IMPROVE- MENTS IN LETTER BOXES, LETTER PILLARS, AND SUCH LIKE DEPOSITORIES
Year: 1867

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by William Dennis at the Office of the
Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the 23rd January
1867.
I, WILLIAM DENNIS, of No. 57, Aldermanbury, in the City of London,
Merchant, do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for "IMPROVE-
MENTS IN LETTER BOXES, LETTER PILLARS, AND SUCH LIKE DEPOSITORIES," to be as
follows:-
The object of this Invention is to secure letter boxes and such like deposi-
tories from having letters extracted therefrom. I propose to effect this by
constructing the box with or without a fan wheel at the aperture, and dividing
the box at about the centre thereof with two pieces of metal of a triangular
form, somewhat similar to the letter V, and either with or without a flap joint
near the point thereof, the flap joint may be shut by a hinge and made to
balance and close of itself after a letter in its descent has pushed it open and
passed through into the bottom of the box. The letter box may be made
either semicircular, square, or any other suitable form.
In constructing letter pillars according to this Invention I proceed as
follows:-I place a bag having iron rims similar to a travelling bag and fitted
with one or more spring locks. The pillar is fitted with two doors, upon
opening the first or outer door a handle or knob must be pulled before the
inner door can be opened; this handle or knob is fixed upon a metal rod
formed with a projection at the end which pulls the two rims of the bag
together, so as to lock the bag; this movement serves also to release the lock
of the inner door, so that it can be opened and the bag with letters taken out

page_text: Ine
locked; a key is to be kept at the chiet office for opening the bag.
releasing of the lock of the inner door is effected by means of a lever which
prevents the bolt of the lock from being turned back, upon which lever there
is a pin or other projection which passes through the rim of the bag next the
inner door, and upon the other rim coming against it when locking the bag
by the rod it presses against the lever and frees the bolt of the lock, so that
the inner door can be opened and the bag taken out.
Another mode of constructing letter pillars and such like depositories is as
follows: I form the top of the case of the pillar with two or more openings
therein fitted each with a flap moving inwards; opposite to these openings
and inside the aforesaid case corresponding openings or shoots are arranged,
each mounted by its inner end upon a rod or axis, and there is a lever con-
nected to each shoot for the purpose of turning the shoot partly round upon
its axis, as presently described; immediately beneath the aforesaid moveable
shoots a plate is fixed having slits or openings formed therein corresponding
to the moveable shoots, and beneath the aforesaid plate a bag of the con-
struction first above described is placed to receive the letters, and the pillar
is fitted with two doors, as before described. The operations of the above
arrangement are as follows:-When the top openings are closed by their
respective flaps the moveable shoots are opposite to the slits or openings in
the fixed plate beneath, but the said moveable shoots are not opposite to the
top openings, and the effect of pushing back one or other of the flaps is to
bring its respective moveable shoot opposite to the opening of the flap, so as
to receive the letter; upon releasing the flap the shoot will move upon its axis
and come opposite to its respective opening in the fixed plate and allow the
letter to fall into the bag beneath. Or instead of the arrangement lastly
above described I propose to employ a long shoot mounted midway by its
sides upon axes or pivots, to one of which a short lever is fixed and connected
by a rod to another short lever fixed to the axis of the flap which covers the
outer opening upon pushing the flap inwards the top of the shoot will be
brought opposite to the opening of the flap to receive the letter, and the
closing of the flap will deposit the letter in the bag beneath; by these two
last arrangements there is never at any time a direct communication between
the opening at the flap and the bag that receives the letters, so that it is
impossible for any instrument to be introduced to extract the letters.
Another modification consists in forming the shoot in two parts, the upper
half being fixed and the lower half movable on a pivot, the lower half only
being opposite to the upper half when the flap is pushed in, the closing of
the flap discharging the contents of the lower half of the shoot into the bag

page_text: beneath by means of a lever, as before stated in the last-mentioned arrange-
ment. In connection with the above arrangements, or to the flaps of letter
pillars of the ordinary kind, if desirable I propose to employ a rod or wire
which may either be pulled or pushed by the action of the aforesaid flap
thereon, and thereby expose to view a signal or disc of colored glass or metal;
the intention of this arrangement being to prevent the wedging or otherwise
keeping the flap open for any length of time for the purpose of extracting
letters from the pillar.