or other Sheets.
Year: 1886

page_text: or other Sheets.
I THOMAS RUDDIMAN JOHNSTON. Printer and Publisher, Waverley Works,
Murrayfield, Edinburgh, do hereby declare the nature of my invention for AN
IMPROVED PORTABLE STRETCHER FOR EXHIBITING PRINTED PAPER OR OTHER'
SHEETS and in what manner the same is to be performed, to be particularly
described and ascertained in and by the following statement:-
My invention enables teachers and others to exhibit easily printed paper and
other sheets, such as maps and diagrams. Previous stretchers have been cumbrous,
expensive, difficult of use, or suited to one size of sheet, whereas my improved
stretcher, folds up into small space, costs very little to manufacture, is easily and
quickly brought into use, and can take sheets varying to some extent in size, or
can be easily altered to take larger or smaller ones. Besides these advantages, it
can by means of its cord bang from a nail by two sides, or be made to stand on an
easel or shelf, so as to exhibit drawings greatest in their length or width.
The
This stretcher is made of two bars of wood laid the one on the top of the other,
and fixed together by means of a screw-nail, passing through the centres of their
lengths. Though thus fixed together, they can rotate on the screw-nail.
lower bar of wood is longer than the upper, and on the parts of it projecting at
each end, are fixed other small pieces of wood, bringing at these parts the surface
of the lower picce to the same level as the upper. The ends of the upper piece,
and the corresponding parts of the lower, are slightly bevelled, so as to permit the
former to only partially rotate in one direction. To one end of the lower piece, a
cord is fixed, by means of a metal "eye," and is then carried a distance equal to
that which the stretcher is desired to open, to a similar "eye" fixed to one end of
the upper piece, and at each side of this "eye' a knot is placed on the cord, thus
preventing it from passing either way. A small metal book is then fixed at the
extreme end of the cord, at a distance sufficient to allow it to hook in to an "
fixed at the other end of the lower bar, and bring the stretcher rigid. To the four
ends of the bars, on their upper surfaces, are fixed other metal "eyes," and to these
are fastened small pieces of indiarubber having each at its end a small metal hook,
which fitting into a corresponding eyelet at the corner of the sheet of paper, stretch
it perfectly flat.
">
'eye"

page_text: In the accompanying drawings Fig. 1 is a plan of the stretcher opened, and with
a sheet fixed to it, and Fig. 2. shows the stretcher closed. The letters correspond
in each case.
A is the upper bar of wood with its bevelled ends and B the lower,
fixed together at their centres, by means of the screwnail C. D. D. are the two
small bevelled pieces of wood, fixed at the ends of B and so bringing this latter, at
those parts, up to the level of the surface at A. The stretcher being opened, the
cord E is fixed to the ring F, in the longer bar B, and is then carried to the ring G
in the upper bar A, passed through it, and knotted at each side, at the required
distance the stretcher is wanted to open. It is then carried to the ring H, to
which it is secured when required, by means of the hook J. fixed to the end of the
cord at a distance sufficient to bring the stretcher rigid. At the four ends of the
upper surfaces of the bars, metal rings K are inserted, and to them are fastened
pieces of indiarubber L, having small hooks M at their other ends. These hooks
being inserted in eyelet holes Ñ, of the sheet O, indicated by dotted lines, bring it
by means of the tension of the indiarubber, to a perfectly flat surface. The pieces
of indiarubber on the lower bar, are made longer than those on the upper, to
correspond with the greater distance their supports are from the eyelets. The
stretcher can be supported without collapsing by the cord at either side being
placed on a nail, or by its being made to rest on any flat surface.
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,
1. The cheap, portable, adjustable stretcher herein described.
2. The raising of the rings on the lower cross bar, so that they and the upper
may be on one level
3. The using of an elastic material to fasten the hooks supporting the sheet to.
4. The using and knotting of a cord, passing through rings, to give rigidity to
the stretcher.
Dated this Tonth day of March 1886