IMPROVED APPARATUS FOR OPENING AND CLOSING ALL THE LATCHES OR BOLTS OF A DOOR SIMULTANEOUSLY "
Year: 1884

page_text: "
We JOHN LOWLEY of 45 Stewarts Road Battersea in the County of Surrey and
JAMES HAROLD of 21 St Georges Street Battersea in the County of Surrey do
hereby declare the nature of said Invention for IMPROVED APPARATUS FOR
OPENING AND CLOSING ALL THE LATCHES OR BOLTS OF A DOOR SIMULTANEOUSLY "
to be as follows:-
The object of this Invention is to produce a secure fastening for doors while at
the same time they can be opened with facility in case of emergency when for
example a sudden alarm of fire or from other cause an alarm is given.
According to this Invention we provide a set or series of latches or bolts which
are or may be operated on and opened or closed as required at one and the same
time and at one operation. This is effected by means of a weighted rod extending
from end to end of the door to be secured the said rod carrying the latches and
bolts and operating same.
The latches or bolts are preferably pivotted to metal plates to which these plates
are attached by screws for example to the door.
We provide a rod or rods for operating the latches or bolts, these rods are
weighted at top and bottom and are pivotted to each of the latches the object of
weighting these rods is to give them a downward tendency and thus to keep the
latches or bolts in the loops or catches which latter may be made of any convenient
form or shape according to the position in which they are to be placed and as fancy
or taste may dictate. When a latch is applied to the top of the door we use &
latch rivetted or otherwise fixed to the rod so that on the descent of the rod the
latch falls into loops or catches. This catch fixed to the rod may be used in
combination or not according to circumstances with the other dropping latches;
when used together the arrangement is applicable particularly to single doors and
when used separately the arrangement is particularly applicable to entrances fitted
with double or margin doors. In operating these fastenings, the normal position of
the door is closed with the latches or bolts in the loops or catches; now to unfasten
all the bolts simultaneously it is only necessary to take hold of a knob fixed on
the rod connecting the latches and to lift the rod by the knob. The rod being in
connection with each of the latches all these latches are at one and the saine timo

page_text: raised from their respective catches and the door can be opened; to close same it
is only necessary to raise the rod bringing the door into its closed position and to
release the rod whereby the latches are caused to fall into the catches owing to all
being connected to the weighted rod. Where there are double or margin doors
that on the right is opened and closed in the manner before described while that on
the left being secured only with a top and bottom bolt or latches all fixed to the
rod as before mentioned it is only necessary to raise these bolts by the weighted
rod to open the second door or to release the rod to secure the same.
The weight may be made of any suitable shape and where desirable may be bent
away from the door. To prevent the bolts from dropping below their horizontal
centre line when the door is opened we in some cases provide the plate with a
feather or projection which may be cast or made in a piece with the plate, also the
feather may in addition be arranged so as to form a guide for the rod to work
through.
These fastenings for doors are particularly applicable to those doors which are
required to be opened quickly in cases of emergency while at the same time the
fastenings when closed are very secure. They are applicable to churches chapels
and other public places and warehouses as well as to dwelling houses and other
places.
Dated thie Twenty-fourth day of January 1984

page_text: We, JOHN LOWLEY of 45 Stewarts Road Battersea and JAMES HAROLD of
21 St George's Street Battersea in the County of Surrey do hereby declare the
nature of said Invention for "IMPROVED APPARATUS FOR OPENING AND CLOSING
ALL THE LATCHES OR BOLTS OF A DOOR SIMULTANEOUSLY" and in what manner
the same is to be performed to be particularly described and ascertained in and
by the following statement:-
The objects of this Invention is to produce a secure fastening for doors while at
the same time they can be opened with facility in case of emergency when for
example a sudden alarm of fire or from other cause an alarm is given.
According to this Invention we provide a set or series of latches or bolts which
are or may be operated on and opened or closed as required at one and the same
time and at one operation. This is effected by means of a weighted rod extending
from end to end of the door to be secured the said rod carrying the latches and
bolts and operating same; and in order that the Invention may be fully understood
we will now proceed to describe the same with reference to the accompanying
Drawings.
Figure 1 is a perspective view of so much of a door as will be necessary to show
our combined appliances for fastening doors applied thereto. Figure 1A is a view
in front elevation and Figure 2 is a longitudinal vertical section through the
line x, y, of Figure 14 of one portion only of the door fastenings constructed
according to this Invention and as the same may be applied to a single door
Figure 3 is a view in front elevation of a double door showing the Invention as
applied thereto, Figure 4 being a vertical section showing device for securing one
door and Figure 5 being vertical section showing device for securing the other
door. Figure 6 shows in parallel perspective two of a series of latches similar to
those shown in Figures 1 and 2, Figure 7 is an isometrical projection of a modified
form or arrangement of latch as applied to this Invention and Figure 8 is an
isometrical view showing an example of one of the various forms of catches or
loops which may be used for the purpose of carrying this Invention into effect and
Figure 9 is a perspective view of another modified form of latch.
a, are the latches or bolts, c, c, c, are the metal plates to which the latches or
bolts a are pivotted at 6 these plates are attached by screws for example to the
door d and the metal plates c may be sunk flush with the surface of the door or
otherwise arranged if desired e are the rods for operating the latches or bolts a;
these rods are weighted at top and bottom as indicated by the letter f in the
several Figures and are pivotted at 61 to each of the latches a the object of
weighting these rods is to give them a downward tendency and thus to keep the
latches or bolts a in the loops or catches g, g, g, which latter may be made of any
convenient form or shape according to the position in which they are to be placed
and as fancy or taste may dictate. When a latch is applied to the top of the door
we use such a latch as that shown at a¹. Figures 1 and 3, and this latch which is
rivetted or otherwise fixed to the rod e and on the descent of the rod falls the
loops g g may be used in combination or not according to circumstances with
the other dropping latches a; when used together as shown at Figure 1 the
arrangement is applicable particularly to single doors and when used separately
as shown at Figure 3 the arrangement is particularly applicable to entrances fitted
with double or margin doors. In operating these fastenings the normal position
being closed with the latches or bolts a in the loops or catches g, g, g; now to
unfasten all the bolts simultaneously it is only necessary to take hold of the knob h

page_text: on the rod e and to lift the rode by the knob into the position shown by the
dotted lines m Figure 1ª the rod e being in connection with each of the latches a
all these latches are at one and the same time raised from their respective catches
and the door d can be opened, to close same it is only necessary to raise the rod e
bringing the door into its closed position and to release the rod e whereby the
latches a are caused to fall into the catches owing to all being connected to the
weighted rod e. Whereas in Figure 3 there are double or margin doors that on
the right is opened and closed in the manner before described while that on the
left being secured only with a top and bottom bolt it is only necessary to raise
these bolts by the weighted rod e to open the second door or to release the rod to
close the same.
The weight may be made of any suitable shape and where desirable may be
bent away from the door as shown at Figure 4. To prevent the bolts a from
dropping below their horizontal centre line when the door is opened we may
provide the plate c with a stop or projection c¹ which may be cast or made in a
piece with the plate c as shown at Figures 3, 7 and 9. As shown also at Figure 7
the feather c¹ may in addition, be arranged as shown so as to form a guide K for
the rod e to work through k, k, are the guides through which the rod e shown at
Figures 3 and 4 works.
These fastenings for doors are particularly applicable to those doors which are
required to be opened quickly in cases of emergency while at the same time the
fastenings when closed are very secure. They are applicable to churches chapels
and other public places and warehouses as well as to dwellinghouses and other
places such as railway carriage doors.
Having now particularly described and ascertained the nature of this said
Invention and in what manner the same is to be performed we declare that what
we claim is:-
:―
In door fasteners the opening closing and securing same in and by the combined
operation of latches or bolts a simultaneously entering and leaving their catches g
by the operation of weighted roda e all substantially as and for the purposes
set forth.
Dated this Thirteenth day of Act 1984