IMPROVEMENTS IN SHUTTERS AND BLINDS FOR WINDOWs, DOORWAYS, AND OTHER APERTURES, AND IN THE MEANS FOR ADJUSTING THE SAME
Year: 1868

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Frederick Hartt Knevitt, of No. 3, Sun Court,
Cornhill, Architect, and Henry Herbert Hazard, of No. 2, Quecn
Street, Cheapside, Engineer, both in the City of London, for the
Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN SHUTTERS AND BLINDS FOR WINDOWs,
DOORWAYS, AND OTHER APERTURES, AND IN THE MEANS FOR ADJUSTING THE
SAME."
Scaled the 11th June 1869, and dated the 17th December 1868.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Frederick Hartt Knevitt
and Henry Herbert Hazard at the Office of the Commissioners of
Patents, with their Petition, on the 17th December 1868.
We, FREDERICK HARTT KNEVITT, of No. 3, Sun Court, Cornhill,
Architect, and HENRY HERBERT HAZARD, of No. 2, Queen Strect,
Cheapside, Engineer, both in the City of London, do hereby declare
the nature of the said Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN SHUTTERS AND
BLINDS FOR WINDOWS, DOORWAYS, AND OTHER APERTURES, AND IN THE MEANS FOR
ADJUSTING THE SAME," to be as follows:-

page_text: Our improvements relate to shutters and blinds which, like ordinary
revolving or coiling shutters, are composed of a number of parallel laths
or slats jointed together, and arranged in such a manner that they may
be coiled upon a roller or otherwise raised or lowered to open or close
the window, doorway, or other aperture.
The said improvements consist in the peculiar means whereby the
laths or slats are "louvred" or adjusted to admit or exclude the light.
The laths or slats are provided at one or both ends with two pins or
projections. Each of these two pins or projections works in one part of
a compound or double groove in the frame. The distance between the
two parts of the said groove is increased or diminished as desired, and
the slats or laths are thereby opener or closed, the laths being so con-
nected or jointed together as to allow of their free division or action in
"louvering." We prefer to open and close the groove by means of a
lever, the adjustable-part or parts of the groove being provided with
studs which work in curved slots-or guideways. Thesc_slots allow the
movable part to move and keep it parallel with the fixed part as it is
raised by the lever. If desired the adjustment of the groove may be
effected by means of screws, toothed racks and pinions, or by other
convenient incans, and both parts or channels of the double groove may
be made adjustable.
The adjustment or "louvering" of the shutter or blind may be effected
when the same is either entirely or partially drawn over the window,
doorway, or other aperture, and the laths or slats will be held as firinly
in the grooves when they are adjusted to any desired angle as when fully
closed or opened. In order that the shutters may be adjusted with
perfect freedom we sometimes cut away a small portion of the upper
part of the slats.
Our improved shutters or blinds may be constructed of metal or wood.
We prefer to fix the pins or projections on a separate piece (or pieces) of
iron or other metal which is secured upon the end of the lath, but if
desired in some cases the said pins may be formed upon the lath itself.
The said shutters may be arranged to coil upon a roller, or may be made
to slide or otherwise open or close the window or other aperture, and
may be operated in any convenient manner.

page_text: SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patcut,
filed by the said Frederick Hart Knevitt and Henry Herbert Hazard
in the Great Scal Patent Office on the 17th June 1869.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, we, FREDERICK
HARTT KNEVITT, of No. 3, Sun Court, Cornhill, Architect, and HENRY
HERBERT HAZARD, of No. 2, Queen Street, Cheapside, Engineer, both
in the City of London, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by. Her
Letters Patent, bearing date the Seventeenth day of December,. in the
year of our Lord Oue thousand eight hundred and sixty-eight,, in the
thirty-second year of Her reign,. did, for Herself, Her heirs and suc-
cessors, give and grant unto us, the said Frederick Hartt Knevitt and
Henry Herbert Hazard, Her special liecuce that we, the said Frederick
Hartt Kuevitt and Henry Herbert Hazard, our executors,, administrators,
and assigns, or such ethics as we, the said Frederick Hartt Knevitt
and Henry Herbert Hazard,, our 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 law-
fully 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 "IMPROVEMENTS IN SHUTTERS AND BLINDS FOR WINDOWS,
DOORWAYS, AND OTHER APERTURES, AND IN THE MEANS POR ADJUSTING THE SAME,"
upon the condition (amongst others) that we, the said Frederick Hartt
Knevitt and Henry Herbert Hazard, our exccutors or administrators,
by an instrument in writing under our, 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 Seal Patent Office within
six calendar months next and immediately after the date of the said
Letters Patent.
NOW KNOW YE, that we, the said Frederick Hartt Kaevitt and Henry
Herbert Hazard, do hereby declare the nature of our said Invention,
and in what manner the same is to be performed,. to be particularly
described and ascertained in and by the following statement, reference
being had to the accompanying Drawings. forming a part of this
Specification:-

page_text: Our improvements relate to shutters and blinds which are composed
of a number of parallel laths or slats jointed together and arranged in
such a manner that they may be coiled upon a roller, or otherwise raised,
lowered, or moved across a window, doorway, or other aperture to open
and close the same.
The said improvements consist in the peculiar means whereby the
laths or slats are "louvered" or adjusted angularly to admit or exclude
the light. The laths or slats are provided at one or both ends with two
pins or projections; each of these two pins or projections works in one
part of a compound or double groove on the frame of the window, door-
way, or other aperture. The said compound groove is so constructed
that the distance between the two parts of the same may be increased or
diminished as desired to open or close the slats or laths, the said laths
being so connected or jointed together as to allow of their free
division or action in "louvering;" and in order to keep the two parts of
the groove always parallel with each other we prefer to connect them
by arms or links in the same manner as an ordinary parallel rule, or the
adjustable part or parts of the groove may be provided with studs which
work in curved slots or guideways. These slots allow the movable part
to move and keep it parallel with the fixed part-as it-is advanced and
raised. We adjust the compound groove by means of levers, cords;
toothed racks and pinions, or by other convenient means. It will
generally be found more advantageous to have one part of the said
groove fixed and the other moveable, but if desired both parts or
channels of the double groove may be made adjustable.
The adjustment or "louvering" of the shutter or blind may be
effected when the same is either entirely or partially drawn over the
window, doorway, or other aperture, and the laths or slats will be held
as firmly in the grooves when they are adjusted to any desired angle as
when fully closed or opened.
Our improved shutters or blinds may be constructed of metal or
wooden laths or slats of any suitable section. We prefer to fix the
pins or projections on a separate piece (or pieces) of iron or other metal,
which is secured upon the end of the lath, but if desired in some cases
the said pins may be formed upon the lath itself. The said shutters
may be arranged to coil with either face upon a roller, or may be made
to slide vertically or horizontally or otherwise, to open or close the

page_text: DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS.
Figure 1 is a vertical section of a casement window provided with one
of our improved "louvering" shutters arranged to coil upon a roller or
cylinder at the top of the said window; Figures 2 and 3 represent
sections of a portion of the said shutter more clearly illustrating the
means for "louvering" or adjusting the laths of the same; Figure 4 is a
back clevation and Figure 5 a horizontal section of similar parts of the
said shutter. Figures 2, 3, 4, and 5 are drawn to an enlarged scale.
Figure 6 is a vertical section of a sash window with a flat lath rising
shutter or blind constructed according to our improvements; Figures 7;
8, and 9 are detached views of parts of the said shutter drawn to an
enlarged scale; Figure 10 is a back elevation of part of a shutter illus-
trating a modification in the means for raising and lowering the same.
Like letters indicate the same parts throughout the Drawings.
A is the shutter composed of the laths a, which may be of any desired
dimensions and formed of any suitable material. The compound or
double groove b consists of the fixed part b' and adjustable part 6², and
the pins or projections a¹, a², are fitted to work freely in these grooves,
as clearly shewn in Figure 5. The laths or slats a are of the usual form
employed for coiling shutters, and, as shewn in Figures 3 and 4, are
connected at proper distances apart to strips c of webbing or other
suitable flexible material, or they may be united by metal joints. The
laths are preferably connected to the webbing by strips of leather c¹
attached to the webbing by metal rivets. The coiling cylinder or
roller dis mounted in the brackets e, which arc attached to the under
side of the lintel, and the said roller, as shewn in Figure 1, is arranged
above the window frame in a convenient position to wind the shutter
entirely above the window. It is obviously necessary that the two
parts b, b, of the compound groove should be kept always parallel with
cach other, while at the same time they must be capable of easy
adjustment from the position shown in Figure 2 to that in Figure 3, and
vice versa, or to any desired position. For this purpose we prefer to
connect the two parts of the groove together by the arms or links f,
which as in an ordinary parallel rule permit the free adustment of the
two sides while keeping them always parallel with each other. We

page_text: pulley
"
prefer to use three of these links at cach side of the shutter, as shown
in Figure 1, but any convenient number may be used. The "louvering'
or adjustment of the said shutter, in the example illustrated in Figure 1,
is effected by means of the segment or half pulley g, which is fitted to
turn upon the pin g', fixed in the frame or other convenient portion of
the structure, and which is jointed near its periphery by means of a
ping to the adjustable part of the compound groove. When the said
segment is in the position shown in Figure 1 the two parts of thic com-
-pound groove lie close together, and the laths or slats a are closed, but
if the said segment is turned to a right angle, or to any intermediate
angle with this position, the moveable part of the compound groove
will be separated from the fixed part b', and the laths will be opened
more or less according to the extent of such separation. A cord or
chain, coiled upon the segment g, is carried over and attached to a
pulley fixed on a countershaft, one pulley being arranged opposite
_each_of_the_segments 7. On the end of the countershaft is fixed a
to-which-is-attached_a_cord or chain, which passes over the
pulley to any convenient position for effecting the "louvering" of the
shutter. The pulleys i and are so proportioned to each other that the
segment is readily moved by the power exerted upon the cord . The
lintel, frame j, sill, and other parts of the window may be con-
structed in any suitable manner, but the soffit 7 is fitted to slide in-the
frame to allow access to the roller d, and to facilitate the mounting and
removal of the same. It will thus be seen that the "louvering" of the
shutter or blind can be accomplished with equal facility in all positions
of the shutter, that is to say, whether the shutter is partially coiled upon
the roller or is let completely down to secure or close the window, and
that the firmness or stability of the shutter is not in any degree affected
by the "louvering," as some of the pins a¹, a², are always kept within
the two parts, &, of the compound groove, which guide and support
the lathis in as perfect a manner as though both of the said parts or sides
were immoveable. Thus the operations of coiling and "louvering" are
each effected without interfering with the other, or rendering the shutter
less convenient with regard to either function, and we are enabled to
provide a shutter or blind which combines the security of an ordinary
close or coiling shutter with the comfort and convenience of a Venetian
blind.

page_text: compound groove to a flat lath shutter or blind as an improvement upon
an ordinary outside Venetian blind, which is thus made to serve the
double purpose of a shutter and blind. The raising and lowering of this
blind may be effected in the ordinary manner by means of the cord m
attached to the ends of the bottom lath or otherwise, while the
"louvering" or adjustment of the laths is effected by the means hercin-
before described.
We prefer generally to use the arrangement illustrated in Figure 10,
by which the varying weight upon the lifting cord is balanced or nearly
so by the compensating weight m'. The said weight is connected by a
chain or cord to the small pulley m², while the shutter is connected by
cords to the large pulleys m³, the said pulleys being fixed on a shaft m*
extending across the window above the soffit. The cord m is coiled upon
the other small pulley m. By the difference in the size of the pulleys
we are enabled to bring the length of the cord m within convenient
limits, while the compensating or telescopic weight renders the raising
of the shutters very easy to accomplish. This method of "louvering" a
Venitian blind will be found much superior to the old method of adjust-
ment by cords and tapes. We have shown the laths or slats a of
this shutter connected by metal joints instead of webbing. The
construction of these joints is clearly shown in Figures 7, 8, and 9, the
latter Figure showing the position which the joints assume as the blind
is drawn up. The upper one of the joints n is connected to the
brackets o, which are fixed on the lintel k. This modification of our
improvements may be readily applied to the windows of any existing
building, and in other cases where it is not convenient to form a recess
or chamber in the wall above the window frame, the blind in such cases
being hung below the top of the frame in the ordinary manner.
It is obvious that either of the modifications of our Invention herein
described may be applied to either a casement or a sash window.
Having thus fully described our said Invention, and shown how the
same may be conveniently and advantageously carried into practice,
we claim,―
13
First. A shutter or blind composed of a series of laths or slats which
can be raised or lowered or moved in any direction across a window,
doorway, or other aperture, and which can be "louvered or adjusted
to any desired angle when the shutter or blind is either entirely or
partially lowered or moved across the said window or other aperture.

page_text: Second. A compound or double groove consisting of two parallel
parts 6, 6, constructed and operating. together and in combination with
the laths or slats of, a.shutter or blind, the said laths or slats. having
pins or projections fitted to work in the said groove, all substantially as
and for the purpose set forth.
In witness whereof, we, the said Frederick Hartt Knevitt and
Henry Herbert Hazard, have hercunto set our hands and scals,
this Sixteenth day of June, in the year of our Lord One thousand
eight hundred and sixty-nine.
FREDERICK HARTT KNEVITT. (L.S.)
HENRY HERBERT HAZARD.
(L.S.)