improvements in and Connected with Locks and Latches.
Year: 1886

page_text: improvements in and Connected with Locks and Latches.
I PHILIP MIDDLETON JUSTICE of 55 and 56 Chancery Lane in the County of
Middlesex Fellow of the Institute of Patent Agents do hereby declare the nature
of this invention (as communicated to me from abroad by Franklin Truman Davis
of Mount Vernon County of Westchester State of New York United States of
America) 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 a lock for doors and it consists of certain novel
features of construction which are fully pointed out in the following specification
and claims and illustrated in the accompanying drawing in which-
Figure 1, represents a view of the lock when the face plate has been removed
showing the position of the parts, as it is being unlocked from the outside by
the key.
Figure 2, is a similar view showing it unlocked and in position to have the latch
thrown back by means of the door-knobs.
Figure 3, is a similar view showing it locked from the inside.
Figure 4, is a vertical section in the plane x, x figure 2..
Figure 5, is a section in the plane y, y, figure 4.
Figure 6, shows a modification of my lock.
Figure 7, is a section in the plane z, z, figure 6.
Similar letters indicate corresponding parts.
In the drawing the letter A, designates the casing of a "mortice lock" which is
closed by the face plate B, and provided with flanges C by means of which it is
secured to the door. D is the latch turning on a pivot a, rising from the casing.
This latch which when the door is closed catches behind a "keeper" (not shown)
which is usually secured to the door casing, may be turned on its pivot and dis-
engaged from said "keeper" by either of the lever spindles E, E¹, which carry the
knobs F, F, the operation of which will be hereinafter more fully described. From
the rear end of the latch D, extends a tail b, which when the lock is locked by the
key (see fig. 1) rests against a finger e, projecting from the lower end of the
tumbler G. This tumbler turns on a pivot d, and its upper end is provided with
Price 1

page_text: This
an arm e, against which the key H, operates and which is engaged by a swinging
catch I, which turns loosely on a pivot f, rising from the casing A.
swinging catch is also actuated by the key, and when the shoulder g on its lower
edge rests under the arm e, on the tumbler, the latter is held in such a position
that the finger c, on its lower end comes under the tail b, of the latch D, and locks
the same in the position shown in figure 1. When it is desired to release the
latch the key H, is inserted in the lock and turned in the direction indicated by
the arrow in figure 1, which will cause it to turn the swinging catch I on its pivot
towards the left until the shoulder on the same shall have been swung from under
the arm e, of the tumbler; as the rotation of the key is continued it will also act
on the arm e, moving it downward and thereby turning the tumbler on its pivot
and permitting the swinging catch I to swing back to the position shown in
figure 2, over the arm e, thereby holding the tumbler in that position, leaving the
latch D, free to turn on its pivot, a, to the position shown in dotted lines in
figure 2, when actuated by means of the knobs, thus enabling the door to be
opened. When it is desired to again lock the latch D, the knobs being in their
normal position as indicated in full lines in figure 4, the key is rotated in a
direction opposite to that indicated by the arrow in figure 2, thereby swinging the
shoulder of the swinging latch I off from the tumbler, which action permits the
latter to turn on its pivot by its own gravity, until the position shown in
figure 1 is attained, when the shoulder g, on the swinging latch, will again swing
under the arm e, of the tumbler, as shown in dotted lines in figure 1, and the
finger c, will pass under the tail b, and lock the latch in its outer position.
It will be observed that the catch I, when released from the operation of the
key, swings towards the right by means of gravity, in which it is aided by the
operation of the coiled spring Z, wound around the pivot f, one end Y of the spring
bearing against the top of the casing A, and the other end being hooked to the
catch I. I provide the catch I with a stop X, which projects from its hub and
extends towards the casing A so as to bear against the casing at the end of the
vibration of the catch towards the tumbler G, and stop the swing of the catch in
that direction and prevent the catch from covering the keyhole.
It will be understood that the lock may be locked by the key from either side of
the door, but I prefer to apply the key from the outside only. After the lock has
been unlocked from the outside, by the key as above described and the latch is
free to turn on its pivot, I depress the tail end of the latch by the spindle E, which
is pivoted by a horizontal pivot q, in an escutcheon J, secured to the outside of
the door, and which carries the pendant knob F.
When this knob is raised the
inner end of the spindle, which rests on the tail b, of the latch, is depressed, pushing
the tail of the latch down with it and turning the latch sufficiently on its pivot a,
to bring it completely into the casing (as shown in dotted lines in fig. 2) and out
of the "keeper" on the door casing, thereby permitting the opening of the door.
To lock the door from the inside, I provide a rotating hub K, which has its
bearing in the face plate and carries a hook h. This hub is provided with a slot i
extending through it, through which slot or opening passes the hinged spindle E¹.
The spindle in addition to its oscillating motion can also be rotated, and by turnin
the same, the hub K, is also turned until the hook h, passes beneath the tail b, of
the latch thereby firmly locking the saine in position (see fig. 3). When it is
desired to open the door from the inside, the spindle E', is turned in the opposite
direction, which action will by turning the hub K back again cause the hook h, to
release the tail b, of the latch, bringing the parts K and h, back to the position
shown in fig. 2. The pendant knob F, is then raised to the position shown in
dotted lines in fig. 4 thereby depressing the tail b, of the latch, bringing the same.
completely into the lock casing and permitting the door to be opened. Each of the
spindles E and E¹, are made in two sections which are connected by a hinge F³,
each section being provided with a shoulder r, which shoulders when brought
against each other serve to limit the motion of the hinge joint. The spindle E, is
made in this form to indicate the position of the rotating hub K while the spindle E

page_text: may be of one piece, but in the example shown in the drawing is made to correspond
to the other spindle E¹.
When the door is unlocked the parts of the lock being in the position shown in
fig. 2, the knob F, will hang as shown in full lines in fig. 4; but when the door is
locked from the inside the knob will stand out at right angles to the door, thereby
indicating that the door is locked and that this knob must be turned to the
pendant position before it can be opened.
To permit the formation of a close joint between the spindle E', and the
escutcheon L, I pivot said spindle in a thimble M, which rotates easily in the
escutcheon, but this thimble may be dispensed with and the spindle be arranged to
rotate loosely in the escutcheon being held from dropping out by a shoulder formed
on the spindle. From this description and the drawing it will be understood that
my lock can be locked and unlocked independently, either from the inside or from
the outside, the locking of the latch D, being accomplished from the outside by the
key, by means of the tumbler G and its tail piece or finger c, and from the inside
by the knob F¹, spindle E¹, hub K and hook h, by the engagement of the hook h,
with the tail piece of the latch.
•
It is obvious that I can apply either of my locking devices, so that they can be
operated from both sides, but one of the objects of my invention is to provide »
lock which cannot be opened from the outside when locked from the inside and vice
versa, and for this reason I have provided the independent latch locking device as
shown and described.
Figure 6, shows a modification of my lock in which the tumbler rests in a notch
in the latch D, instead of catching under the tail shown in the other figures and
the lock can be locked or unlocked by the key from either side of the door. This
figure also shows a reversible latch the convex part thereof N, which comes in
contact with the keeper on the door easing or frame, being detachable and provided
with steadying pins m, which fit holes, in the body of the latch, to which the
detachable portion is secured by a screw o. By properly placing this detachable
portion of the latch the lock may be applied to doors, which swing either to the
right or to the left. A guard partition p, of about the same depth as the casing A,
is placed in the casing of the lock, so as to cover the openings for the spindles and
to prevent tampering with the lock through these openings..
In all the figures I have shown the tumbler G, and the swinging catch I, made
respectively of one solid piece of metal, but it is obvious that either or both may
be made of two or more separate plates and together with proper key guards
would greatly add to the security of the lock and increase the difficulty of picking.
When the latch D is free both from the locking hook h, and the catch c, of the
tumbler, it is free to be operated by the knobs F, F', through their respective
spindles E, E', so that the latch can be withdrawn from its keeper from the outside
as well as from the inside by lifting the appropriate knobs and thereby causing
their respective spindles to bear down upon the tail piece of the latch when the
lutch is to be withdrawn from the keeper and the door opened. . I do not however
desire to confine myself to this form of independent spindle for actuating the latch
since said spindles instead of being mounted on pivots, so that they act as levers,
may be constructed to rotate and be provided with eccentrics or cams, which, as
the said spindles are rotated, will act on the tail b, turn the latch on its pivot and
draw the same into the lock casing.
Having now particularly described and ascertained the nature of the said
invention and in what manner the same is to be performed as communicated to
me by my foreign correspondent I declare that, what I claim is,-
1. The combination with the latch D, the tumbler G, the swinging catch, I, and a
key formed to actuate both the tumbler and the catch, of the spindles E, E,
ench constructed to actuate the latch independent of the other, substantially as
described.

page_text: 2. The combination with the latch D, the spindle E, the tumbler G, the swinging
catch I and a key formed to actuate both the tumbler and the catch, of the hub K,
and the rotating hook h, constructed to engage the latch, and the spindle E¹,
constructed to operate said hook substantially as described.
3. The combination of the latch D, the hub K, the rotating hook h, constructed
to engage said latch, the sectional spindle E¹, constructed to rotate said hook, the
hinged connections between the sections of said spindle and the stop 7, substantially
as described.
4. The combination with the pivoted latch D, provided with a tail b, of a pivoted
tumbler G, carrying on one side of its pivot a finger c, constructed to engage said
tail and on the opposite side of its pivot an arm e, a swinging catch I adapted. to
engage said arm, a key formed to actuate both the tumbler and the catch, and
means substantially as described for actuating said latch substantially as shown and
described.
5. The combination with the pivoted latch D, provided with a tail b, of a pivoted
tumbler G, carrying on one side of its pivot a finger c, constructed to engage said
tail, and on the opposite side of its pivot an arm e, a swinging catch I, adapted to
engage said arm, a key formed to actuate both the tumbler and the catch, means
substantially as described for actuating the latch from one side of the lock, the
hub K, the rotating hook h, and the spindle E¹, constructed to operate said rotating
hook and constructed to actuate the latch from the other side of the lock, sub-
stantially as shown and described.
6. The combination with the latch D, of the pivoted lever spindle E', constructed
to rotate said hook and to actuate the latch and the detachable thimble M, carrying
said spindle, substantially as described.