AN IMPROVED SHOP OR WINDOW SHUTTER MADE OF CORRUGATED SHEET IRON
Year: 1863

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Thaddeus Hyatt, native of the United States of
America, and now residing at La Rochelle, in the Empire of France,
for the Invention of "AN IMPROVED SHOP OR WINDOW SHUTTER MADE OF
CORRUGATED SHEET IRON."
Sealed the 14th June 1864, and dated the 18th December 1863.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Thaddeus Hyatt at the
Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the 18th
December 1863.
I, THADDEUS HYATT, native of the United States of America, and now
residing at La Rochelle, in the Empire of France, do hereby declare the
nature of the said Invention for "AN IMPROVED SHOP OR WINDOW SHUTTER
MADE OF CORRUGATED SHEET IRON," to be as follows:-
The shop or window shutter on which my Invention is an improvement is
composed of a series of thin leaves or sheets of iron, four or more of which
placed horizontally form the shutter; the metal being thin angle iron, is
used at top and bottom of each leaf along its entire length as stiffening, as
at a, b, Figures 1 and 3 of the annexed Drawing.
Separate ways or grooves are provided to permit these sheets to slide one
behind the other; on rising the shutter the sheet or leaf A travels the greatest
distance and D the shortest, A is attached to the lifting machinery, the others
are not.
When the projection or lip a on leaf A reaches lip a on B, these leaves are

page_text: In lowering the shutter,
Uprights are placed at
locked and rise together, and A and B reaching the lip a on C the operation is
repeated, and so when A, B, C, reach lip a on D.
D finds its rest first, C next, B next, and A last.
intervals behind the shutter provided with ways for clutches or holdfasts on
the back of the shutter to grasp. By my improvement the angle irons are
dispensed with (knees or sections of a slip (a Figures 2 and 4), being used in
place of the lip a (Figures 1 and 3)) and the back supports are not needed,
while the shutter is lighter and more elegant in appearance, costing less for
material, and requiring less power to move it. I accomplish this by crimping
or corrugating the thin leaves of metal (see Figures 2 and 4), each leaf being
stiffened by a series of crimps or corrugations of such form and size as the area
of the shutter and practice may suggest. The above description relates to
shutters which rise and fall with certain modifications, my improvements apply
to shutters sliding from right to left and vice versa, the leaves standing
vertically.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said Thaddeus Hyatt in the Great Seal Patent Office on the
17th June 1864.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, THADDEUS
HYATT, native of the United States of America, and now residing at La
Rochelle, in the Empire of France, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Eighteenth day of December, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and sixty-three, in the twenty-seventh year
of Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto
me, the said Thaddeus Hyatt, Her special licence that I, the said Thaddeus
Hyatt, my executors, administrators, and assigns, or such others as I, the
said Thaddeus Hyatt, my executors, administrators, and assigns, should at
any time agree with, and no others, from time to time and at all times there-
after during the term therein expressed, should and lawfully might make,
use, exercise, and vend, within the United Kingdom of Great Britain and
Ireland, the Channel Islands, and Isle of Man, an Invention for "AN
IMPROVED SHOP OR WINDOW SHUTTER MADE OF CORRUGATED SHEET IRON,"
upon the
condition (amongst others) that I, the said Thaddeus Hyatt, my executors
or administrators, by an instrument in writing under my, or their, or one
of their hands and seals, should particularly describe and ascertain the

page_text: nature of the said Invention, and in what manner the same was to be
performed, and cause the same to be filed in the Great Seal Patent Office
within six calendar months next and immediately after the date of the said
Letters Patent.
NOW KNOW YE, that I, the said Thaddeus Hyatt, do hereby declare
the nature of my said Invention, and in what manner the same is to be per-
formed, to be particularly described and ascertained in and by the following
statement, reference being had to the accompanying Sheet of Drawing and
to the figures and letters of reference placed thereon, similar letters denoting
similar parts at each of the Figures respectively.
The metallic shop or window shutters most used in America and in
England are "revolving shutters," but in Paris the sliding shutter prevails.
The appearance and plan of this Parisian shutter resembles the little French
"tablier" or drop apron of sheet iron for closing the fronts of chimneys or
stoves; I have therefore; for the sake of precision, named it the "tablier
shutter." This shutter is composed of a series of thin sheets or leaves of
iron, the length of which equals the width of front to be covered. These
sheets sometimes measure 28 or 30 inches across, in which case so few as four
sheets make a shutter large enough to cover the front of an ordinary sized
shop window. Being light and thin, "angle iron" is used at top and bottom
of each leaf along its entire length to stiffen it (see a, b, Figures 1 and 3).
As these leaves slide one behind the other separate "ways' are provided for
each.
13
In the process of raising the shutter the lowest leaf A travels the longest
distance and D the shortest, A is attached to the lifting machinery, the other
leaves are not. When the projection or lip a on the leaf A reaches the lip a
on B the two leaves are locked and rise together, and when A and B reach
the lip a on C this leaf becomes locked with them and rises also, and when
A, B, and C, reach the lip a on D. the whole four leaves rise together. In
the process s of lowering the shutter D finds its rest first, C next, B next, and
A last. Uprights are placed at intervals behind the shutter provided with
ways" for clutches or "hold fasts" on the back of the shutter to grasp. By
my improvement the angle irons are dispensed with (knees or sections of a lip
being used in the place of the lip a) and back supports are not needed, whilst
the shutter is lighter and more elegant in appearance, costing less for material,
and requiring less power to move it. All this I accomplish by simply crimping
or corrugating the leaves of thin metal which compose the shutter (see
Figures 2 and 4), each leaf being stiffened by a series of crimps or corrugations
of such form and size as experience may suggest.
66

page_text: On the accompanying Sheet of Drawing forming part of this my Specifica-
tion Figures 1 and 3 represent the "tablier shutter" as commonly made, and
Figures 2 and 4 the tablier shutter as improved by me, the Figures being
cross sections or end views, and Figure 1 shewing the tablier shutter when
down and closing the window; Figure 2, my improved shutter in the same
position Figure 3, the ordinary tablier shutter when up, the window being
exposed; and Figure 4, my improved shutter, also up. A, B, C, D, sheets or
leaves; a, top angle iron at Figures 1 and 3, and section of a lip at Figures 2
and 4; b, bottom angle iron (Figures 1 and 3); c¹, "way" or groove for
sheet A; c¹¹, way or groove for B; c¹, way or groove for C; and c, way or
groove for sheet D. I have thus far described only sliding shutters that rise
and fall, but there are others substantially the same that slide sidewise to the
right or left, the leaves standing vertically.
Possibly there may be still other modes of arranging the leaves, but my
improvement is independent of those mechanical variations, as also of the
mechanism by which the shutters are actuated, and I do not wish to be limited
by them.
My Invention is an improvement upon all sliding shutters composed of several
leaves of thin iron, whatever may be the method adopted to slide them or the
position in which they are placed, and I do not limit my claim by describing the
shutter as one to be raised and lowered, as if it might not be slid to the right or
left, for it applies to both.; nor do I claim corrugated iron, for that is old; but
what I do claim as my Invention is a corrugated sliding shutter composed of
a series of leaves of iron, the leaves being stiffened by crimps or corrugations in
series, substantially as herein set forth and illustrated on the accompanying
Sheet of Drawing, and this I claim as a new manufacture.
In witness whereof, I, the said Thaddeus Hyatt, have hereunto set my
hand and seal, this Ninteenth day of April, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and sixty-four.
THADDEUS HYATT. (L.S.)