Safety Devices for Elevators.
Year: 1893

page_text: Date of Application, 28th Feb., 1893-Accepted, 21st Oct., 1893
COMPLETE SPECIFICATION.
Safety Devices for Elevators.
I, HENRY HALE DAY, of Newton Centre, Mass. U.S.A., Clerk 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:
My invention relates to safety attachments for elevators for automatically and
instantaneously stopping the ascent or descent of an elevator car as it approaches
the floors through which the elevator shaft extends, whenever any portion of a
person or article in the door way of any floor or the door way of the car tends to
obstruct the passage of the car by contact with either the car or the door way of
a floor as the case may be.
The object of my invention is to provide safety devices for elevator cars which
are simple in construction inexpensive to manufacture, easily operated and which
may be readily attached to any elevator.
A further object is to provide means whereby it will render it impossible for a
passenger to be caught between an elevator car and a shaft door way in case the
car has not stopped or has suddenly started to ascend before the person has gotten
safely on or off the car.
To these ends the invention consists in the construction and arrangements of
parts hereinafter fully described and particularly pointed out in the claims.
In the accompanying drawings, corresponding letters indicate like parts
throughout the several views.
Figure 1, is a perspective view taken from the rear of the elevator shaft, parts
being broken away to show the elevator car ascending, a shaft door way with safety
devices attached thereto and to the wall of the elevator shaft to stop the elevator
car in its ascent in case of an accident.
Figure 1 is a perspective view of a spring device attached to the wall of the
elevator shaft, forming part of the safety elevator device for operating a cable to
stop the car in case of accident.
Fig. 2 is a perspective view of the spring device shown pulled off its support,
operating on the cable O to arrest the progress of the elevator.
Figure 2, is a perspective view, taken from the rear of the elevator shaft, parts
being broken away to show the elevator car descending with the depending frame
and the spring clutch device attached to the front and side of the car respectively
to arrest the travel of the car in case of accident.
Figure 2A1, is a perspective view of one form of a spring clutch device attached
to the side of a car to securely grasp the cable which passes through the device to
stop the car in its descent in case of accident.
Figure 3, represents a modification of the clutch device, shown in Figure 1ª.
A refers to the elevator car.
B is a door way to the elevator shaft.
C represents frame work over the door D to the elevator shaft.
E are vertical guide ways suitably mounted over the door way B to permit the
vertical play of a frame mounted therein as shown.
G are vertical guide rods securely fastened at their lower, ends to frame F and
passing between guide rollers h suitably mounted on frame C to guide frame F in
its vertical movement.
H is a frame work suitably secured to one of the walls of the elevator shaft
having depending rods I which are surrounded by spring wire coils J securely
fastened at their upper extremities to frame H, and at their lower ends to a bar K
with apertures near its ends through which rods I extend. K' is a spring coil
D

page_text: support, through which cable O, extends, to hold spring coil V, in a compressed
position when the lower ends of levers T' are engaged under the support.
L is a support of suitable form fastened to the wall of the elevator shaft
directly in the rear of frame H to hold in a horizontal position a rest M having
two arms as shown.
This rest M which is securely fastened to the wall of the shaft by means of a
staple, see Figure 14, holds plate K in an elevated position thus compressing
springs J, when the rest is in a perpendicular position with respect to the wall
and is held in that position by resting on its support L. M' is a pivoted support
to hold the upper ends of levers T' apart thus bringing the lower ends of the
.levers together, as shown.
N is a wire or cord attached at one-end to rest M and extends through suitable
guide ways on the walls of the elevator shaft and frame C, is held tautly and
is securely fastened at its other end to the upper extremity of one of the guide
rods G.
O is a cable extending from the valve controlling mechanism of the motive power
at one side of the elevator shaft through aperture in plate K to the upper end of
the shaft, and has secured thereon, under and in close proximity to plate K in its
elevated position, a stop 2.
Cable O operates the controlling valve mechanism to stop the elevator car, when
pulled slightly downward, independently of cable P which is used for that purpose
by the elevator operator.
Q represents a depending frame attached to the bottom of the front side of the
elevator car, capable of vertical movement in guideways R, also attached to the
bottom of the car, near its front side.
S are guide rods attached securely to and forming part of the depending frame.
The upper ends of these guide rods pass through suitable guideways on the
bottom front side of the elevator car.
T represents a pair of toggle levers pivoted together at t¹ and t¹¹, one of which
has an upwardly extending arm U, and provided with toothed jaws t³ on their
lower inner ends also with a guide way between the levers and the jaws for
the free passage of a cable O' when the levers are in their normal position, as
shown.
T' represent levers which may be substituted for toggle levers.
Cable O', like cable O, is connected to valve controlling mechanism and operates
similarly to cable O, when pulled slightly downward by jaws ³ grasping the
same.
V is a stiff wire coil spring surrounding arm U and securely fastened at its
upper end to a plate U₁ which in turn is suitably secured to the side of the
elevator car.
Arm U is securely fastened at its upper end in any suitable manner to
plate U.
V is a support pivoted to the car side for compressing and holding the spring
wire coil V in a suitable manner, in a compressed position by means of a latch or
catch movable horizontally in a guide way V in such a way that the end of
catch V may engage the end of the support V', when the spring wire coil has been
compressed by the support, to hold the spring compressed.
Vis a cord attached to slide V', passing through guide ways on the car, and
securely and tautly fastened at its other end to the upper extremity of one of
the guide rods S in such a manner that when frame Q, and its rods S are forced
upward by frame Q contacting with any obstacle in its descent, slide. V2 by.
means of cord V will be drawn from under the wire spring coil support V1, thus
permitting the tension of spring V to assert itself against the upper pivoted ends
of levers T, forcing the same downward and outward, thus securely and instan-
taneously grasping cable O' by means of the toothed jaws 3. This movement is
facilitated by means of the friction of cable O' on, the jaws as soon as there is the.
slightest change in the normal position of the levers, see Figure 2ª.

page_text: Cable O like cable O, works independently of cable P to stop the elevator car
in its descent.
The operation of my safety device is as follows:
When the car is ascending, see Figure 1, frame F and the spring device attached
to the wall of the shaft being adjusted as shown, if a person or obstacle should be
caught between the door way of any floor and the car, the person or obstacle would
first come in contact with frame F which would raise the frame in its guide ways E,
and by means of cord or wire N attached to one of the guide rods G would pull
rest M off its support L thus permitting the tensions of springs J to assert them-
selves, force plate K downward thereby causing the same to contact with stop 2 on
cable O, pulling the cable downward operating the controlling valve mechanism
and stopping the elevator car before or by the time frame F had been forced to the
upper part of the guide ways E.
When the car is descending, the device being arranged as shown in Figure 2,
should any portion of a person or an article in one of the door ways of the shaft,
project beyond such door way, such obstacle would contact first with frame Q
elevating the same which would release support V₁, as before described, and the
toothed jaws of the toggle levers T would instantaneously and securely grasp
cable O', pull the same downwardly, thus operating the valve controlling mechanism
to stop the car before or by the time the bottom of the car had reached the obstacle-
to its progress.
It is evident that many changes may be made in the construction and arrange-
ment of parts without departing from the spirit of my invention, for example
frame Q may be extended partly or entirely around the bottom of the car, other
guide rods and forms of clutches, such as shown in Figure 3, may be substituted
for the device shown.
Having now particularly described and ascertained the nature of my said
invention and in what manner the same is to be performed;
declare that what I'
claim is :-
1. In an elevator, a car, operating cables, frames attached to shaft doorways and
to the car, mechanism in the elevator shaft and on the car, in combination with
guide ways, guide rods, and cords connecting the mechanism with the guide rods to
operate the cables and stop the ascent or descent of the car, substantially as
described and set forth.
2. The combination in an elevator, of a car, suspended frames vertically movable
in guide ways, operating cables, vertical guide rods, spring actuated devices in the
elevator shaft and on the elevator car, supports to retain the spring devices in a
compressed condition, slides, and cords connecting the slides with the guide rods to
release the slides and supports to allow the spring devices to operate the cables
to arrest the travel of the car when obstruction is met, as and for the purposes set.
forth.
Dated this 28th day of February 1893.
WHEATLEY & MACKENZIE,
40, Chancery Lane, London, Agents..