IMPROVEMENTS IN FRAMES FOR UMBRELLAS AND PARASOLS
Year: 1884

page_text: I BENJAMIN JOSEPH BARNARD MILLS of the firm of Harris and Mills of
23 Southampton Buildings in the County of Middlesex, Patent Agent do hereby
declare the nature of the said Invention for IMPROVEMENTS IN FRAMES FOR
UMBRELLAS AND PARASOLS and in what manner the same is to be performed, to
be particularly.described and ascertained in and by the following statement:-
This Invention has for its object to obtain an umbrella or parasol frame
extremely flexible, light and very solid; and at the same time of slight thickness
in order that the umbrella or parasol when closed may be slender and light.
To obtain this result the frame is formed of a steel wire made of a new section
which I claim as part of the present Invention. This section is represented at
Figure 1 of the accompanying Drawings which are made to a scale of about four
times the actual dimensions of the parts.
The doubling of the wings enables the necessary rigidity to be obtained with a
minimum thickness a. b; further the back c. b. prevents more readily the warping
of the wire.
The same profile is given to the rib and to the stretcher; by increasing the
profile and width of the metal for the stretcher there is obtained great stiffness
without greatly increasing the thickness.
The form of the back can be varied as represented at Figures 2 and 3 or
otherwise, maintaining always the doubling of the wings, which constitutes the
principal object of the improved wire.
It is with this wire that the improved frame is made, which in addition to this
" middle-bit
special wire is distinguished from other frames by a new
or joint
between the rib and stretcher.
In order that a "middle-bit" be good it requires that the frame should properly
resist lateral motions that the stretcher be always solidly held in all its positions
in the same plane which passes through the axis of the stretcher.
To secure this result the form shown at Figure 4 is given to the improved
"middle-bit."
It is a metallic piece cut out of soft iron or out of a sheet of brass; it is shaped
and perforated to receive the rivet.

page_text: The part f, g. is exterior as shown at Figure 5; the part a. b. is inserted in the
hollow of the rib whilst the part f. g. projects over the edge of the rib by the
shoulder 8. v. so that f. g. is flush with the exterior sides of the rib B, seo
Figure 7.
"
The stretcher F, Figures 5, 6 and 7 articulated at i by a rivet terminates at
this end with a fork, see Figure 8, sufficiently wide to embrace easily not only the
" middle-bit in all its positions but also the lateral faces of the rib, see Figure 5
at m, at the moment when the fork at its part ig Figure 5, embraces only a
small part of the "middle-bit;" the part i. m. is prolonged in order that the heel
may prevent the inclination of the stretcher in the position it assumes when the
umbrella is open, that in which the umbrella receives the most violent blows of
the wind; it will be seen in effect that during all the circular motion of the
stretcher around the rivet the heel m does not leave the two lateral sides of
the rib.
Such is the special arrangement of the improved "middle-bit" the stretcher is
thus held in a rigid and very effective manner in the same plane as the rib.
Having now particularly described and ascertained the nature of the said
Invention and in what manner the same is to be performed I declare that what
I claim is,
First. The mode of manufacture of the wire which is more especially
distinguished by the doubling of the wings.
Second. The mode of articulation of the stretcher to the rib and the particular
form of the "middle-bit" combined with that of the stretcher to prevent all
lateral deviation of the latter.
B. J. B. MILLS.
By Harris & Mills,
Patent Agents,.
23, Southampton Buildings.