A CERTAIN IMPROVED METHOD OF CONNECTING WIDOW SASHES AND SHUTTERS, SUCH AS ARE USUALLY HUNG AND BALANCED BY LINES AND COUNTER- WEIGHTS WITH THE LINES BY WHICH THEY ARE SO HUNG
Year: 1836

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, GEORGE
LEECH, of Number 25, Norfolk Street, in the Parish of Islington, in the County
of Middlesex, Carpenter, send greeting.
WHEREAS His most Gracious Majesty King William the Fourth, by His
Letters Patent under the Great Seal of Great Britain, bearing date at West-
minster, the Fifteenth day of August, in the sixth year of His reign, did give
and grant unto me, the said George Leech, my exors, adñiors, and assigns,
His especial licence, full power, sole privilege and authority, that I, the said
George Leech, my exors, adñors, and assigns, and such others as I, the said
George Leech, my exors, admors, and assigns, should at any time agree with,
and no others, from time to time and at all times hereafter 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 "A CERTAIN IMPROVED METHOD OF CONNECTING WIDOW SASHES AND
SHUTTERS, SUCH AS ARE USUALLY HUNG AND BALANCED BY LINES AND COUNTER-
WEIGHTS WITH THE LINES BY WHICH THEY ARE SO HUNG;" in which said Letters
Patent there is contained a proviso, that I, the said George Leech, shall cause
a particular description of 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, to be inrolled in His said Majesty's High Court of Chancery
within six calendar months next and immediately after the date of the said in
part recited Letters Patent, as in and by the same, reference 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
George Leech, 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 in manner following, reference being had to the Drawings
hereunto annexed and to the figures and letters marked thereon, that is
to say:
Whereas the sash lines of window sashes and shutters (such as are usually
hung and balanced by lines and counterweights) are commonly made fast
to such window sashes or shutters by nails, screws, or other similar modes
of fastening, by reason of which method of fastening the said lines the opera-
tions of detaching a window sash or shutter from its lines when it is necessary
to take it out of the window or shutter frame for cleaning or repairing it,
and of afterwards reattaching it to such lines are inconvenient, and generally
in performing such operations it is necessary to use a hammer or a screw-
driver, or some such tool, frequently with considerable violence, at the
risk, in the case of window sashes in particular, of breaking the window
glasses. Now, in my improved method I do not make the lines fast to the
sashes or shutters which are suspended them, but I attach the end of the
lines to pieces of metal operating as hooks, and I fix to the sashes or shutters
other pieces of metal operating as eyes for those hooks, to be hooked into or
taken out from at pleasure, the said parts so operating as hooks and eyes
being so formed as to accommodate themselves without becoming unhooked or
detached from each other to the ordinary movements to which such sashes or
shutters are liable, whether in lifting them or pulling them down, or from
their being shaken in their frames, yet so that at the same time, whenever it
is desired, the said parts can be detached from each other in an instant, and
reattached as readily without the use of any tool.
The Drawings hereunto annexed represent my improved method applied to
a window sash. A, A, Figure 1, is part of the window sash; a, Figures 1
and 2, is one of the suspending lines, fastened into a tube or socket 6 by means
of a spring c pressed against it with any required pressure by a screw f. In
Figure 2 a part of the socket 6 is supposed to be cut away to shew the
spring c.
The lower end of the socket 6 is formed into a catch or hook m,
2, g, g, the lower part of which at g, g, is adapted to enter into a corresponding
opening i, i, cut out of the plate B, Figures 1 and 3, which is screwed fast to
the sash stile A, see Figure 1. It will be easily understood, by inspection
of the Drawings, that by holding the socket 6 at or nearly at right angles to
the plane of the plate B, and inserting the lower end 9, 9, of the said hook
into the opening i, i, till the narrow part or neck 2 enters into the groove h,

page_text: as shewn by dotted lines in Figure 4, then sliding the said neck 2 up them
till the part g, g, catches under the shoulders 3, 3, at the upper band of the
plate B, see Figures 3 and 4, and then turning up the socket 6 into an
upright position, as shewn in Figure 4 by full lines, the line a and its socket
and hook b, m, 2, g, g, will be securely connected with and suspend the sash;
and, conversely, when it is desired to detach the sash from its lines, then by
pulling the sash out of the window frame, laying hold of the line and turning
the socket 6 down at or nearly at right angles with the plane of the plate B,
the socket 6 can be in an instant slided down till the part 9, 9, of the hook
comes opposite the broad opening i, i, and being pulled out therefrom the sash
will be left wholly detached from its line; a groove is cut in the sash stile a, a,
of the shape shewn by Figure 1, deep enough to let the plate B lie bedded
therein, with its outer edge just flush with the outer edge of the sash stile, see
Figure 1, and for the line a and socket 6 to be quite buried in the said groove, in
order to avoid any jamming or rubbing of either the plate B, the socket 6, or
the line itself against the window frame in lifting or pulling down the sash. I
bave shewn on the Drawing only one of the sash lines with the parts for con-
necting it to the sash; of course the sash line belonging to the opposite
side of the sash will be connected to it by corresponding parts b, m, 2, 9, 9,
and B. The line a may be fastened into the socket 6 by a couple of screws,
as shewn in Figure 5, without any spring c. I is a small hole at the lower
part of the socket b, for the workman to see in putting in the line that the
end of it is low enough in the socket to be firmly held therein.
In applying my said improved method to such shutters as are suspended
and balanced by lines and counterweights, the sockets 6, into which the lines
are fastened with their catches or hooks, and the plates B, which serve for the
hooks of the said sockets to catch into, will be of the same construction as
those that I have described in reference to window sashes, and any person who
has understood, from the description herein-before contained, how to apply my
said improved method to window sashes, will be able without further descrip-
tion to apply it to suspended shutters. When my improved method is applied
to lofty windows or shutters where the pulleys over which the lines pass will
be out of reach, I find it convenient to fix a plate with a suitably shaped
groove in it, to each side of the window or shutter frame at a height of about
eight or ten inches above the meeting rails of the sashes or shutters, to hook
the catches into whenever the sash or shutter is detached from its lines, in
order to prevent the counterweights from drawing the socket 6 up to the
pulleys out of reach. But the use of such plates forms no part of my im-
proved method, and they are not shewn in the Drawings hereunto annexed.

page_text: The shapes of the catches or hooks m, 2; g, g, and of the plates B, shewn in
Figures 1, 2, 3, 4, and a of. the draw-g, are those which, after trying others.
slightly differing from them, I have found best adapted for the purpose; for
when the parts g, g, of the catches or hooks are in their places, as shewn in
Figure 1, and the sash hanging upon them, the said parts g, g, being broader
than the grooves h of their, respective plates B, cannot be jerked out of them
by any shaking of the sash, while at the same time the broad cross heads m
of the said catches or hooks resting on the upper sides of the shoulders 3, 3,
of the band of the plates B, assist in preventing the said catches or hooks.
from being thrown out of their. places by any sudden lifting of the sash, and,
in fact, nothing will detach the sockets 6 from the plates B but the double
movement of pulling them: downwards and sideways, in the manner herein-
before described, a kind of movement very easily and quickly performed, when
performed with intention..by the. hand of a workman, but very unlikely to be
produced by any movement or combination of movements given without such
intention. I do not, however, confine myself to the precise forms or propor-
tions of the parts. I have .described, provided always that the parts operating
as aforesaid as hooks and eyes be so shaped and combined as to have the
properties which I have herein-before set forth.
In witness whereof, I have hereunto set my hand and seal, this Eleventh
day of February, in the year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred