IMPROVEMENTS IN SELF-CLOSING APPARATUS FOR DOORS
Year: 1862

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by Walter Henry Tucker at the
Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the 21st
October 1862.
I, WALTER HENRY TUCKER, of 181, Fleet Street, do hereby declare the
nature of the said Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN SELF-CLOSING APPARATUS
FOR DOORS," to be as follows:
I My Invention consists primarily of particular modes of applying weights
to doors so as to make such doors self-closing, and is intended as a substitute
for the springs which are generally used for the purpose, the said springs
being objectionable from their liability to break during sudden changes of
temperature, from their rapid accumulation of resistance as the door is opened,
and then as rapid decrease of power as it closes, the one feature compelling
an otherwise unnecessary amount of personal exertion in opening the door,
and the other causing the springs to be made so strong that the friction pro-
duced thereby is objectionably great. The manner in which I cause a weight
to serve the purpose stated is as follows:-To the seat of a frame or case
(which I conceal in the floor or in a recess behind the door post, as occasion
may require,) I firmly fix an upright screw shaft, having one or more long
spiral threads around its circumference, to which shaft I attach a moveable
screw box or nut so formed externally that it can be either directly or indi-
rectly acted on by a piece connected with the door, so as to be caused to rise
upon the shaft, and also formed so that a weight can be connected with or
made to form a part of it, and rise with the nut as it is turned upward on the

page_text: shaft by opening the door in either direction, and carry the nut down again, and
consequently close the door by its pressure, when the door is again released.
I sometimes modify the foregoing arrangement by connecting the screw or
spiral incline directly or indirectly with the door so as to move with it, in which
case, where the door is required to open in both directions, I make the screw
nut with a spiral thread on its outer circumference as well as on its inside
(the two-threads running in opposite directions to each other), the inner thread
being acted on by the screw connected with the door, and the outer thread
working in conjunction with a second or external screw nut, to which the
weight is attached, by which arrangement the weight will be caused to rise
by opening the door in either direction. Where the door is required to open
in one direction only, the second nut and the outer thread on the primary nut
can be dispensed with. And I hereby claim these various modes of using a
weight (for the purpose specified), or any mere modifications thereof, as part of
this my Invention.
My Invention consists, secondly, in the application to self-closing doors of
peculiarly constructed hinges as substitutes for or auxiliaries to the centres or
pivots, on which the full weight of such doors is usually made to depend, the
friction produced on such centres being thereby injuriously great; and the
manner in which I construct the said hinges is by fixing their stationary joints
to the centre of the plate, which is commonly screwed to the door post, and
the moveable joints to the edge of another plate, which is mortised in or
otherwise connected to the back edge of the door, by which arrangement it
will be found that doors to which they are attached can be opened in either
direction as freely as if hung on centres, while the weight of the door will be
better sustained than could be the case by centres only. This peculiar forma-
tion of hinge, or any mere modification thereof, I therefore claim for the purpose
stated herein.