Improvements Applicable to Book Cases or Shelves.
Year: 1890

page_text: Date of Application, 11th June, 1890-Accepted, 12th July, 1890
COMPLETE SPECIFICATION.
Improvements Applicable to Book Cases or Shelves.
I EDWARD LUND of Saint John's Street Manchester in the County of Lancaster.
Surgeon do hereby declare the nature of this invention and in what manner the
same is to be performed, to be particularly described and ascertained in and by the
following statement:-
This invention relates to improvements upon the invention for which Letters Patent
No. 2171 were granted to me bearing date the Seventh day of February 1889,
the invention consisting of a simple and efficient means for fixing the movable
partitions in book cases, or on book shelves, without the use of wedges screws
or springs.
The nature of my said invention and the manner in which the same is to be
performed or carried into practical effect will be readily understood on reference
to the sheet of drawings hereunto annexed and the following explanation thereof.
Fig. 1 is a section of part of a book shelf, or a strip attached thereto, with my
present improvements shown as applied to the underside thereof.
Fig. 2 is an underneath plan view of the same.
Fig. 3. is a side view of one of the movable partitions detached.
Figs. 4. 5. and 6. are similar views to Fig. 1. illustrating slight modifications
thereof.
For the purpose of my present invention I make a groove in the under surface of
the shelf a which is supposed to be the upper one of the two shelves between which
the books are to be placed, or a similar groove may be made in the bottom shelf as
illustrated by Fig. 4 or in the back of the book case or in a strip of wood a' fixed to
the shelf or to the back as shown at Fig. 5. into which groove the bar or cross piece b
(see Fig. 3) of the movable partition is placed and can travel easily from one end to
the other of the shelf or back.
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I place partly over this groove a plate c of brass iron steel or other suitable metal
or material along one edge of which notches d are formed at equal distances apart
into which notches, the wire or stem e of the movable partition will fall and be held
and locked firmly when the said stem hangs vertically (see Fig. 1.) which is its
normal position.
The partitions may be made in any convenient form and connected to the sliding
bolt by a stem of wire, but I prefer to make them in the form of a ring all of one
piece of wire with a double stem or stalk as shown at Figs. 1 and 3.
So long as the stem e of the movable partition hangs vertically the latter will
remain locked in its place but when it is desirable to alter the position of the movable
partition it is to be drawn forward into the position shown by the dotted lines in
Fig. 1. which will withdraw the stalk or stem e clear of the notches d and the
bar or cross piece b can then be slidden along the groove to the desired position, when
on releasing the partition from the hand it will fall by its own gravity into the
perpendicular position, and its stem or stalk e dropping into the notches & the
partition will become automatically locked in its altered position.
When the groove is made in the back of the bookcaue or in a strip of wood fixed
thereto as shown at Fig. 5, the normal or fixed position of the stem of the movable
partition will be horizontal, and it will have to be raised up into the position shown by
the dotted lines in that figure whenever it is required to move the bar or cross piece a
along the groove.
To allow of this alteration of position in either case I cut away or bevil off one edge
of the groove as shown, but if preferred this may be dispensed with by cranking the
stalk or stem of the movable partition as shown at Fig. 6.
The modification illustrated by Fig. 4. shows a plate flet into the bottom of the

page_text: groove and having a tube g soldered thereto. The tube is slotted from one end to
the other, and one edge of the slot is provided with notches similar to those on
the plate c.
This Fig. also illustrates the groove as made in the upper surface of the lower shelf,
in which case the ring which forms the partition should be on one side of the
stem so as to keep the latter always in the notches by its own gravity.
Having now particularly described and ascertained the nature of my said
invention and in what manner the same is to be performed I declare that what I
claim is -
1-
The combination with a groove in the shelf or back of the bookcase, or on a
strip fixed thereto of a notched plate or tube, into the notches of which the stem
or stalk of the movable partition falls automatically by its own gravity so as to
lock the said partition in the desired position until raised or drawn forward
by hand.
Dated this 10th day of June 1890
GEO. DAVIES & SON,
4, St. Ann's Square, Manchester, Agents for the Applicant.