IMPROVEMENTS IN THE CONSTRUCTION OF LOCKS, LATCHES, OR SUCH KIND OF FASTEN- INGS FOR DOORS AND GATES, AND OTHER PURPOSES TO WHICH THEY MAY BE APPLI- CABLE
Year: 1841

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, MILES
BERRY, of the Office for Patents, 66, Chancery Lane, in the County of
Middlesex, Civil Engineer and Patent Agent, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her present most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Royal Letters Patent under the Great Seal of Great Britain, bearing date at
Westminster, the Fourteenth day of July, in the fifth year of Her reign, did,
for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto me, the said Miles
Berry, Her especial licence, full power, sole privilege and authority, that I,
the said Miles Berry, my executors, administrators, and assigns, and such
others as I, the said Miles Berry, my executors, administrators, or assigns,
should at any time agree with, and no others, from time to time and at all
times during the term of years therein mentioned, should and lawfully might
make, use, exercise, and vend, within England, Wales, the Town of Berwick-
upon-Tweed, and in all Her Majesty's Colonies and Plantations abroad, and
in the Islands of Jersey, Guernsey, Alderney, Sark, and Man, an Invention of
"IMPROVEMENTS IN THE CONSTRUCTION OF LOCKS, LATCHES, OR SUCH KIND OF FASTEN-
INGS FOR DOORS AND GATES, AND OTHER PURPOSES TO WHICH THEY MAY BE APPLI-
CABLE," being a communication from a foreigner residing abroad; in which

page_text: said Letters Patent is contained a proviso, obliging me, the said Miles Berry,
by an instrument in writing under my hand and seal, particularly to describe
and ascertain the nature of the said Invention, and in what manner the same
is to be performed, and, to cause the same to be inrolled in Her 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.
NOW KNOW YE, that in compliance with the said proviso, I, the said
Miles Berry, do hereby declare that the nature of the said Invention, and the
manner in which the same is to be performed, are particularly described and
ascertained in and by the following description thereof, reference being bad
to the Drawings hereunto annexed, and to the letters and figures marked
thereon (that is to say) :-
These improvements in the construction of locks, latches, and other similar
fastenings consist in a peculiar arrangement of parts, whereby a lever plate,
constructed and adapted on the plan herein-after described, will answer all the
purposes of a lock, bolt, and latch, for which reason the Inventor intends to
denominate this fastening the "trinity latch," from its combining in one simple
lever plate the three above-named properties.
Fig. 1 in the accompanying Drawings represents a portion of a door,
shewing the latch knob and bolt knob, the lever plate being shewn in its
place by dots; Fig. 2 is a horizontal section of the door, exhibiting the situa-
tion of the lever plate a, a, in the mortice b, b, of the door c, c; Fig. 3 is
another side view of a portion of a door, the latch knob and bolt knob being
removed, and the situation of the lever plate a indicated by the dotted
lines, which lever plate is shewn detached in Fig. 5; Fig. 4 represents the
edge of the door c, with the mortice 6 and plate a within it. The lever
plate a in these two last Figures is in the position it would occupy when the
latch only is intended to be used.
It will be seen by referring to Figures 2 and 3, that when this apparatus
is employed as a simple latch the lever plate a having been thrown back
remains entirely within the mortice b, in the substance of the door, a small
notch or opening d having been cut away in the edge of the door, as
shewn at Fig. 4, in order to admit the hasp or catch e, which projects
from or is attached to the jamb f, as seen in Fig. 2. The pin g of the
latch knob h forms the fulcrum on which the lever plate a works, and as
the end of the lever a comes into contact with the inclined plane of the
catch e (in the act of shutting the door) it is raised into the position

page_text: shewn by dots in Fig. 6, and when the door closes the edge of the lever
plate falls down behind the notch of the hasp e, and the door becomes. fast.
When it is required to bolt the door from the inside, the plate a must be
raised by means of the bolt knob k, fixed upon the pin i, which is inserted
into the plate a. By means of this knob k the plate is to be projected into the
socket or mortice made in the door jamb f, which is done by passing the pin i
of the bolt knob into the second notch of the aperture m cut in the lining of
the mortice b, which notched aperture is shewn in Figures 2 and 3. An
oblong slit or opening n is made in the hinder part of the lever plate for the
purpose of allowing it to slide longitudinally upon the pin 9, when the plate is
projected, as described, into the jamb of the door, in the act of locking or
bolting the door. The plate may also be shot forward to the same distance
from the outside by means of a small key inserted in the outer side of the
door, as shewn at 7 in Fig. 2, the tongue of this key acting against the notch p
cut in the under part of the plate, as shewn by dots in Fig. 3, the rotation of
the key raising and projecting the plate forward. If desired, the plate a may
be shot forward still further into the mortice of the door jamb f by passing the
pin i of the bolt knob into the third notch of the aperture m. This, however,
cannot be done without previously removing the key from the key-hole on
the outside of the door, but when the plate has been thus shot forward from
within, it cannot be brought back again by any other means than by raising
the bolt knob k and sliding it back, as the solid part of the plate when
projected will be in front of the key-hole, and thereby prevents the key being
inserted.
Having now described the Invention that has been communicated to me,
and the manner in which the same is to be performed, I wish it to be under-
stood that I claim as the Invention secured to me by the herein-before in part
recited Letters Patent, the improved construction of latch, lock, or other
fastening above described, in which one simple plate of metal is made to
answer the threefold purpose of latch, bolt, and lock, for which reason the
Inventor intends to denominate it the "trinity latch."
In witness whereof, I, the said Miles Berry, have hereunto set my hand
and seal, this Twenty-third day of December, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and forty-one.
MILES (L.S.) BERRY.

page_text: AND BE IT REMEMBERED, that on the same Twenty-third day of
December, in the year above mentioned, the aforesaid Miles Berry. came
before our Lady the Queen in Her Chancery, and acknowledged the Specifi-
cation aforesaid, and all and every thing therein contained, in form above
written. And also the Specification aforesaid was stamped according to the
tenor of the Statute in that case made and provided.
Inrolled the Fourteenth day of January in the year One thousand eight
hundred and forty-two.