IMPROVEMENTS IN DOOR LOCKS AND HANDLES
Year: 1878

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Samuel Russoll, of 102, Clarendon Road, Notting Hill, in
the County of Middlesex, for the Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN DOOR
LOCKS AND HANDLES."
Sealed the 28th February 1879, and dated the 11th September 1878.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Samuel Russell at the Office
of the Commissioners of Patents on the 11th September 1878.
SAMUEL RUSSELL, of 102, Clarendon Road, Notting Hill, in the County Middlesex.
"IMPROVEMENTS IN DOOR LOCKS AND HANDLES."
This said Invention relates to certain improvements in door locks and handles
and the means of securing them to doors. For this purpose the two knobs or
handles are made in one piece, or of various pieces permanently fixed together in
the process of manufacture, a central portion of which for a length corresponding,
or nearly so, with the thickness of the door, has a diameter equal to or more than
the diameter of the knobs. Round the circumference of this central portion a
groove is sunk, just wide enough to admit the thickness of the lock, which latter
is made with an opening through its entire thickness extending from and at right
angles to the inner or back end for a suitable distance towards the opposite end.
This said opening has the top and bottom sides parallel, and is in width slightly in
excess of the diameter of the sunk groove in the handles.
To adjust the lock and handles on the door a circular hole is made in the door,
passing at a suitable point through the mortice cut for the insertion of the lock, and
just large enough to allow the handles to pass through, and into which they are
inserted. When the lock is slid back into the mortice the two opposite sides of
the opening in the lock pass into and across the groove sunk in the handles and
span its diameter, by which means the handles are free to turn but can have no
other motion; and the whole is retained in position by fixing the lock in the
ordinary way with two screws.

page_text: To cause the turning of the knobs or handles to actuate the bolt of the lock
various methods may be adopted, but for the present purpose it will be sufficient
to describe one. At right angles across the sunk groove in the handles is fixed a
small bar of metal, and on the inner end of the bolt of the lock is fixed a stud or
pin. A connection between the said bar and stud is made by means of a plate of
metal somewhat in the form of an isosceles triangle, in which are two slots
following each other in a direct central line from the apex to the base, one opening
out through the apex and being about half an inch long, the other terminating a
short distance froin the base and being about three-quarters of an inch long; the
latter receives the stud on the bolt, and the former, when the lock is placed in the
mortico, receives the bar on the handles. The bolt of the lock being pressed for-
ward by a spring draws the two ends of the base of the triangular plate against
two stops or rests, which limit the extrusion of the bolt. When the apex of tho
triangular plate is moved by the turning of the handles in one or other direction
the bolt is drawn back by the triangular plate pivoting on one or other end of its
base against one or other of the stops or rests. When by the closing of the door
the bolt is forced back, the stud or pin on it traverses the slot in the triangular
plate, and so avoids giving motion to the handles or other parts.
It is sometimes desireable to have two metal annular bands, one on either side of
the door, fixed in the aperture through which the knobs or handles pass.
The handles may be made of various materials, such as wood, metal, porcelain,
glass, or others, or of two or more such materials combined.

page_text: SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent filed by
the said Samuel Russell in the Great Seal Patent Office on the 28th February
1879.
SAMUEL RUSSELL, of No. 102, Clarendon Road, Notting Hill, in the County of
Middlesex. "IMPROVEMENTS IN DOOR LOCKS AND HANDLES."
This Invention relates to certain improvements in door locks or latches and
handles or knobs, and the means of securing them to doors. For this purpose the
two knobs or handles A, A, shewn in the section at Figure 1, are made in one piece,
or of various pieces permanently fixed together in the process of manufacture, a
central portion of which B, B, B', B', for a length corresponding, or nearly so, with
the thickness of the door C, C, has a diameter equal to or more than the diameter
of the knobs. Round the circumference of this central portion a groove D, D, is
sunk, just wide enough to admit the thickness of the lock or latch E, E, which is made
with an opening through its entire thickness extending from the inner or back end
for a suitable distance towards the opposite end, and is in width slightly in excess
of the diameter of the groove in the combined handles, as shewn at Figure 2, where
the lock or latch and handles are shown in the relative positions they will occupy
when on the door, the lock or latch F, F, F, F, being shown with one of the outer
plates removed and the handles A, A, in transverse section through the sunk
groove D, D.
To adjust the lock or latch and combined handles on the door a circular hole is
made through the door, passing at a suitable point through the mortice cut for the
insertion of the lock or latch, and just large enough to allow the handles to pass
through, and into which they are inserted. When the lock or latch is slid back
into the mortico the two opposite sides E, E, Figures 1 and 2, of the opening in the
lock or latch pass into the groove D, D, Figures 1 and 2, sunk in the handles, and
span its diameter, by which means the handles are free to turn on their axis but
can have no other motion; and the wholo is retained in position by fixing the lock
or latch in the ordinary way with two screws.
To cause the turning of the handles to actuate the latch bolt the following,
among various methods, may be adopted, reference being had to Figure 2. At
right angles across the sunk groove in the handles is fixed a small bar of metal,
shewn in section at H; and on the inner end of the latch bolt J is fixed a stud or
pin K.
A connection between the said bar and stud is made by means of a plate
of metal L of a triangular form, in which are two slots M and N following each
other in a direct central line; the former receives the stud on the latch bolt, and
the latter, when the lock is placed in the mortice, receives the bar H. The bolt J
being pressed forward by a spring P drives the two ends R, R, of the plate L
against the two stops or rests S, S, which limit the extrusion of the latch bolt.
When the plate L is moved by the turning of the handles in one or other direction
the bolt is drawn back by the plate L pivoting on one or other end R against one
or other of the stops or rests S, S. When by the closing of the door the latch bolt
is forced back the stud or pin K traverses the slot M, and so avoids giving motion
to the handles or other parts. That portion of the sunk groove D, D, opposite the
bar H is deepened, as shewn at T, to allow the plate L to move freely when the
handles are turned.
Another method of actuating the latch bolt by the turning of the handles is
shewn at Figure 3, the connection between the latch bolt and handles being made
by means of a flat bar of metal a, having a slot c at one end, which receives the
stud or pink on the latch bolt and a projecting stud d at the other end, which
enters a recesse sunk in the bottom of the groove in the handles. When the
handles are turned, the stud d is caused to slide along one or other of the inclined
faces f, f, formed by the case of the lock, and so draws back the latch bolt.

page_text: The Drawing shows the bolt drawn back. The spring presses the latch bolt
forward.
It is in most cases desireable to have motal bearings with a flange, forming what
are usually termed roses, fixed in the hole in which the handles work, as shewn
at W, Figure 1, on either side of the door; and by manufacturing them of two or
three various thicknesses at the point Y, and making the centre portion B, B, B', B',
of the handles of two lengths, any thickness of door may be suited.
The handles, if of wood, may be made of one piece, or the centre portion B, B,
B', B', which is in the thickness of the door, may be inade of metal, as shewn at
Figure 4, and knobs of any desired material fixed in the sockets X, X.
By increasing the area of the lock case above or below the latch bolt any
description of lock or key bolt may be used in combination with it, but for such a
purpose a more suitable arrangement of latch is shewn at Figure 5; P being a
small block of metal fixed on the bottom of the groove in the handles, and
sufficiently narrow to allow the side plates of the lock to pass without contact,
as shewn by the dotted lines at P', Figure 4. By such an arrangement the key-
holo may range horizontally with the knobs, and a suitable space be obtained for
the lock bolt. The block P may be secured to the handles in any convenient
manner, such as screwing when the handles are of wood, or when of metal by
soldering, riveting, or by being cast on.
As a guide for workmen two lines may be engraved on the outside of the lock,
one parallel with its length, the other at right angles to it, the point where they
would intersect indicating the centre of the hole in the door through which the
handles work, as illustrated by the dotted lines t, t, t', t¹, Figure 3.
Where the knobs or handles only are required to doors, rods or bars of wood or
metal may used in place of the lock or latch for fixing them; or a hole may be
made transversely through the centre of the combined knobs or handles, and one bar
only used for fixing them, in which case the sunk groove may be omitted.
Having now described the nature of my Invention, and various methods by
which it may be performed, I would have it understood that I do not confine
myself to the particular mechanism of any of the locks or latches, nor to the
special attachments on the handles for actuating them, herein described and
delineated, for I say that many other suitable arrangements may be adopted; but
what I claim is, making door handles or knobs, and securing them in the required
position on doors, substantially as herein described and delineated for the purposes
herein described and delineated.
In witness whereof, I, the said Samuel Russell, have hereunto set my hand
and seal, this Twenty-eighth day of February, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and seventy-nine.