Improvements in Locking Devices for Elevators.
Year: 1897

page_text: Date of Application, 19th Mar., 1897-Accepted, 3rd July, 1897
COMPLETE SPECIFICATION.
Improvements in Locking Devices for Elevators.
I, JOHN SEISER MUCKLE, of 1722 Pine Street, in the City and County of Phila-
delphia, State of l'ennsylvania, one of the United States of America, Mechanical
Engineer, 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:-
The object of my invention is to provide means for locking the landing doors
of elevator wells when the operating rope or rod is free, and to lock the rope or rod
when one of the doors is free. This object I attain -by coupling the rope wheel
at the head of the elevator well with locking mechanism, as fully described
hereafter.
My invention further relates to the special construction of the locking
mechanism proper.
It will be understood that my invention can be applied to either sliding doors
or hinged doors.
Figure 1 of the accompanying drawings is a view of an elevator well looking
towards a landing door, the door being locked:
Figure 2 is a view similar to Figure 1 shewing the car at the landing, the door
unlocked and partly opened;
Figure 3 is a perspective view of the locking mechanism;
Figure 4 is a view in elevation shewing the locking mechanism applied to a
binged door;
Figure 5 is a sectional plan view of Figure 4;
Figures 6 and 7 are enlarged views of the locking mechanism I prefer to use,
shewing the mechanism in the two positions:
Figures 8, 9, 10, and 11, are views of modifications of my invention.
Referring in the first instance to Figures 1 and 2. A is the elevator well, A'
the landing door, one of these doors being at each landing a, these doors are shewn
on Figures 1, 2 and 8, as being hung from suitable rails by means of trolleys, but
it will be understood that the doors may be hung in any other suitable manner
without departing from my invention; for instance in Figures 4 and 5, I have
shewn the landing door hinged instead of sliding.
B is the elevator car which is connected to the ordinary hoisting mechanism, the
car has a door-way to coincide with the landing door but the door on the car is.
lispensed with in this instance, but may be used if desired, and it will be
understood that an ordinary platform may be used in place of the car.
D is the controlling rope or rod, one run extending through the car within easy
reach of the operator, the other run extending outside of the car.
This rope D
passes over a wheel D' at the upper end of the elevator well and connected to the
controlling mechanism at the base of the well. The rope and wheel are preferably
30 connected that when the rope is moved in one direction or the other the
wheel D will be turned.
Arranged at each landing door is a single block as shewn in Figures 1, 2, 3, 4,
and 9, or double blocks as shewn in Figure 8. The blocks are connected together

page_text: by a rope or rod F which in the present instance is attached to one arm of a lever E
pivoted at e at the head of the elevator well. The opposite arm e¹ of the lever E
is slotted, to receive a crank pin d on the side of the wheel D', so that as the
wheel D' is turned by the controlling rope, motion will be imparted to the blocks
through the lever E and rope or rod F.
The above described parts form the locking mechanism.
On each door A' is a headed bolt G adapted to enter a cavity in one of the
blocks Farranged to slide on a frame I to which frame in the present instance is
pivoted an arm H, which is also adapted to enter the cavity in the block; this
arm H acts as a bolt to lock the block so as to prevent the controlling mechanism
being operated when the landing door is opened.
The bolts may be adapted to independent blocks, as shewn at G, H' in Figure 8,
or they may be adapted to a single block, as shewn in Figures 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 and 7,
or each block may have two openings or cavities one for one bolt and the other for
the other bolt, as shewn in Figure 10.
Referring now to Figures 1, 2 and 3, in which one block is used for each landing
door, the block F has a hole or cavity ƒ adapted to receive the head of a bolt G
secured to the door, the head of this bolt can freely pass through the hole f in
the block F, when the block is in the position shewn in Figure 2, but when the
block is moved to the position shewn in Figure 1 the block passes to the back of
the head g of the bolt and prevents the door from being opened.
:
The bolt H is adapted to enter the hole f in the block F when, by the door being
opened, the bolt G is withdrawn from the said hole, the block being moved to the
position shewn in Figure 2 as soon as the elevator car is stopped at the landing.
When the bolt H engages the block F, it locks the controlling mechanism and
prevents the operator from moving the car until the door is closed, and the bolt
head genters the hole f, whereupon the controlling mechanism is released by the
bolt G forcing the bolt H out of engagement with the block F. The bolt G is
prevented from being withdrawn from the block as soon as the operator starts
the car as in so doing he lifts the block F through the above described mechanism
so as to engage the head g of the bolt G and so locks the door.
When the mechanism is used on a hinged door, as shewn in Figures 4, 5, 6 and 7,
the bolt G is a sliding bolt which, when the car comes up to the landing, is within
easy reach of the operator, and as soon as he stops the car the block is lowered so
as to free the bolt G, the operator then moves the bolt back clear of the block and
as the bolt H is held out of engagement with the block by the bolt G, it follows the
bolt G and engages the block; and as shewn in Figures 6 and 7, this bolt H has a
weight h, a projection ', which rests against the end of the bolt G and an exten-
sion h which engages with a projection f on the block F, so that when the bolt H
is in the position shewn in Figure 7, it positively locks the block and through it
The controlling mechanism.
As soon as the bolt Gis withdrawn the landing door is free to swing on its
hinges but the elevator car cannot be started until the door is again closed and the
bolt G moved out so as to extend through the opening f in the block ; this
movement will release the block from the control of the lever H so that the
controlling mechanism can be operated.
The preferred form of block and connecting parts is shewn in Figures 6 and 7,
the block being adapted to slide on two rods mounted on a frame I to which is
also pivoted the bolt H; this frame is attached to the wall of the elevator well in
any suitable manner.
.
1. .
"
In Figure 8, I have shewn two blocks, one adapted to receive the bolt Gron. the
door and the other to receive a bolt H¹ connected to a lever H2 actuated by a lug
on the door.
In Figure 9, I have shewn a different arrangement for connecting the block to the
controlling mechanism at the head of the elevator well, in this instance the
wheel D is connected to a gear wheel c by a chain c', this gear wheel c meshes with
a gear wheel c² having a crank pin which is connected to a bell crank lever ³;

page_text: this lever in turn being connected to the cord or rod from which is suspended the
block F
In Figure 10, I have shewn a single block having two openings and the bolt G
arranged at a point adjacent to the bolt H, one hole of the block being adapted to.
5 receive the head of the bolt G and the other adapted to receive the bolt H.
In Figure 11, I have shewn a single block and a headed bolt G on the door but
I have substituted a spring bolt H for the bolt H, this spring bolt follows the
bolt G as it is withdrawn from the block when the door is opened, and enters the
hole in the block.
In order to prevent the opening of a door at one landing when the car is stand-
ing at another landing I provide a latch s which is hung on the wall of the elevator
well this latch engages à projection on the door as shewn in Figure 3, and on the
car is a striker, preferably in the form of a roller which, as the car reaches the
landing, acts upon the latch s at that landing and frees its door, during the time
only when the car is at the landing, so that if the operator wishes to open the door.
he can bring the car to a stand-still and simply push open the door; the door being
free of both the latch s and the block, the other doors, however, being locked.by
their respective latches s.
Thus it will be seen that the doors are locked when closed and while the car is
in motion by the blocks connected to the controlling mechanism and also by in-
dependent latches, which are operated only by the car and when the car is at a
landing with the door open it cannot be moved by the operator until the door is
closed as the bolt on the elevator wall engages its block, preventing the operator
from moving the operating rope. This latch s may be dispensed with when a
hinged door is used as shewn in Figures 4 and 5.
Having now particularly described and ascertained the nature of my said inven-
tion and in what manner the same is to be performed I declare that what I claim
ig:-
1. The combination of an elevator well, a landing door, a car adapted to travel
in the said well, controlling mechanism, a bolt on the door and a bolt on the wall
of the well, locking mechanism connected to the controlling mechanism and
adapted to be engaged either by the bolt on the door or the bolt in the well,
substantially as hereinbefore described.
2. The combination of an elevator well, a landing door, a car adapted to travel
in the well, a controlling rope, a wheel at the head of the elevator well around
which the rope passes, a block and rope therefor connected to the wheel, a bolt on
the door and a bolt on the wall of the elevator well adapted to engage the block
alternately, substantially as and for the purpose hereinbefore described.
3. The combination of an elevator well, a landing door, a car, a controlling rope
and locking mechanism therefor, a bolt on the door adapted to engage the said lock-
ing mechanism and a bolt on the well wall adapted to engage the said mechanism
when not engaged by the bolt on the door, a latch on the well wall to prevent the
opening of the door and a striker on the car adapted to act upon the latch when at
the landing so that the door can be opened, substantially as herein before described.
4. The combination of an elevator well, the hinged landing door, an elevator
car, a movable element within the elevator well connected to the controlling
mechanism, a pivoted arm adapted to prevent the movement of the said element
when the door is opened, and a bolt on the hinged door adapted to be engaged
by the said element when the door is closed, substantially as hereinbefore
described.
5. The combination of the elevator well, the hinged landing doors, an elevator
car, a rope connected to the controlling mechanism, a perforated block on
said rope opposite each door, a pivoted arm adapted to engage the block, a sliding
bolt on the door having a head at the end, said bolt being adapted to the said open-
ing in the block when the door is closed and to release the block from the control
of the pivoted arm so that on the withdrawal of the bolt the car will be locked
and the door opened, substantially as hereinbefore described.

page_text: 6. The combination of the movable block, having a projection, a pivoted arm
adapted to engage with the projection on the block and to be acted upon by the
bolt of the door. substantially as hereinbefore described.
7. The combination of the plate (I), a perforated block (F1) adapted to slide
thereon, a bolt (G) adapted to enter the perforation in the block, an arm (H)
pivoted to the plate and having a projection in line with the bolt and an end
adapted to engage a projection on the block when the bolt is withdrawn so as to
prevent the vertical movement of the block, substantially as hereinbefore
described.
8. The combination of an elevator car, its controlling rope, a wheel over which
the
rope passes, a lever so arranged as to vibrate as the wheel is turned, a cord blocks
on said cord arranged at intervals opposite the landing doors of the elevator well,
said blocks having openings, landing doors, bolts on the landing doors adapted to
engage with one set of blocks, a lever hung in the elevator well engaging with the
other set of blocks and acted upon by the door so that the door is locked when the
elevator is in motion, and when the elevator is at a stand-still opposite a landing,
the door is free to be opened, the opening of the door locking the controlling
mechanism, substantially as hereinbefore described.
9. The combination in an elevator car, of the landing doors, the elevator well, a
headed bolt on each door, a weighted lever hung on the wall of the elevator well
adjacent to the door, a lug on the door acting upon the said lever, a bolt controlled
by the lever, the elevator car, controlling rope therefor, a wheel over which the
rope passes, a crank pin on the wheel, a lever having a slotted arm adapted to the
crank pin, a cord attached to the lever and extending down the elevator well and
having perforated blocks at intervals arranged opposite the headed bolts on each
acor and opposite the bolts connected to the weighted levers, the parts being so
arranged that when the door is locked by the blocks the elevator car is free to
move, and when the door is opened, the controlling mechanism is locked,
substantially as hereinbefore described.
Dated this 19th day of March 1897.
JOHNSONS & WILLCOX,
47 Lincoln's Inn Fields, London, W.C.