AN IMPROVED BRAKE, SPECIALLY APPLIC ABLE TO WINDOW BLIND ROLLERS
Year: 1874

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Martyn John Roberts, of the City of Bath,
Esquire, for the Invention of "AN IMPROVED BRAKE, SPECIALLY APPLIC
ABLE TO WINDOW BLIND ROLLERS."
Sealed the 21st December 1874, and dated the 23rd June 1874.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Martyn John Roberts
at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition,
on the 23rd June 1874.
I, MARTYN JOHN ROBERTS, of the City of Bath, Esquire, do hereby
declare the nature of the said Invention for "AN IMPROVED BRAKE, SPECIALLY
APPLICABLE TO WINDOW BLIND ROLLERS," to be as follows:-
The object of my Invention is to make a brake for window blind
rollers, and for other purposes, in such manner that while it will allow
the pulley, wheel, or roller to which it is applied to rotate freely in one
direction, it will offer considerable resistance to the rotation of the said
pulley, wheel, or roller in the opposite direction.

page_text: I proceed to describe my brake as fitted to a blind roller, for which
purpose it is specially applicable. Upon the end of the blind roller
I mount a pulley, to the periphery of which I fix an clastic bed,
such as india-rubber, or other material which will give sufficient grip
or bite, as herein-after explained; or I cause the periphery itself
to be of such a nature as will create sufficient. friction between it
and a cord, band, or chain. Over this pulley I pass a cord, band,
or chain, one end of which is attached to some fixed point while the
opposite end is loose and sometimes weighted. Now if the blind
roller and pulley be rotated in the direction of the line of the said
cord from the fixed point towards the loose weighted end, the india-
rubber or other material on the pulley will "bite" the cord and tend
to draw it with it, but as the end of the cord is fixed the result will be
that the cord will be tightened on the pulley and act by its friction as a
brake thercon. On the other hand, when the blind roller and pulley arc
rotated in the opposite direction, that is to say, in the line of the
cord from the loose weighted end towards the fixed end, the weighted
"end is raised and partially wound up, and the cord is thereby slackened
or loosened off the rubber, so that the blind and pulley can be rotated
with ease.
Patent,
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters
filed by the said Martyn John Roberts in the Great Seal Patent 2
Office on the 23rd December 1874.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, MARTYN
JOHN ROBERTS, of the City of Bath, Esquire, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Twenty-third day of June, in the year of our 3
Lord One thousand eight hundred and seventy-four, in the thirty-eighth
year of Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and
grant unto me, the said Martyn John Roberts, Her special licence
that I, the said Martyn John Roberts, my executors, administrators,

page_text: and assigns, or such others as I, the said Martyn John Roberts, my
executors, administrators, and assigns, should at any time agree with,
and no others, from time to time and at all times thereafter during the
term therein expressed, should and lawfully might make, use, exercise,
and vend, within the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland,
the Channel Islands, and Isle of Man, an Invention for "AN IMPROVED
BRAKE, SPECIALLY APPLICABLE TO WINDOW BLIND ROLLERS," upon the con-
dition (amongst others) that I, the said Martyn John Roberts, my
executors or administrators, by an instrument in writing under my,
or their, or one of their hands and scals, should particularly describe
and ascertain the nature of the said Invention, and in what manner
the same was to be performed, and cause the same to be filed in the
Great Scal Patent Office within six calendar months next and imme-
diately after the date of the said Letters Patent.
NOW KNOW YE, that I, the said Martyn John Roberts, do hereby
declare the nature of my said Invention, and in what manner the
same is to be performed, to be particularly described and ascertained
in and by the following statement thereof, reference being had to the
accompaning Drawings, that is to say: -
The primary object of my Invention is to make a brake for window
blind rollers, and for other purposes, in such manner that while it will
allow the pulley, wheel, or roller to which it is applied to rotate freely
in one direction, it will offer considerable resistance to the rotation of
the said pulley, wheel, or roller in the opposite direction.
I proceed to describe my brake as applied to a blind roller, for which
purpose it is specially applicable. Upon the end of the blind roller
I mount a pulley, to the periphery of which I fix an elastic bed,
such as india-rubber or other material which will give sufficient grip
or bite, as herein-after explained; or I cause the periphery itself
to be clastic so as to create sufficient friction between it and a cord,
band, or chain. Over this pulley I pass a cord, band, or chain, one
end of which is attached to some fixed point, while the opposite end
is loose and sometimes weighted. Now if the blind roller and pulley
be rotated in the direction of the line of the said cord from the fixed
point towards the loose weighted end, the india-rubber or other material
on the pulley will "bite" the cord and tend to draw it with it, but

page_text: as the end of the cord is fixed the result will be that the cord will be
tightened on the pulley and act by its friction as a brake thereon.
On the other hand, when the blind roller and pulley are rotated in the
opposite direction, that is to say, in the line of the cord from the loose
weighted end towards the fixed end, the weighted end is raised and
partially wound up, and the cord is thereby slackened or loosened
off the rubber so that the blind roller and pulley can be rotated with
ease.
From the foregoing description it will be readily understood that
while there is no chance of the blind running down of its own weight
when not required, it can be easily raised in the usual way. When
it is wished to lower it the weight is raised or lifted, or the brake
is removed, or partly so, from the elastic bed by any appropriate device.
Or sometimes the weight of the brake may be so adjusted as to be a
little more than necessary to counteract the running down of the blind,
and yet light enough to admit of the blind being drawn down with the
hand by a cord at the bottom, in which case no lifting of the weight
or removal of the brake will be necessary.
Sometimes instead of attaching what I have described as the loose
end of the cord to a weight, I dispense with the weight and attach
one or both ends of the cord to any suitable device, by means of which
it may be lowered upon, or lifted from, or in any other manner removed
from the elastic bed, and in this case it will prevent rotation of the
pulley in both directions, or allow of rotation in both directions, as
required, according as it is lowered or lifted.
Figure 1 of the accompanying Drawings is an end clevation, and
Figure 2, a front elevation shewing one manner in which my Invention
can be applied to window blind rollers. a is the roller, and is a
pulley fixed at the end of the same. The periphery of this pulley
has an elastic bed c of india-rubber or other suitable material, as herein-
before described, which I prefer to make with a groove c³, as seen
in the detached view, Figure 3; d is a cord which passes over the
pulley band lies in the groove c¹; one end of this cord is secured at
any suitable fixed point, as e, while the other end is loose and weighted,
as seen at f.
It will be readily understood that the cord or brake d will offer
little or no resistance to the rotation of the pulley and roller in the

page_text: pulley, the pulley and cord 'acting in combination, substantially as herein-
before described.
In witness whereof, I, the said Martyn John Roberts, have here-
unto set my hand and seal, this Twenty-first day of December
One thousand eight hundred and seventy-four.
MARTYN J. ROBERTS. (L.S.)