CERTAIN NEW OR IMPROVED APPARATUS, TO BE ATTACHED TO ALL SORTS OF DOORS AND DOOR JAMES, AND HANGING STILES, FOR THE PURPOSE OF PREVENTING, WHEN SHUT, THE ADMISSION OF EXTERNAL AIR INTO ROOMS, APARTMENTS, OB OTHER PLACES
Year: 1819

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, WILLIAM
ROBINSON, of Saffron Walden, in the County of Essex, Surveyor and Builder,
send greeting.
WHEREAS His most Excellent Majesty King George the Third did,
by His Letters Patent under the Great Seal of the United Kingdom of
Great Britain and Ireland, bearing date at Westminster, the Twenty-third.
day of March, in the fifty-ninth year of His reign, give and grant unto me,
the said William Robinson, my- exors, admors, and assigns, His especial
licence, full power, sole privilege and authority, that I, the said William
Robinson, my exors, admors, and assigns, during the term of years therein
mentioned, should and lawfully might make, use, exercise, and vend, within
England, Wales, and the Town of Berwick-upon-Tweed, my Invention of
"CERTAIN NEW OR IMPROVED APPARATUS, TO BE ATTACHED TO ALL SORTS OF
DOORS AND DOOR JAMES, AND HANGING STILES, FOR THE PURPOSE OF PREVENTING,
WHEN SHUT, THE ADMISSION OF EXTERNAL AIR INTO ROOMS, APARTMENTS, OB
OTHER PLACES;" in which said Letters Patent there is contained a proviso.
that if I, the said William Robinson, shall not particularly, describe and
ascertain the nature of my said Invention, and in what manner the same
is to be performed, by an instrument in writing under my hand and seal,
and cause the same to be inrolled in His Majesty's High Court of Chancery
within two calendar months next and immediately after the date of the said
Letters Patent, that then the said Letters Patent, and all liberties and advan-
tages whatsoever thereby granted, shall utterly cease, determine, and become
void, as in and by the same, relation being thereunto had, will more fully
and at large appear.

page_text: NOW KNOW YE, that in compliance with the said proviso, I, the said
William Robinson, do hereby declare that the nature of my said Invention, and
the manner in which the same is to be performed, are particularly described
and ascertained by the Drawings hereunto annexed, and the following descrip-
tion thereof (that is to say):-
My said Invention is applicable to every kind of door, for the purpose of
stopping out cold currents of air from parlours, drawing rooms, dining rooms,
halls, passages, bedrooms, &c., &c., and for stopping out sound, smoke, steam,
dust, foul air, and floating vapours from without; so contrived as to admit,
when required, any quantity of air in an instant by a simple movement with
the thumb and finger. Rooms having this Invention will be more equally
heated throughout, with a saving of nearly half the fuel. Fig. 1st. a, the lower
part of a door. b, the patent slider, made of thin wood or iron japanned.
When the door is shut against the jamb it presses against the end of the iron
rod C, and causes the slider 6 to move down to the floor or carpet, and when
the door is opening this rod is forced back again by means of the spring. R, R,
Fig. 3, and causes the said slider to run upwards and ride over the carpet. d, d,
two guides to confine the slider. e, e, the two riding pins which carry the
slider up and down as the door is opened and shut; 2 spring keys or
wedges confine them to the slider. Fig. 2 and 3 represent two small iron
boxes, half an inch in thickness, which are morticed into the bottom edge of
the door, as seen in m, m, in Figs. 5 and 6. The bottom edge of the door is
the
grooved to let the iron rod lay flush with the wood;
hole in the
square
bottom part of the box shews where the iron rod C, in Fig. 2 and 3, goes in.
This rod is laid into the two boxes so as the two projecting stubbs d, d, touch
the leavers i, i, within each box. It is plain that if the iron rod is forced in
the direction from C to g it will force the two levers i, i, to turn upon their
pivot pins, and cause the said leavers at their two other ends to move down-
wards, and with them the two riding pins e, e, which carry the slider, as seen
in b, Fig. 1st, and 6, 6, in Fig. 5 and 6.. k, k, well-tempered springs. within
the iron boxes, which, when the door is opening, do, by their pressure against
the levers i, i, force the iron rod C back to its original position, and at the
same time raise up the riding pins, and with them the slider b in Fig. 1st,
5 and 6. These iron boxes and iron rod, when fixed in their places, are
out of sight. Fig. 5, the edge of a door next the hinge, and the iron box
morticed into the bottom rail, and the section of the slider b when the door. is
open. w, the iron or other metal segments which guide the edge of the door
on to the patent jamb. Fig. 6 the same, shewing the slider 6 when the door
is shut. Figs. 4, 4, a small iron or brass frame screwed to the rabbit of the

page_text: door jamb. 1, a small sliding plate in ditto, moveable up or down, having a
triangular projecting stub o. In its present position it is slid up so that the
iron rod cannot touch it, and consequently the patent slider would remain up,
as shewn in the section b in Fig. 5. In this position the air under the door
5 will be suffered to enter the room; but when the air in this case is found to be
inconvenient or too strong in its current, nothing more is required but with
the finger and thumb to push down the little sliding plate l, and the end C of
the rod will then press against the stub o when the door is shut, and cause the
patent slider 6 in Fig. 1st, and 6 in Fig. 6, to ride down with its edge to
touch the carpet, and exclude the cold air; and by this simple contrivance the
air may be admitted or excluded in an instant; or the same purpose may be
answered by screwing the plate Fig. 4 with the two square holes, and by
placing the plug in the lower hole it will stop the bar rod C, and force down
the slider, but if the plug x is taken out and placed in the upper hole, the
slider will cease to act, and the room ventilated at pleasure.
DESCRIPTION OF THE PATENT SPRING JAMBS.
couples, made either of wood or
They may be seen distinctly by
A, A, A, A, in Fig. 7, 8, 9, and 10 are
brass, grooved and tongued into each other.
the section of their ends in Fig. 11, 12, 13, and 14. They are made to
reach the whole length of the rabit both at the sides and top of the jambhead.
The woodwork of the door jamb is to be cut away to admit of these patent
jambs to lay flush, or nearly so, as seen. Fig. 10, that part which has the
groove, is to be screwed fast to the jamb through the holes S; S, leaving the
tongued piece at liberty. Fig. 9 the back part of the patent spring jambs,
shewing the springs n in do, and the same in Fig. 7 and 8. p, thin plates of
iron, with a mortice in each, and which are screwed fast to that part which has
the groove in it; the narrow piece which has the tongue being moveable,
carries with it a thin plate as a stopper 9, so that when the springs. n in
Fig. 9, 7, and 8, press against the edge of the tongue, they cause the grooved
and tongued pieces to separate one quarter of an inch from each other at their
two edges, as in Fig. 12. In this position they will remain till the door is
pressed against the edge r; they then assume a new position, viz., if the
hand of a person presses against the door at t, in Fig. 13, it will force the
tongued piece home to the groove; as in Fig. 11; but as soon as the hand
leaves the door the spring latch of the lock stops the door from going back
again, and the patent spring jambs will assume the appearance as at Fig. 13,
pressing with their edges r against the door, and shuts out the cold air.
Fig. 14 the patent spring jamb applied to the meeting edges of two French

page_text: casements or folding doors.
u, u, the space alsolutely necessary for the
door, which hitherto has been an insurmountable
opening and shutting of the
difficulty in stopping out the cold air, which has made these casements not so
The patent
desirable as they might be, provided the air can be excluded.
spring jamb will here be found a complete air-stopper by only fixing one of
them, A, to the edge of one door; its edge will then spring against the rabbit
of the other door r, and most effectually stop the air from entering the room.
Fig. 15 is a key-hole stopper.
Fig. 16 the inside view of ditto, shewing the moveable lever d on its
center e. Whenever it is required to stop the air at the keyhole, take hold of
the pin handle a, Fig. 15, apply the two pins b, c, to the keyhole, and the
spring f will fix them in an instant, and stop out the air till they are removed.
Many attempts have at various times been tried for excluding the cold air
from our dwelling rooms, but hitherto none have been effectual. Sand-bags
nailed upon the door dragging upon the floor, with unsightly listing and
leathers all round the edges and top of the door, when done have a filthy
mean appearance, spoils the door, and never answers the purpose intended; the
consequence is that the owner is under the necessity of being at a considerable
These, however well made,
expence for what are called green baize doors.
disgrace every room wherever they appear, and will no more prevent the
entrance of cold air than any other door. A strong current of cold air rushing
in at the crevices of the door jambs in a windy day induces the owner to enlarge
his fire with more fuel; he then soon finds that when he sits by such a fire, be
feels an unpleasant and a very disagreeable cold chilling sensation at his back,
With this
while at the same time his face and body are scorched with heat.
sence of feeling he frequently removes his chair in hopes of evading it, but
finding no relief he orders a screen of some kind to be placed at his back to
If these matters could be fairly
protect him from the piercing current.
examined and discussed without prejudice, I think it would be found that
many of the disorders attendant upon the human frame in a country like
England, where the weather varies from heat to cold many times in a day
originate from the effects of cold currents of air in narrow streams issuing
from doors, windows, wainscoting, skirting boards, &c., at the time we are
sitting by the fire side. Should any doubts be entertained on this subject, let
any person hold a lighted candle in a windy day to the edges of the door, and
also at the bottom next the floor, and at the keyhole in a room where a good
fire is kept, and he will find that the flame will be nearly extinguished. I
therefore can hardly be denied that the most robust constitution would be
affected by such currents; and it is to be feared that those of more tende

page_text: habits often meet a premature death from the same cause. These considera-
tions have induced the Patentee to try various methods for the exclusion of
cold air at doorway, and the greatest difficulty was found by the shrinking and
swelling of the wood both of the door and its jambs, they being sometimes so
much swelled as to render it difficult to be opened without the aid of a car-
penter to reduce the wood by his plane, when at another time the same door
would be so much shrunk in width as to leave a very wide chasm between the
edges and the rabbit. Viewing it in this light it was clearly evident that any-
thing applied to the door edges would be entirely useless; the new Patent
Invention effectually guards against all weathers, whether dry or humid, and
should either the door or door jamb shrink or swell it will have no effect upon
it whatever. Such is the nature of this Patent Invention, that it will admit any
quantity of air into the room when wanted, and the same may be instantly
stopped at pleasure by raising or depressing with the thumb and finger a small
plate of iron or brass fixed to the rabbit.
The Inventor most respectfully presumes, without arrogance, to say, that with
this Invention applied to doorways nearly half the fuel may be saved, the
room much more equally warmed throughout, and the most tender persons
may safely sit near the door without fear of catching cold or rheumatism.
There will be no further occasion for screens or baize doors.
It will stop out
sound, smoke, steam, dust, foul air, and floating vapours from without, and the
whole, when fixed, will be found to be extremely simple and elegantly neat.
In witness whereof, I, the said William Robinson, party hereto, have
hereunto set my hand and seal, this Eighteenth day of May, in the
year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and nineteen.