IMPROVEMENTS IN CURTAINS OR FLEXIBLE PARTITIONS FOR SCHOOL ROOMS, AND IN APPARATUS FOR RAISING AND LOWERING THE SAME
Year: 1873

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by John Glendenning at the Office -
of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the 20th
June 1873.
I, JOHN GLENDENNING, of Norwich, in the County of Norfolk, do
hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN
CURTAINS OR FLEXIBLE PARTITIONS FOR SCHOOL ROOMS, AND IN APPARATUS FOR
RAISING AND LOWERING THE SAME," to be as follows:-
My Invention has for its object the fitting up in school rooms of
movable screens or partitions for the purpose of dividing such rooms
into compartments or bays for the more effectual deadening of sound
and the separation of classes.
And my Invention consists in adapting and applying to such use
curtains composed of a felted fabric of wool or hair, or both, or of other
suitable flexible material adapted to deaden sound, and so fitted as to
admit of its being contained in a box on or in the floor when out of use,
and drawn up. to form a screen or partition as required..
The curtain is of a thickness varying from about one-eighth to three-
eighths of an inch, and is wound on a roller at the bottom and has a flat

page_text: bar of wood across the top, by which means it becomes similar to an
inverted roller blind, except that either one or both edges of the curtain
is or are confined within an hinged vertical box or boxes in or against
one or both walls of the room, according as it may be intended to divide
the room partially or entirely, and the upper edge or top of the curtain
is connected by means of an endless cord and pulleys with the bottom
roller, and also by means of flexible metallic bands and pulleys with the
upper part of the room, from which it is thereby suspended. By setting
in motion the said endless cord and pulleys the curtain can be unwound
from the bottom roller and drawn up as required, or it may be lowered
and wound on to the bottom roller which is mounted in a box on or in
the floor of the room. And the curtain is balanced and kept in the
required tension as it is either raised or lowered by the means above
referred to, also by confining the side edge or edges of the curtain within
an hinged box or boxes, sound is deadened as required.
When required to divide a room entirely, both side edges of the
curtain are confined in vertical boxes. A means of communication
between the compartments of the room is obtained by cutting out a
piece of the curtain like a doorway extending to the floor. This opening
is covered by a smaller curtain of the same material as the larger one,
which smaller curtain has its top edge secured to the larger curtain, and
its side edges overlapping the opening, and its bottom edge free or
secured at pleasure to the bottom roller by means of loops, so that both
curtains may be wound upon the roller together.
The horizontal box in or on the floor of the room is made with one or
two hinged flaps which form the lid; the inside edges of these flaps are
apart to admit of the thickness of the curtain between them when the
curtain is raised.
When the curtain is rewound upon the roller the top bar fitting into
grooves at each end of the box forms a bearing for the flaps, and also:
fills up the space previously occupied by the curtain.