Iм- PROVEMENTS IN LETTER BOXES, LETTER PILLARS, AND SUCH LIKE DEPOSITORIES
Year: 1868

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by William Dennis at the Office
of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the 22nd.
January 1868.
I, WILLIAM DENNIS, of Aldermanbury, in the City of London,
Merchant, do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for "Iм-
PROVEMENTS IN LETTER BOXES, LETTER PILLARS, AND SUCH LIKE DEPOSITORIES,"
to be as follows:-
The object of this Invention is to secure letter boxes and such like
depositories from having letters extracted therefrom. I propose to
effect this by constructing the box with or without a fan wheel at
the aperture, and dividing the box at about the centre thereof with
two pieces of metal of a triangular form somewhat similar to the
letter V and either with or without a flap joint near the point thereof;
the flap joint may be shut by a hinge and made to balance and close
of itself after a letter in its descent has pushed it open and passed
through into the bottom of the box. The letter box may be made
either semicircular, square, or any other suitable form.
In constructing letter pillars according to this Invention I proceed
as follows: I place a bag having iron rims similar to a travelling

page_text: bag and fitted with one or more spring locks. The pillar is fitted
with two doors, upon opening the first or outer door a handle or knob
must be pulled before the inner door can be opened; this handle or
knob is fixed upon a metal rod formed with a projection at the end
which pulls the two rims of the bag together so as to lock the bag;
this movement serves also to release the lock of the inner door so
that it can be opened and the bag with letters taken out locked. A
key is to be kept at the chief office for opening the bag. The releasing
of the lock of the inner door is effected by means of a lever which
prevents the bolt of the lock from being turned back, upon which
lever there is a pin or other projection which passes through the rim
of the bag next the inner door, and upon the other rim coming against
it when locking the bag by the rod it presses against the lever and
frees the bolt of the lock so that the inner door can be opened and
the bag taken out.
Another mode of constructing letters pillars and such like depositories
is as follows:-I form the top of the case of the pillar with two or
more openings therein fitted each with a flap moving inwards. Opposite
to these openings and inside the aforesaid case corresponding openings
or shoots are arranged each mounted by its inner end upon a rod or
axis and there is a lever connected to each shoot for the purpose of
turning the shoot partly round upon its axis as presently described.
Immediately beneath the aforesaid movable shoots a plate is fixed
having slits or openings formed therein corresponding to the movable
shoots, and beneath the aforesaid plate a bag of the construction first
above described is placed to receive the letters and the pillar is fitted
with two doors as before described.
The operations of the above arrangement are as follows:-When the
top openings are closed by their respective flaps the movable shoots
are opposite to the slits or openings in the fixed plate beneath, but
the said movable shoots are not opposite to the top openings. And
the effect of pushing back one or other of the flaps is to bring its
respective movable shoot opposite to the opening of the flap so as to
receive the letter, upon releasing the flap the shoot will move upon
its axis and come opposite to its respective opening in the fixed plate
and allow the letter to fall into the bag beneath. Or instead of the
arrangement lastly above described I propose to employ a long shoot
mounted midway by its sides upon axes or pivots to one of which a

page_text: short lever is fixed and connected by a rod to another short lever
fixed to the axis of the flap which covers the outer opening. Upon
pushing the flap inwards the top of the shoot will be brought opposite
to the opening of the flap to receive the letter and the closing of the
flap will deposit the letter in the bag beneath. By these two last
arrangements there is never at any time a direct communication
between the opening at the flap and the bag that receives the letters
so that it is impossible for any instrument to be introduced to extract
the letters.
Another modification consists in forming the shoot in two parts,
the upper half being fixed and the lower half movable on a pivot the
lower half only being opposite to the upper half when the flap is
pushed in, the closing of the flap discharging the contents of the lower
half of the shoot into the bag beneath by means of a lever as before
stated in the last-mentioned arrangement.
In connection with the above arrangements, or to the flaps of letter
pillars of the ordinary kind if desirable, I propose to employ a rod of
wire which may either be pulled or pushed by the action of the
aforesaid flap thereon, and thereby expose to view a signal or disc of
colored glass or metal, the intention of this arrangement being to
prevent the wedging or otherwise keeping the flap open for any length
of time for the purpose of extracting letters from the pillar.