IMPROVEMENTS IN JOINTED OR FOLDING CARRIAGE STEPS
Year: 1874

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by Thomas Kendrick at the Office
of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the 11th
April 1874.
I, THOMAS KENDRICK, of Wednesbury, in the County of Stafford,
Manufacturer, do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for
"IMPROVEMENTS IN JOINTED OR FOLDING CARRIAGE STEPS," to be as follows:
-
My Invention has reference to those kinds of jointed or folding
carriage steps which are unfolded and folded up by the opening and
closing of the carriage door, and my said Invention consists of the
construction and combination of the parts of mechanism herein-after
described for automatically unfolding and folding up the carriage stops,
and for locking or fastening them both in their folded and unfolded
condidition.
By my improvements the carriage steps when folded up áre concealed
under the body of the carriage. The several folding steps are jointed
together by pairs of parallel bars in the ordinary way. The pairs of
parallel jointed bars by which the top step is carried are jointed to the
inside of a metal frame fixed under the body of the carriage. To one

page_text: side of the said frame under the carriage two parallel levers are jointed;
one of these levers, herein-after called the step lever, is for folding and
unfolding the carriage steps, and the other lever, herein-after called the
locking lever, is for the purpose of actuating the locking and stopping
mechanism of the steps. The two levers described are connected
together by a link, the lower end of the step lever working in a slot in
the said link so that a slight motion may be given to the locking lever
without affecting the said step lever. The locking lever is connected by
a jointed arm to the carriage door. On the axis of the said locking
lever and inside the frame under the carriage is a cranked arm, to the
knee part of which a spring hook or catch is connected. This spring
hook or catch when the steps are folded up passes through a slot in the
bottom step and engages under a stud or projection on one of the bars
of the said bottom step and firmly locks the steps in their folded position.
Jointed to the end of the cranked arm on the locking lever is a stop bar
having a nearly horizontal motion. The free end of the said stop bar is
hooked or shouldered, which shouldered end when the steps are fully
unfolded drops upon a cross pin on the inside of the frame under the
carriage and thereby prevents the folding up of the steps when pressure
is put upon them.
The steps are unfolded and folded up, and the locking and stopping
mechanism brought into action automatically on the opening and
closing of the carriage door in the following manner :-On closing the
carriage door the jointed arm on the said door first acts upon the locking
lever; and the latter through the cranked arm operates upon the stop
bar and lifts its hooked or shouldered end from off the cross pin on the
frame and the stop bar is now capable of a horizontal motion. The
steps are thereby released and may be closed. As soon as the stop bar
has been disengaged from the cross pin the slotted link which connects
the step lever with the locking lever now acts upon the said step lever
and causes it to effect the folding up of the steps, the said steps being
folded up under the bottom of the carriage so as to conceal them from
view.
When the bottom step is nearly folded up under the top or middle
step the spring catch or hook herein-before described has been brought
into such a position that it is immediately over the slot or opening in
the said bottom step; and on the complete folding up of the said bottom
step the stud on its side bar pushes back the spring catch or hook which

page_text: immediately after snaps upon the said stud, and the steps are thereby
locked in their folded position. On opening the carriage door the arm
on the said door first operates on the locking lever, which lever causes
the spring hook or catch to be turned aside so as to remove it from
under the stud on the bottom step. The steps being thus released fall
and the further opening of the carriage door brings the step lever into
action and the said steps are completely unfolded.
1