IMPROVEMENTS IN SAFES
Year: 1873

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Edward Cottam, of 12, Queen Victoria Street, in
the City of London, Engineer, for the Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS
IN SAFES."
Sealed the 6th March, 1874, and dated the 18th September 1873.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Edward Cottam at the
Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the
18th September 1873.
I, EDWARD COTTAM, of 12, Queen Victoria Street, in the City of
London, Engineer, do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention
for "IMPROVEMENTS IN SAFES," to be as follows:
-
This Invention has for its object improvements in safes.
In order to construct a set or series of safes or strong boxes arranged
like pigeon holes in horizontal and vertical tiers or rows I form a frame
consisting of two stout iron or steel plates at the top and bottom, con-
nected together at front and back (and also at intermediate points if
desired), by upright bars so spaced that the vertical tiers or rows of safes
or strong boxes may be formed between these uprights,
427

page_text: The space between the top and bottom plates is divided to form the
separate safes or strong boxes by means of horizontal and vertical plates
arranged in the following manner:-The horizontal plates, which are
similar to those at the top and bottom of the structure, have holes
formed in them to receive the uprights, and they are threaded on the
uprights; they form the tops and bottoms of the safes or boxes. The
vertical plates form the sides of the safes or boxes; they are rivetted to
the uprights and keep the horizontal plates duly spaced. To facilitate
the mounting of the doors at the front of the safes or boxes the uprights
at the front are double, and receive the vertical partition plates between 1
them.
The doors are jointed by means of lugs rivetted to them, and steel
pins pass through these lugs and through the projecting edges of the
horizontal partition plates, each pin (except at the top and bottom)
passing through the lower lug of one door and the upper lug of another
and through the horizontal partition plate which lies between them.
Each door on the inner side has a hook or dog fixed firmly upon it
which when the door is closed enters a recess in the frame. There is a
spring of bent steel plate within the recess which tends to hold the door
open, so that the door can only be kept closed by shooting the bolt of 2
the lock, in this way the risk of the safes or strong boxes being acci-
dentally left unlocked is removed.

page_text: and grant unto me, the said Edward Cottam, Her special license that
I, the said Edward Cottam, my executors, administrators, and assigns,
or such others as I, the said Edward Cottam, my executors, admin-
istrators, 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 "IMPROVEMENTS IN SAFES," upon
the condition (amongst others) that I, the said Edward Cottam, my
executors or administrators, by an instrument in writing under my, or
their, or one of their hands and seals, 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 Letter Patent.
NOW KNOW YE, that I, the said Edward Cottam, 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 safes.
In order to construct a set or series of safes or strong boxes arranged
like pigeon holes in horizontal and vertical tiers or rows I form a frame
consisting of two stout iron or steel plates at the top and bottom, con-
nected together at front and back (and also at intermediate points if
desired), by upright bars so spaced that the vertical tiers or rows of safes
or strong boxes may be formed between these uprights.
The space between the top and bottom plates is divided to form the
separate safes or strong boxes by means of horizontal and vertical plates
arranged in the following manner :-The horizontal plates, which are
similar to those at the top and bottom of the structure, have holes
formed in them to receive the uprights, and they are threaded on the
uprights; they form the tops and bottoms of the safes or boxes. The
vertical plates form the sides of the safes or boxes; they are rivetted to
the uprights and keep the horizontal plates duly spaced. To facilitate
the mounting of the doors at the front of the safes or boxes the uprights
at the front are double, and receive the vertical partition plates between
them.