IMPROVEMENTS IN SHOP FITTINGS APPLICABLE ALSO PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION TO BOOK SHELVES AND OTHER ARTICLES OF FURNITURE
Year: 1866

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to George Frederick Stidolph, John Stidolph, and
Joseph Roberts Morley, all of Woodbridge, in the County of Suffolk,
for the Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN SHOP FITTINGS APPLICABLE ALSO
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said George Frederick
Stidolph, John Stidolph, and Joseph Roberts Morley at the Office of
the Commissioners of Patents, with their Petition, on the 22nd
November 1866.
We, GEORGE FREDERICK STIDOLPH, JOHN STIDOLPH, and JOSEPH ROBERTS
MORLEY, all of Woodbridge, in the County of Suffolk, do hereby declare the
nature of the said Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN SHOP FITTINGS APPLICABLE
ALSO TO BOOK SHELVES AND OTHER ARTICLES OF FURNITURE," to be as follows:-
This Invention has for its object improvements in shop fittings applicable
also to book shelves and other articles of furniture. In fitting up shop
windows in place of employing a number of stationary shelves, as is now

page_text: common, we employ shelves which are hung at each end upon chains or bands,
and these chains or bands are endless, and at the top and bottom pass around
pulleys. The shelves are so hung that their weight always keeps them hori-
zontal, so that the whole set of trays when loaded may be moved around the
pulleys without any fear of disarranging the articles on the shelves. This
arrangement admits of the articles to be displayed being arranged on the shelves
at the back of the window, and then when the shelves are loaded they
may be brought to the front; similarly by drawing the arrangement of
shelves round the pulleys any shelf may be brought to the back, and any
article may readily be taken out of the window. Suitable locking instruments
are provided for holding the shelves in any position to which they may have
been brought.
A similar arrangement may be applied wherever it is desired to exhibit or
store a large variety of articles in a small space with ready access to each,
thus a combination of trays or boxes like that described may be arranged in
a recess extending from the floor to the ceiling (or it may be descending below
the floor or rising above the ceiling), and any one of the said trays or boxes
can at once be brought to a convenient position for inspecting its contents by
drawing round the chains or bands over the pulleys.
A similar arrangement of trays or boxes may be arranged upon standards,
so as to be suitable to stand in the centre of a shop, and in this case three
sets of pulleys may conveniently be employed so as to lead the chains or bands
in a triangular path; book cases and like articles of furniture may be con-
structed in a similar manner. By such an arrangement a number of books
may be collected in a recess of a given size greatly exceeding the number it
would hold were the books arranged in the ordinary manner, and in addition
the books will be much more ready of access; similarly writing tables may
be arranged with moveable pigeon holes, shelves, or trays, connected with
endless chains or bands, and passing around pulleys. In some cases for book
shelves, sets of pigeon boles, and similar articles of furniture we arrange the
chains or bands to travel horizontally, the chains or bands at the top and bottom
are connected together with uprights between which the shelves or pigeon holes
are arranged.

page_text: SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said George Frederick Stidolph, John Stidolph, and Joseph
Roberts Morley in the Great Seal Patent Office on the 22nd May 1867.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, we, GEORGE
FREDERICK STIDOLPH, JOHN STIDOLPH, and JOSEPH ROBERTS MORLEY, all of
Woodbridge, in the County of Suffolk, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Twenty-second day of November, in the year of our
Lord One thousand eight hundred and sixty-six, in the thirtieth year of Her
reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto us, the said
George Frederick Stidolph, John Stidolph, and Joseph Roberts Morley, Her
special licence that we, the said George Frederick Stidolph, John Stidolph,
and Joseph Roberts Morley, our executors, administrators, and assigns, or
such others as we, the said George Frederick Stidolph, John Stidolph, and
Joseph Roberts Morley, our executors, administrators, and assigns, should at
any time agree with, and no others, from time to time and at all times
thereafter during the term therein expressed, should and lawfully might make,
use, exercise, and vend, within the United Kingdom of Great Britain and
Ireland, the Channel Islands, and Isle of Man, an Invention for "IMPROVE-
MENTS IN SHOP FITTINGS APPLICABLE ALSO TO BOOK SHELVES AND OTHER ARTICLES
OF FURNITURE," upon the condition (amongst others) that we, the said George
Frederick Stidolph, John Stidolph, and Joseph Roberts Morley, our executors
or administrators, by an instrument in writing under our or their hands and
seals, or under the hand and seal of one of us or them, should particularly
describe and ascertain the nature of the said Invention, and in what manner
the same was to be performed, and cause the same to be filed in the Great
Seal Patent Office within six calendar months next and immediately after
the date of the said Letters Patent.
NOW KNOW. YE, that I, the said George Frederick Stidolph, on behalf
of myself and the said John Stidolph and Joseph Roberts Morley, do hereby
declare the nature of the said Invention, and in what manner the same is
to be performed, to be particularly described and ascertained in and by the
following statement thereof, that is to say :-
This Invention has for its object improvements in shop fittings applicable
also to book shelves and other articles of furniture. In fitting up shop
windows in place of employing a number of stationary shelves, as is now
common, we employ shelves which are hung at each end upon chains or bands,,

page_text: and these chains or bands are endless, and at the top and bottom pass around
pulleys. The shelves are so hung that their weight always keeps them
horizontal, so that the whole set of trays when loaded may be moved around
the pulleys without any fear of disarranging the articles on the shelves. This
arrangement admits of the articles to be displayed being arranged on the
shelves at the back of the window, and then when the shelves are loaded they
may be brought to the front; similarly by drawing the arrangement of shelves
around the pulleys any shelf may be brought to the back, and any article may
readily be taken out of the window.
The arrangement is further illustrated by the Drawings hereunto annexed.
Figure 1 is a front view, and Figure 2 a side view.
a, a, are uprights or frames, one on each side, they carry the axes of four
polygonal pulleys b, b, around which the endless chains c, c pass; these chains
are made with flat links connected together by pins passing transversely through
them, and the distance from centre to centre corresponds with the length of
one side of the polygon pulleys; d, d, are the shelves or trays; they are jointed
to the chains at either end by pins d', d', which project from the chains and
pass through the ends of the shelves; these pins d' are centre pins of the link
of the chain, which are made longer than the other centre pins to receive the
shelves or trays. Suitable locking instruments are provided for holding the
shelves in any position to which they may have been brought.
A similar arrangement may be applied wherever it is desired to exhibit or
store a large variety of articles in a small space with ready access to each;
thus a combination of trays or boxes like that described may be arranged in a
recess extending from the floor to the ceiling (or it may be descending below
the floor or rising above the ceiling), and any one of the said trays or boxes
can at once be brought to a convenient position for inspecting its contents by
drawing round the chains or bands over the pulleys.
A similar arrangement of trays or boxes may be arranged upon standards,
so as to be suitable to stand in the centre of a shop, and in this case three
sets of pulleys may conveniently be employed so as to lead the chains or bands
in a triangular path; book cases and like articles of furniture may be con-
structed in a similar manner. By such an arrangement a number of books may
be collected in a recess of a given size greatly exceeding the number it would
hold were the books arranged in the ordinary manner, and in addition the
books will be much more ready of access; similarly, writing tables may be
arrauged with moveable pigeon holes, shelves, or trays connected with endless
chains or bands and passing around the pulleys. In some cases for book

page_text: shelves, sets of pigeon holes, and similar articles of furniture, we arrange the
chains or bands to travel horizontally; the chains or bands at the top and
bottom are connected together with uprights, between which the shelves or
pigeon holes are arranged.
In witness whereof, I, the said George Frederick Stidolph, have hereunto
set my hand and seal, this Twenty-first day of May, in the year of our
Lord One thousand eight hundred and sixty-seven.
G. F. STIDOLPH. (LS.)