an associated side wall 27. 
The flexible door comprises a series of rigid slats 43 hingedly connected 
together; whereby the door can be moved between an open position (shown in 
full lines in FIG. 2) and a closed position (shown in dashed lines in FIG. 
2). The detailed construction of a representative door slat 43, as shown 
in FIG. 4, comprises a channel 45 welded to a flat plate 47. One edge of 
each plate 47 is welded to a rod 49 that has machined ends designed to 
rotatably mount a roller 51 (as shown in FIG. 5). Each roller 51 is 
located within one of the above-described guidance tracks. 
The upper edge portion of each plate 47 has a curled configuration to 
partially encircle a rod 49 on the adjacent slat, whereby the slats are 
hingedly connected together for movement of the flexible door between its 
opened and closed positions. The door may be moved by a person while 
sitting in a fetal position within protective enclosure 19. As shown in 
FIG. 2, the length of the flexible door is less than the vertical spacing 
between floor 23 and roof 29. Therefore, when the door is in its closed 
position the upper edge of the door is spaced below roof 29 so as to form 
an air circulation opening 52. A person sitting in the enclosure can 
breathe freely and also view the area outside the enclosure. Should the 
enclosure overturn or shift from one location to another location the door 
will prevent the person from being through out of the enclosure. The 
various panels that form the enclosure are rigid and resistant to 
earthquake forces so that the enclosure will not be deformed or brokern 
apart due to such forces. 
Each panel 23, 25, 27 or 29 can be a relatively thick steel panel having a 
thickness of about one half inch. Edge areas of the panels can be 
connected together by welding. FIG. 8 shows an alternate arrangement 
wherein two representative panels are joined together by a series of 
dowels 53 and screws 55. 
To reduce the weight of the panels, each panel can be comprised of two 
relatively thin metal sheets sandwiched around a hollow core. As 
fragmentarily shown in FIG. 9, a representative panel comprises two steel 
sheets 57 and a honeycomb steel core 59; border areas of the panel are 
defined by steel bars 61 welded or otherwise attached to sheets 57. 
The entire interior surface of the protective enclosure is lined with a 
resilient cushion material. As shown in the drawing the resilient lining 
comprises an elastomeric panel 63 secured to the inner surface of rear 
wall 25, an elastomeric panel 65 secured to the lower surface of roof 29, 
an elastomeric panel 67 secured to the inner surface of each side wall 27, 
and an elastomeric panel 69 secured to the upper surface of the floor 
panel 23; each elastomeric panel covers substantially the entire surface 
of the associated rigid panel so as to form a resilient cushion around the 
interior surface of enclosure 19. As shown in FIG. 4, each door slat 43 
has a resilient elastomeric pad 71 covering substantially its entire inner 
surface. The various resilient pads or panels ensure that if the enclosure 
should overturn or shift abruptly, the body of the person within the 
enclosure will strike a resilient deformable surface, rather than a hard 
rigid surface. 
The construction of each side compartment 22 is shown generally in FIGS. 2 
and 3. Each side compartment comprises a series of rigid panels welded or 
otherwise attached to a side panel 27 and a lateral extension 73 of floor 
panel 23. The ceiling panel 75 for each side compartment has two threaded 
holes 76 adapted to receive bolts (not shown) that can be extended through 
the bottom wall of a desk drawer section, whereby the protective enclosure 
becomes an integral part of the kneehole desk shown in FIG. 1. 
Access to the side compartments is through access holes 79 formed in side 
wall 27. Each access hole can be closed by two resilient sheet. Material 
flaps 78 secured to wall 27 along the upper and lower edges of the access 
hole. The flaps will normally close the access hole; however a person 
sitting within the protective enclosure can extend his or her hand through 
the access hole to deflect the flaps and thus gain access to items located 
in the compartment. The compartments can be used to store emergency items, 
such as a flashlight, extra batteries, a battery-operated beeper, 
medicines, bandages, matches bottled water and dry food. The compartment 
walls will preferably be rigid panels, similar to the panels used for 
rectangular housing 21. 
FIG. 1 shows the protective enclosure in a supportive position underlying 
the kneehole desk. During normal use of the desk the flexible door 33 will 
be in its open position, as shown in full lines in FIG. 2. A person 
sitting in front of the desk will have his or her knees located within the 
protective housing; the side compartments of the protective enclosure will 
act as support pedestals for the desk. In an emergency earthquake 
situation the person can crawl through the access opening 31 to assume a 
fetal position within housing 21. The flexible door can be pulled to the 
closed position to provide an essentially complete protective 
encapsulation of the person. Air circulation opening 52 enables the person 
to breathe freely and observe conditions outside the enclosure. 
FIGS. 6 and 7 show a protective enclosure of the present invention 
incorporated into a table. As shown, the table includes a flat top 81 
overlying two protective enclosures 83. Screws or other attachment means, 
not shown, can be extended through roof 29 of the enclosure into table top 
81, such that each enclosure constitutes a supporting pedestal for the 
table top. 
Table top 81 can be a single sheet of material, formed e.g. of wood or 
metal. Alternately, the table top can be of "drop leaf" construction that 
includes a central section 81a and two end sections 81b. Each end section 
81b has a hinged connection with central top section 81a, whereby the end 
sections can be raised to positions horizontally aligned with section 81a 
or lowered to positions extending downwardly from edges 82 of the central 
section. 
Each enclosure 83 can be constructed generally in the same way as the 
aforementioned rectangular housing 21. Access to the enclosure is through 
at least one flexible roll type door similar to the door depicted in FIGS. 
4 and 5. Interior surfaces of the enclosure are covered with resilient 
cushioner panels or pads. As shown in FIG. 7, storage compartments are 
provided within the rectangular enclosure 83 adjacent the enclosure rear 
wall 25. A false wall 85 extends between floor panel 23 and roof panel 29 
to define the compartment depth dimension. Shelves 87 extend between walls 
25 and 85 to support various emergency items. 
The protective enclosure can be incorporated into a kneehole desk or into a 
table, as shown in the drawings. Alternately, the protective enclosure can 
be a free-standing device usable for storing books, supplies, linens, etc. 
during normal everyday operations. At the onset of an earthquake any items 
in the free-standing enclosure can be removed so that the enclosure can be 
used as a protective enclosure for a human being.