IMPROVEMENTS IN FASTENINGS FOR RAILWAY CARRIAGE DOORS, AND OTHER DOORS
Year: 1877

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by Thomas Ward at the Office of the
Commissioners of Patents on the 13th October 1877.
THOMAS WARD, of King's Lynn, in the County of Norfolk, Engineer and
Machinist. "IMPROVEMENTS IN FASTENINGS FOR RAILWAY CARRIAGE DOORS, AND
OTHER DOORS."
My Invention consists of the construction and arrangement herein-after described
of the parts of fastenings for railway carriage doors, and other doors, the object of
my said Invention being to construct a self-acting fastening, that is, a fastening
which is brought into its fastening position so as to fasten the door by the act of
closing the door to which it is applied.
My Invention is principally applicable to railway carriage doors, and I will
describe it as applied to a railway carriage door.
The latch or catch of the fastening, which falls into or engages with the staple
or staple plate on the door frame or jamb, is fixed on its spindle, and is turned by
a handle for unfastening the latch in the ordinary way; but near the bush of the
said latch a quadrant-shaped projection is made. In combination with the said
latch I use a tumbler or tumbler lever, jointed at its bottom to the case of the
fastening considerably below the spindle of the latch. By means of this tumbler
the latch is maintained in its vertical or open position. The said tumbler extends
above and below the spindle of the latel, and its upper end is expanded or formed
into a head, which head part works through the front plate of the case, and projects
into a recess in the said front plate. Near the middle of the tumbler is a notch or
shoulder with which a shoulder on the quadrant-shaped projection of the latch
engages. To that end of the quadrant-shaped projection of the latch most distant
from the front plate of the case one end of a rod is jointed, the opposite end of the
said rod working through a hole in a short arm near the jointed end of the tumbler.
A coiled spring around the said rod bears at top on an abutment on the said rod, and
at bottom on the short arm of the tumbler. By means of this coiled spring the
latch when released, as herein-after described, is made to take its fastening or
horizontal position. On the striking plate fixed to the jamb of the door frame and
opposite the head of the tumbler of the fastening, is a bevelled projection, which,

page_text: when the door is closed takes into the recess in the case of the fastening and
operates upon the said head.
The action of the fastening is as follows:-When the latch is turned by its
handle, so as to unfasten the door, the said latch is raised from a horizontal into a
vertical position. In taking this position the quadrant-shaped projection on the latch,
acting upon the rod jointed to it, depresses the said rod, which passes through the
short arm of the tumbler and compresses the coiled spring. As as soon the latch has
arrived at its vertical position, the shoulder on the quadrant-shaped projection
engages with the shoulder on the tumbler, and the låtch is thereby firmly held in
its raised or unfastening position, the head of the tumbler slightly projecting into
its recess in the front plate of the case.
When the door is closed, the bevelled projection described on the striking plate
comes in contact with the projecting head of the tumbler, and pushes back the said
tumbler, the latter turning on its joint. The notch or shoulder on the said tumbler
is thereby disengaged from the shoulder of the quadrant-shaped projection on the
latch, and the said latch is turned into a horizontal position by the action of the
spring described, and made to engage with or fall into its staple or staple plate
on the jamb of the door frame. The door is thereby fastened by the act of
closing it.
The position of the handle on the outside of the door indicates that the closed
door is fastened.
My Invention is applied to doors other than railway carriage doors, essentially in
the manner described with respect to a railway carriage door.