AN IMPROVED DEVICE FOR CLOSING BOXES AND OTHER SIMILAR OBJECTS
Year: 1886

page_text: I RAPHAEL BERKOWITZ of N° 11 Moritz Strasse, in the City of Dresden, Saxony,
Germany, Merchant, do hereby declare the nature of my Invention for "AN
IMPROVED DEVICE FOR CLOSING BOXES AND OTHER SIMILAR OBJECTS" and in
what manner the same is to be performed, to be particularly described and
ascertained in and by the following statement:-
My invention relates to an improved fastening or device for closing boxes and
other similar objects, the object of which is to enable the said boxes or other
receptacles provided with my improvements to be repeatedly used without injury
to the fastening and without the customary tedious screwing and unscrewing of
the sliding lid. The fastening or device for closing boxes and sliding lids and such
like is extremely simple and absolutely safe the box or other similar object can be
readily closed and the box securely held locked and can furthermore be readily
opened.
By means of my improved device or fastening the goods or articles are protected
from injury in opening the box which so frequently occurs by forcibly removing
the lid in ordinary boxes.
My improved device consists substantially of a metallic disc the peripherial edge
of which is bent over so as to form, a hollow annular raised flange. A central strip
is cut out through the said disc and flange whilst the two parts lateral to this
strip or latch are securely attached to the lid of the box by means of screws or in
other appropriate manner.
The strip or ledge forming the latch of the device is attached to the lateral parts
or side pieces of the disc by means of a suitable bolt pin or pivot around which the
said latch turns, which said latch is held firmly in position by means of a bolt
located in the hollow flange of the disc, said bolt being held in position by means
of a suitable helical spring whilst at the same time a downwardly projecting horn
or hook attached to the under-side of the said latch passes through an opening in
the lid and in an angle iron attached to one of the inner walls of the said box so
that an opening of the box without breaking the seal placed over the closed latch
is rendered impossible.
Figure 1 is a vertical section of part of a box with the part of the one wall, one
half of the angle iron, the hooked or curved bolt and one half of the flange of the

page_text: disc in elevation with the latch in closed condition. Figure 2 is a like view with
raised latch. Fig. 3 is a top view of Fig. 1. Fig. 4 represents a part of the
box in section, the opened device or fastener and the angle iron in elevation.
Figure 5 is a top view of the annular flange O with seal S.
A disc a the edges of which are turned up and over so as to form a hollow raised
annular flange b is fixed to the lid D of the box K by means of suitable screws a¹
or their equivalents. The latch o is arranged to turn around the pivot d fixed in
the flange 6 of the disc a said latch c being provided with the eye c¹ through which
the bolt or slide e runs when the latch a is closed the said bolte being held in the
said latch c by means of a helical spring & located in the raised annular hollow
flange b.
The bolt can be operated from the outer side of the said flange b by means of a
pin, knob or small stud e* which moves in an elongated slot b¹. A bent pin or
hook fis fixed to the lower surface of the latch c and protrudes downwards through
a boring in the lid D and through a boring glof an angle iron g attached to one of
the inner slides of the box K.
Although I have shown the angle iron g attached to the box K laterally to the
latch c I prefer to fix the same to the rear of the fulcrum of the latch c so that
any strain put on the sliding lid D will be met by the full strength of the angle
iron g.
It will be evident that when the latch c is closed as shown in Fig. 1 the hook f
will have so firm a hold in the lid D and angle iron g that it will be utterly
impossible to slide the lid D open. In order to prevent a surreptitious opening of
the latch c and consequently the box, the surface within the annular flange 6 of the
disc a above the latch and disc is provided with a seal or wafer so that the latch c
disc a and screws a¹ are covered the said seal being protected by the raised annular
flange b so that in this manner an absolute safe closure is attained which can be
repeatedly used without in any way injuring the box or other similar object.
Instead of bending up a metallic blank to form the parts of my improved device
the said parts can be formed by casting.
Having now particularly described and ascertained the nature of my said
invention and in what manner the same is to be performed, I declare that what
I claim is :-
An improved fastening or device for closing boxes and other similar objects
composed of a disc a with latch c the hooked or curved bolt f of which gears into a
boring g¹ in an angle iron g attached to the box in combination with the bolt or
pin e, the annular hollow flange b and the helical spring e¹ for retaining the bolt e
in the eye of the latch c substantially as and for the purpose described in the
foregoing specification and shown in the accompanying drawings.
T
1000