IMPROVEMENTS IN VENETIAN BLINDS
Year: 1867

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by William Edward Gedge at the
Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the
6th November 1867.-A communication from abroad by Pierre Théophile
Berton, of 39, Faubourg St. Martin, Paris, France.
I, WILLIAM EDWARD GEDGE, of the Firm of John Gedge and Son, of No. 11,
Wellington Street, Strand, in the County of Middlesex, Patent Agent, do
hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN VENETIAN
BLINDS," a communication to me from abroad by Pierre Théophile Berton, of
39, Faubourg St. Martin, Paris, France, to be as follows:-
On the accompanying Sheet of Drawing forming part of this Provisional
Specification, Fig. 1 représents a front view of an outside Venetian blind
closed and viewed from the inside. The laths of wood or of metal are placed
transversely, so that they may turn on themselves in such a way as to permit-
daylight to penetrate into the apartment; they are furnished at each end with
a small pivot pin supported by a series of parallelogram joints or links or lazy-
tongs, this small pin passing through the joints carries at its end a friction roller
running in slides placed vertically for this purpose at each side of the window
opening.
Fig. 2 represents the joints or lazy-tongs of one side in their entire height as
well as the laths open to permit the passage of light; a cord in connection with
each lath keeps them by means of a catch at the degree of inclination which

page_text: it is desired to give them. If it is desired to shut the laths the cord is
unhooked from the bottom, and the laths having one side heavier than the
other fall again and close on each other; they are stopped on each joint by
a projection (see Fig. 5).
The Venetian blind is divided into two parts to avoid a counterweight when
it is desired to make it disappear or fold up; each series is suspended on each
side by two cords c, c', which wind and unwind round the roller placed
inside the window at the top; the upper series rises as shewn Fig. 3, while the
lower series descends forming a counterweight to the upper one. To facilitate
each manoeuver another cord is placed at each side of the window, and passing
through the window frame enters the apartment, and ends in a tassel within
reach of the hand, the one rises while the other is being pulled because they
are wound in reverse direction to each other on the same roller; they may
also correspond below..
Fig. 3. represents a very simple arrangement, the laths form the median
part of the joints of the blind, in this case the laths do not turn on themselves
independently of the joints, because they form the one-half of them they here
carry at each end three pins (see Fig. 6), on one of which is a friction
roller.
Fig. 4 represents a single series of joints or lazy-tongs folded into their
smallest compass.
In order that this apparatus may rise with facility a tube
placed transversely encloses a spring fixed at one end to this tube and by the
other to a rod also placed within this tube and spring; this rod passes through
and through, and at each end is fixed a toothed pinion which takes into a rack s
placed vertically. The spring being stretched and the tube held so as not
to turn, it is the rod which turns with its toothed gearing to cause the apparatus
to rise. A cord passing from one joint to the tube which it carries and rising
to the top also passes inside the window by means of the pulleys 2, 2, and is
terminated by a minimum weight. If the same apparatus were fixed above
instead of below this closing would be effected in a similar manner, but in
inverse direction.