Patent GB-200244-A (GB)
Title: Improvements in or relating to folding hoods for vehicles, motor-cars, motor-boats and the like
IPC: B60J1/08
Filed: 1922-04-20
Abstract: 200,244. Zanetti, G. G. April 20, 1922. Hoods, opening tops, and weather screens.-In a folding hood for vehicles, motor boats, &c. and of the kind adapted when folded to enter a housing in the vehicle body as described in Specification 161,576, the side walls are divided vertically into two or an even number of parts, such as the parts 1, 2, Fig. 1, of approximately the same width and hinged together at 7 and to the front and back walls 3, 4 at 21, 14, so that when the front and back walls are brought together the side walls fold inwardly as shown. A roof of flexible material may be secured to the upper edges of the walls, and when the hood is folded the roof material is folded down over the outside of say, the back wall to enable the folded hood to enter the housing. Portions of the roof may be stiffened as shown in Fig. 7, which illustrates a two-compartment hood with the portions of the roofs bounded by the dotted lines 27, 28 stiffened and adapted to fold along these lines either inside the hood walls or upwards as shown in Fig. 9. The portions 29, 30 of the roofs 26, 25 may be left flexible. The front compartment of the hood comprising the divided side walls 17, 45 and the front wall 24, which may be peaked as shown to suit a V-shaped windscreen, is adapted to enclose the driver's seat. All the inner portions of the side walls are hinged to rods 14 secured to a base-plate 19 and a coverplate 18 to form a frame which may contain a glass screen or a dividing partition between the front and back seats of the vehicle. The baseplate 19 is provided with guide plates 15 adapted to slide into the housing in the vehicle, the coverplate 18 closing the upper end of the housing. The front edges of the side walls 17, 45 are fixed to the windscreen when the hood is erected. To give the roof the necessary curve and tension when the hood is erected, a transverse arched stretcher is provided comprising two parts 9, 10, Fig. 5, hinged together at 11 and to the mid-points of the sides 1, 2 at 13. The roof may, in another form, be composed of rigid transverse sections hinged together, and one end of the roof is permanently secured to the cover-plate of the frame. When the hood is folded, this roof is folded and left on the cover-plate, and when the hood is erected the other edges are secured by snap fasteners, hooks, &c. to the side and back walls. Instead of arranging the folded hood to slide vertically into a housing, a frame 32, Fig. 12, enclosing the folded hood may have pivot pins 34 engaged in slots 36 in the sides of the housing so that the frame and hood mav be turned down into a housing provided with a door 35 pivoted at 49. An extension 39, Fig. 14, of the leather or other covering of the front seat 39 may be secured at 37 to the surface 19<1> of the base-plate 19 to conceal the housing when the hood is within it, and a similar extension may be passed over, or replace the cover-plate of a sliding hood frame. The lower edges of the side walls of the hood may be secured to the body of the vehicle by the engagement with a nut 40, Fig. 16, secured to the hood wall, of a screwed rod 42 which passes through the bodywork 48 and a casing 47 and is integral with a worm 43 having a fast thread and gearing with a worm-wheel 44. Rotation of the wheel 44 by a key inserted at 46 first causes sliding movement of the rod 42 until the worm meets a stop and then rotation of the worm and the rod to cause its screwed end to engage the nut 40.