AN IMPROVEMENT IN DOOB AND OTHER LOCKS, AND STAPLES USED THEREWITH
Year: 1835

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, RICHARD
HILL, of Birmingham, in the County of Warwick, Merchant, send greeting.
WHEREAS I did, by Petition, represent to His most Excellent Majesty
King William the Fourth that I had invented "AN IMPROVEMENT IN DOOB
AND OTHER LOCKS, AND STAPLES USED THEREWITH," and His said Majesty being
willing to encourage all useful inventions, did issue His Letters Patent
under the Great Seal of Great Britain, bearing date at Westminster, tho
Eighteenth day of March, in the fifth year of His reign, whereby His said
Majesty did, for Himself, His heirs and successors, give and grant unto me,
the said Richard Hill, His especial licence that I, the said Richard Hill,
my executors, administrators, and assigns, or such others as I, the said
Richard Hill, my executors, administrators, and assigns, should at any
time agree with, and no others, from time to time and at all times during the
term of years therein expressed, should and lawfully might make, use, exercise,
and vend, within England, Wales, and the Town of Berwick-upon-Tweed,
my said Invention; in which said Letters Patent there is contained a
proviso obliging me, the said Richard Hill, by an instrument in writing
under my hand and seal, particularly to describe and ascertain the nature of
my said Invention, and in what manner the same is to be performed, and
to cause the same to be enrolled in His Majesty's High Court of Chancery
within six calendar months next and immediately after the date of the said
Letters Patent, as in and by the same, reference being thereunto had, will
more fully and at large appear.

page_text: NOW KNOW YE, that in compliance with the said proviso, 1, the said
Richard Hill, do hereby declare that the nature of my said Invention,
and the manner in which the same is to be performed, are described and
ascertained in manner following (that is to say):
My improvements in door and other locks, and in staples, consist,―
First, in a peculiar construction of lock, suited for street doors or chamber
doors, in which one bolt is made to answer as a sliding catch bolt or a key
bolt, as a thumb or shoot bolt, or as a drawback-bolt, instead of the several
bolts employed in ordinary locks for those purposes; and,
Secondly, in adapting to the edge of the staple which receives the bolt of a
catch lock a roller to relieve the friction. The several Figures in the accom-
panying Drawings represent my improved construction of locks in different
position.
Figure 1 is a front or external view of the lock. Figure 2 is an edge
view of the same. Figure 3 represents the interior of the lock, as seen at
the back in the reverse position to Figure 1. a, a, a, is the box or case of
the lock. b, b, is the bolt sliding within staples c, c. A tumbler d, shewn by
dots, hangs upon a pivot fixed into the plate of the lock behind the bolt, and
which tumbler is pressed downwards by a spring e.
The wards of the lock
are shewn at f.
Figures 4, 5, 6, and 7, are sections taken vertically through the lock case or
box a, a, in the position of Figure 1; (that is to say) the face plate of the lock
is in these four last-mentioned Figures removed, for the purpose of shewing the
internal mechanism, the same letters referring to similar parts of the lock in
all the Figures. The handle for throwing back the bolt is shewn at h, which
handle operates exactly as in an ordinary catch lock, its shaft fitting into the
square hole of the follow or piece i. This follow, when turned, forces back
the lever k, which has a hook at its upper part, but a spring keeps this leyer
erect when it is not acted upon by the follow. A lever m, hanging upon a
fulcrum pin near its extremity fixed into the side of the bolt, is connected
by its forked or crooked end to another lever n, turning upon a fulcrum
pin passed through its centre, also fixed into the bolt, both of which are
confined by a bridle piece n. In this last-mentioned lever, near its extremity,
a pin or stud o is inserted, and the hooked end of the lever k is intended to
take hold of this stud, so that when the follow i is turned, as in Figuro 5, the
bolt 6 must be drawn back by the receding of the lever k, the lever m being
pressed by a spring q, and made to hold the lever n firmly in the proper
position. Figure 8 shews the bolt removed from the lock by the levers m and n
attached to it, and also the bridle piece p. When it is desired to lock the

page_text: 26
door by a key, that is, to project the bolt as in Figure 7, the key u must be
introduced into the lock and turned round, as represented at. Figure 6, in
which situation the key will raise the lever m, and cause the lever n' to be
moved also into the positions shewn at Figure 6. The pin or stud o in the
end of the lever n will, by this movement of the levers, be drawn down free
from the hooked end of the upright lever k, and the tumbler d, at the
back of the lock, being at the same time raised, as shewn by dots in Figure 6,
and its stud lifted above the notches on the upper edge of the bolt, the key
will, by bearing against the side of a piece s in the under side of the bolt,
cause the bolt to be projected as at Figure 7, when the parts will immediately
assume the positions there represented. When the bolt is required to be
withdrawn, as in unlocking the door, the key being again introduced and
turned in the opposite direction to that last described, the levers m and n, and
the tumbler, d will be raised as before, and the stud o brought opposite to the
opening of the hook r in the upright lever k; the key u then pressing against
the opposite side of the piece s, the bolt will be slidden half back as at
Figure 6, the stud o passing into the hook r of the lever k, and if the key is
turned further the bolt will be forced completely back into the lock case as at
Figure 5, and the door allowed to open. A stop t is fixed in the lock plate to
prevent the lever k falling too far back.
either in its locked or half-locked position a bent lever w is fixed to the stern
of a thumb knob x, the end of which lever will, on turning the thumb knob,
pass into one of the notches y or z, at the under side of the bolt, and prevent
the bolt being drawn back either by the handle h or key u. This bent lever w,
therefore, acts as a thumb bolt and as a safety bolt.
For the purpose of fixing the bolt
Figure 9 shews another modification of the same principles of construction,
by means of which one bolt may be made to answer the purposes of a catch or
draw-back bolt, a key bolt, and a thumb bolt. Its construction is rather
simpler than the lock described above, as the lever n is in this arrangement
dispensed with, and the lever m carries the stud 0; but the corresponding
parts are marked with the same letters as before, and therefore a detailed
description of this Figure would be a repetition of the foregoing, and is
unnecessary.
Figure 10 represents a front and end, view of my improved staple for a
catch lock, in which a roller a turns upon a vertical shaft or axle, and when
the inclined edge of the bolt strikes it on closing the door the friction is
relieved by the roller turning round.
Having now described my improvements, in the construction of locks for
doors and other places where security is required, I would remark, that if. it

page_text: should be thought desirable the tumbler m may be made to answer the
purposes of the locking tumbler d by placing a projecting stud on its side,
acting in notches formed in the front plate of the lock, the back tumbler being
in that case dispensed with.
In conclusion I would remark, that although I have described in this my
Specification many of the ordinary parts of the lock which are not new, and
have been before used in locks of the common construction, yet I do not mean
or intend to claim them separately; but I do claim as my Invention the
construction and arrangement of a lock, however the forms and positions of its
parts may be varied from the Drawing which I have given to explain my
principle, wherein one bolt is made to perform all the different offices of the
three bolts of the ordinary street-door lock, chamber-door lock, and that
description of lock called a draw-back lock, with the effect of the side thumb
bolt, which improved lock may be acted upon at pleasure either by the handle,
the key, or the thumb piece, however formed and adapted, in one single lock.
In witness whereof, I, the said Richard Hill, have hereunto set my
hand and seal, the Seventeenth day of September, in the year of our
Lord One thousand eight hundred and thirty-five.