Improvements in Roll-shutters, Roll-partitions, and the like.
Year: 1895

page_text: Date of Application, 27th Feb., 1895-Accepted, 30th Mar., 1895
Improvements in Roll-shutters, Roll-partitions, and the like.
A communication by OTTO BAYER, of Esslingen, Wurtemberg, in the Empire of
Germany, Manufacturer.
I, WILLIAM PHILLIPS THOMPSON, F.C.S., M.I.M.E., of The Agency for
Foreign Patent Solicitors, 6, Lord Street, Liverpool and 6 Bank Street,
Manchester, both in the County of Lancaster, 118 New Street, Birmingham in
the County of Warwick, and 31 High Holborn in the County of Middlesex,
Civil Engineer, do hereby declare the nature of this invention and in what
nauner the same is to be performed, to be particularly described and ascertained
in and by the following statement :-
This invention has for its object an elastic metal band for supporting or
connecting roll-shutters, roll-partitions and the like, and a peculiar arrangement of
the band in its attachment to the wood laths or bars. The carrying bands or cords
hitherto employed had drawbacks which could not be avoided. Roll-shutters or
roll-blinds as is well known are either not painted at all or only badly painted and
often stand weeks and even months in damp new buildings before they are fixed up.
The bars or laths usually only then receive on the outside and inside a coating of
oil paint, but no trace of paint reaches the points of contact of the laths or bars.
It is therefore quite evident that shutter-laths treated in this manner must swell in
damp weather.
If bands formed for instance of woven vegetable fibre be employed as supporting
means, moisture or alterations of temperature of the air must cause variations of a
reverse nature in the wooden bars or laths of the roll-shutters and in the carrying
bands. In damp weather, the wood swells and expands, whilst the bands or straps
contract, the reverse being the case in dry weather. The consequence of this is
that in the one case the wooden bars or laths are so firmly pressed together that
the roll-shutters will no longer work, whilst in the other case the bars or laths
have such wide interstices that they no longer afford a tight closing or covering.
These drawbacks were not even removed by the use of smooth metal carrying
bands or straps. A smooth metal band is inclastic and does not alter its length or
at any rate only to an appreciable extent under changes in the weather or
temperature. The consequence of this is that the wooden laths attached thereto
which expand in damp weather are firmly pressed one against the other, and the
drawing up or letting down of the roll-shutter is impeded or entirely prevented.
In dry weather the bars shrink and have then too much play, so that a tight closing
can no longer be produced by them.
All these drawbacks are at once removed if elastic or spring metal bands be
employed. These bands must have the property, when inserted in the bars, of
being so far elastically stretched and attached to the bars, that in the event of a
subsequent skrinkage of the said bars (which never fails to take place), the latter
are always constantly pressed one against the other by the stretched band. Thus
under all circumstances, in dry or damp weather, a tight closing or joining of the
bars is produced. The elastic carrying band has of course also the further property
that when drawing up or letting down the roll-shutter it may stretch or contract as
much as may be desired.
A wavy or zigzag-shaped band of spring steel or other suitable metal galvanised
in order to protect it against oxidation, is the most suitable for the above purpose.
Such a wavy, elastic metallic band has the property of expanding or contracting to

page_text: correspond with the expansion or contraction of the wooden bars or laths, the
projections or waves of the band becoming correspondingly greater or less. On the
rolling up the shutter on the winding-up roller, the band may suitably stretch so
that the separate bars are not pressed hard one upon the other. In lowering down
the shutter, the band again returns to its wavy form, so that a tight joint of the
separate wood bars is produced.
Instead of an elastic wavy band a suitably shaped band of elastic wire netting or
wire cloth may be employed, or instead of bands, suitably curved or shaped elastic
acting wires may replace the flat carrying band.
In the accompanying drawings :—
Figures 1, 2 and 3 show the arrangement of a metallic carrying band A for a
roll-shutter, the band being fastened in each of the wood laths B by means of a
screw c. If the shutter, as shown in Figure 3, be wound up, the metallic band A
is stretched, whilst it resumes its normal wavy or zigzag-form on the roll-shutter
being again let down. This form may be regular or irregular and may be of
suitable shape, it being only necessary that the form is not such as to impair the
elastic action.
Figures 4 to 12 of the accompanying drawings show various shaped carrying
bands composed of a steel band, wire network or wire, such as may be suitably
employed for the above named purpose.
A further advantage is afforded by the wavy metallic carrying bands, namely,
that when a shutter is drawn up, a sudden lifting of the whole shutter does not take
place, but in consequence of the stretching of the carrying bands the wood bars of
the roll shutter are first gradually raised, commencing from the top, that is to say,
au elastic winding up is produced.
In order when a roll-shutter is quickly let down (during which the winding-up
roller always continues to revolve to a certain extent after the complete descent of
the shutter) that no danger may exist of the metallic carrying bands being damaged
or broken, it is preferable to employ a roller check which consists of a girth piece
attached to the roller and to the uppermost (or one of the uppermost) wood bars, in
such a way that when the shutter is let down this girth piece arrests further
movement of the roller.
Having now particularly described and ascertained the nature of the said inven-
tion and in what manner the same is to be performed, as communicated to me by my
foreign correspondent, I declare that what I claim is :-
The improvements in roll-shutters, roll-partitions and the like, consisting in
forming the carrying bands of suitable spring metal bands (preferably from
Swedish charcoal steel) wire, wire-network or wire cloth in a wavy or zigzag regular
or irregular form adapted to suitably expand or contract on the swelling or shrinkage
of the wooden bars in order to hold the latter always closely together substantially
as described and illustrated.
Dated this 26th day of February 1895.
WM. P. THOMPSON & Co.,
Agents.