IMPROVEMENTS IN WINDOW-BLINDS AND IN SHUTTERS OR GUARDS."
Year: 1880

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to James Rettie, of Hatton Garden, in the County of
Middlesex, Engineer, for an Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN WINDOW-BLINDS
AND IN SHUTTERS OR GUARDS."
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said James Rettie at the Office
of the Commissioners of Patents on the 19th January 1880.
JAMES RETTIE, of Hatton Garden, in the County of Middlesex, Engineer.
"IMPROVEMENTS IN WINDOW BLINDS AND IN SHUTTERS OR GUARDS."
This Invention relates to improvements in window blinds and in shutters or
guards.
I will first describe one form of my Invention as applied to Venetian blinds.
The laths instead of being strung on the ordinary ladders are pivoted between or
onto two or more pitch chains or other flexible connectors. These connectors are
taken up from the top by toothed wheels, rollers, or other suitable means so as to
be passed on beyond, carrying with them the laths, which laths collect beyond as
directed by suitable guides, that is to say, they may either turn over and fall
vertically into a suitable receptacle provided, laying closely one upon the other, or
they may take a horizontal direction on suitable rests provided, or may be passed
up vertically into any suitable receptacle, or take other direction according to the
guides provided. Or the said flexible connectors may be carried by two vertical
guides extending from near the bottom of the window to the point near the top
where the laths are to commence to collect or are to be diverted from the vertical.
The bottom lath is then raised, and the flexible connectors being prevented from
buckling by the enclosing guides the whole blind is raised till the break in the
guides is reached where the connectors will be free to buckle, and the laths will
collect in the direction they are carried by suitable guides. A counter weight or
spring may be used to assist in raising the blind. By the means described the
objectionable gathering together of the laths at or near the middle of the window
does not take place as with the ordinary Venetian blinds which are raised by pulling
upwards from the bottom lath, but this cluster is always at the top and practically
out of the way of the light. To tilt the laths I prefer that they shall be pivoted
out of the centre so that they will incline naturally in one direction. They are
all connected by a tape or tapes or other connector or connectors, so that by giving
Price 1

page_text: motion thereto all the laths will be placed at the angle desired, in which position
they may be kept by fixing the connector or connectors in that position. A
convenient method of tilting is as follows:-Each connector for tilting is attached
to each lath at some distance from the line on which it is pivoted, so that by giving
motion to the connector in an upward direction the downwardly inclined edge of
each lath is lifted. Near the top of the window I place what I call my tilting
catch; this consists essentially of a guide carrying a pivoted lever weighted so as
to fall away from the connector. By pulling a cord the lever is caused to engage
with the connector and hold same, and then to be raised with the connector, thus
tilting all the laths, the cord being then fastened to any suitable attachment
retaining the laths in the tilted position. In the forms of blinds above described
the chains to which the laths are pivoted and suspended may work in guides fixed
at the sides of the windows; this when applied to an outside blind will give it the
advantages of a shutter as well as a blind. Sometimes I use flexible laths when
the flexible connectors work in guides as described, but in such case the guides are
80 formed that the laths may be stretched or strained between them, for which
form the guides are turned in at the inner edges so as to partly cover the connectors.
When employing flexible material for laths to be used with the other form of guides
I frame or stiffen these laths in any suitable manner, thereby gaining the rigidity
necessary. Laths thus formed may be used in other descriptions of blinds.
In another form of my Invention the laths are pivoted as before described or are
otherwise strung together as on ordinary ladders, but so that when fully inclined or
hanging they will not overlap one another. The laths thus strung together are
attached at the top to a roller, and the blind is raised or lowered by rolling or
unrolling on the said roller. The tilting of the laths may be effected in the manner
already described, or the tilting may be effected as follows:-The blind when
right down is hung evenly onto the underside of the roller with the sides of
the ladder fully extended. By giving a partial turn to the roller in one direction
or the other the laths may be tilted in the direction desired. I also provide for
tilting sections of the blind, whether the blind be wholly or partially down. This
I accomplish as follows:-For example, to tilt half the blind when more than half
down, I provide at the upper portion of the part to be tilted a loop or eyelet
attached to the ladder tape bearing against the lower edges of the laths. Through
this loop or eyelet a cord or tape is passed, the inner end being carried downwards
and attached to the ladder tape, so that when the outer end of such cord or tape is
pulled downwards the inner end will be raised sufficiently to raise the lower edges
of the laths to the required angle, even to laying each closely against the lath above
instead of the lath below. In order to ensure that when the blind is fully closed it
shall make a perfect blind, and that no space shall appear between the laths, each
lath is provided on one or each edge with a narrow strip of thin material (flexible
or otherwise, but by preference flexible), which will not in any way interfere with
the rolling of the laths, but will completely close any space between the laths
when the blind is down and the laths closed.
In a modified form of my Invention for outside guards as shutter I use similar
flexible connectors to those already described, and to these attached at suitable
distances apart bars or rods of metal. The connectors may be used vertically or
horizontally, and the protector or shutter is extended or drawn in by being wound
on or off a roller. The connector will be run in guides as previously described.

page_text: SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent filed by
the said James Rettie in the Great Seal Patent Office on the 19th July
1880.
JAMES RETTIE, of Hatton Garden, in the County of Middlesex, Engineer.
"IMPROVEMENTS IN WINDOW BLINDS AND IN SHUTTERS OR GUARDS."
This Invention relates to improvements in window blinds, and in shutters or
guards, and is fully described herein with the aid of the accompanying Drawings,
reference being had to the letters and figures marked thereon.
In one form of my Invention, illustrated at Figs. 1 to 7 of the accompanying
Drawings, I take laths of wood or other suitable material, and which may be
similar to those employed for ordinary Venetian blinds, but not perforated. These
laths A, instead of being strung on the ordinary ladders are pivoted to and
between two pitch chains B, the laths being at such distance from one another that
when laid flat they will overlap as in ordinary Venetian blinds. Fig. 1 shows the
blind down, and as it would appear looking through the blind to the window, the
upper part of the framework C being in section at a, b, Fig. 2, which latter is a
transverse sectional elevation at c, d, Fig. 1. A section of chain B and the end of
a lath are shown detached and enlarged at Figs. 6 & 7. The end of the lath is
gripped by a metal clip a, and a pin b is driven through this into the end of the
lath. This pin b is made to form one of the pins connecting the successive links
forming the chain, and on it and between the chain and the end of the lath is
placed a small washer b¹ to maintain a free working space between the chain and
the laths. The laths are pivoted out of the centre so that they will incline
naturally in one direction. Chains B are slung to and are taken up from the top
by toothed rollers D, carrying the laths with them, and as they rise to the top the
laths are passed on into the receptacle or box E behind, where they collect close
together, the chain between them buckling up into a very small space. Over each
toothed roller D is a guide F to keep the chain engaged with the teeth of the roller
as it passes over, and a horizontal guide G takes the chain of the roller at the back,
and guides it in the horizontal direction, the washer 61 of each lath resting on and
travelling along the guide G. The toothed rollers D are revolved by spur
pinions H, H¹, the lower pair H being connected by a bar I crossing the window, on
the end of which bar is a pulley J, round which a cord K is wound, so that by
pulling it down the blind is wound up or raised. The back edges of the laths are
connected by a tape or other flexible connector L, attached at its upper end to the
back of casing E. A convenient way of attaching this tape to the laths is by
making a small rectangular cut in the edge of the lath, and gripping over it a small
metal (say tin) clip, having a pin within it, and across the aperture similar to that
shown at Fig. 8, only in this illustration the clip is elongated to fit the end of the
lath. Round the pin, as at M, Fig. 8, is a loop on the tape thus attaching it to the
lath. The tape L (Fig. 2) is made shorter than chains B, so that when the tape has
run right out, the chains will continue to run, and so bring its edges of the laths
into the downward position, as shown at Fig. 3, and until the laths lay flat
together. They may then be tilted in any position by pulling the cord K, and
after the edges attached to it have been raised to the highest position, a continu-
ation of the pull on cord K will raise the blind bodily. In Fig. 4 the blind is
shown half raised. Cord K may be secured in any desired position by any suitable
and well known catch. Fig. 5 is a sectional plan taken at the line e, f, Fig. 4.
Figs. 9, 10, & 11, show a modified form of this blind; the laths are arranged to
drop down vertically behind the toothed rollers D into brackets N. Also there is
o spur gearing (the rollers D being connected directly by bar I), and the tilting of

page_text: the laths can be effected in any position of the blind up or down by pulling the
tape or connector L, and then attaching it in the position desired to a suitable
stud or catch at the bottom of the window. In wide blinds an intermediate chain
(or chains), similar to B, may be employed to sustain the middle portion of the
laths, and prevent them from sagging. When blinds, as herein before described, are
used as out door blinds, the chains B are enclosed at their sides in vertical guides
fixed to the sides of the windows. This prevents the blinds being shaken about by
the wind, and also gives to them the character of shutters. Sometimes for the indoor
blinds I use flexible or framed laths instead of the ordinary rigid laths. This form of
lath is illustrated at Figs. 12 & 13 of the accompanying Drawings, the former being a
face view and the latter a transverse section; the edges O of the lath are of U steel,
liko a hollow umbrella rib. These are united at the ends, and at intermediate points,
if necessary, by narrow strips of thin metal O', and over or within the frame thus
formed any suitable thin material 02 is stretched or fixed, thus forming the lath.
Another form of blind constructed according to my Invention is illustrated at
Figs. 14 to 19 of the accompanying Drawings, and is a modification of a rolling
Venetian blind described in my Provisional Specification. As therein described in
order to render the laths capable of being rolled in a comparatively small space I
strung them so that they would not overlap and then attached to their edges a
strip of pliable material to close the spaces between the laths when the blind was
down. I find however from practice that I get more advantage and can roll my
blind in a smaller compass by using laths of the description illustrated on an
enlarged scale (about full size) at Figs. 15, 16, & 17. The lath P is an ordinary
wooden lath, but is split up on the back by a suitable tool at parallel lines p, so
that the lath may be bent into a curved line in one direction (see Fig. 17), but not
in the other. To prevent the parts separating a thin material (paper fabric or
other) P¹ is glued or otherwise attached to the face of the lath, and on the back to
keep the lath straight are one or two, or more, strips of elastic or other suitably
formed flat spring P2 attached at the opposite edges of the lath. These laths are
strung in ordinary Venetian blind ladders, but instead of being attached to the
ordinary rocking lath are strung to the underside of a roller Q, on the end of which
On revolving
is a pulley Q to be operated by an ordinary endless window cord.
the roller in the direction of the arrow, Fig. 18, the ladders and laths will roll closely
round the roller, the laths bending to the curve round which they have to lay. On
lowering the blind the laths as they leave the roller are each immediately
straightened out by the spring on the back. When the blind is right down the
laths may all be tilted in either direction by slightly turning roller Q in the
direction necessary.
I provide also for tilting half (or other proportion) of
the blind in the reverse direction to the other part when desired, as follows:-A
supplementary tape R is at its upper end passed through an eyelet S attached to
the ladder tape and the inner end of tape R is then also attached to the ladder tape
at a point below eyelet S about equal to two spaces between the laths, as shown at
Fig. 18. By pulling on this cord when the blind is far enough down the lower
edges of the laths are raised until they become the upper, as seen at Fig. 19, and
this may be continued until the laths lay closely together. This system of tipping
the laths of a part of the blind may be applied to either of the forms of blinds
herein previously described. Such application is illustrated on an enlarged scale at
Figs. 20, 21, & 22.
In all the forms of blinds described by me the objectionable clustering of laths
at or near the middle of the window when the blind is partly raised, as in ordinary
Venetian blinds, is avoided, the laths in my blind always collecting at the top and
practically out of the way of the entering light, and also hardly to be observed
either from within or outside the window.
I claim as my Invention to be secured by the hereinbefore in part recited Letters
Patent,―
The new or improved blinds hereinbefore described and illustrated.

page_text: 2. The new or improved blind laths, hereinbefore described and illustrated at
Figs. 12 and 13, and 15, 16, and 17.
3. The means or method of tilting a part of a Venetian blind, hereinbefore
described and illustrated at Figs. 14, 18, and 19, and 20, 21, and 22.
In witness whereof, I, the said James Rettie, have hereunto set my hand and
seal, this Seventeenth day of July, in the year of our Lord One thousand
eight hundred and eighty.
JAMES RETTIE. (LS.)