Improvements in Trays for the Storage or Exhibition of Fruit and the like.
Year: 1895

page_text: Date of Application, 14th Jan., 1895
Complete Specification Left, 7th June, 1895-Accepted, 13th July, 1895
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION.
Improvements in Trays for the Storage or Exhibition of Fruit
and the like.
I, HENRY ADAIR ORR, of Pemberly Cottage, Bedford, in the County of
Bedford, Engineer, do hereby declare the nature of this invention to be as
follows:
My invention relates to improvements in trays adapted for use in handling,
sorting storing or exhibiting fruit and other light and perishable goods edible or
otherwise. Each tray is complete in itself as a tray but is provided with addenda
by means of which it can stand upon or support another tray, the said addenda
being of a suitable type for providing and maintaining a sufficient space between
the trays for the goods to lie upon the lower tray without being injured by the one
above them, as well as for preventing one tray slipping upon or under another of
them. Such addenda must further be capable of being practically out of the way
when the empty trays are to be stored away, out of use, or packed for transit.
These addenda may be of any suitable construction adapted to meet the specified
requirements of my invention, and may for that reason be either flaps hinged to
two opposite sides of the tray or they may be side bars or ledges on two opposite
sides projecting both above and below the tray itself.
The tray itself is made, preferably, of wood rods. These are arranged side by
side at suitable distances apart according to size and sort of goods to be placed
upon the tray. All the rods are held together by having their ends entered into
or made fast to two bars. The latter form two opposite sides of the tray, while
the other two sides are rods each of which has preferably, a low ridge incorporated
with it.
The addenda which I prefer to make use of are the ledges already mentioned as
projecting both above and below the tray itself. The trays are of the same area
and square exclusive of the side bars. Stops or catches are fixed preferably, on
the side bars, preferably on the outer faces of them. When a tray stands with its
side bars upon those of a tray under it, the stops or catches of the side bars of one
tray engage with the side bars of the other of them, so that, both trays can only
move together when they are pushed in any direction other than parallel, or
substantially so, with the side bars. That being the case, trays can be piled up
column wise to any reasonable height.
Trays made with addenda as last described are packed up for transit or stored
away by every alternate one being turned through quarter of a circle, when
the rods of it will lie upon those of the other tray and its side bars outside them.
Dated this 14th day of January 1895.
PHILLIPS & LEIGH,
Agents for Applicant.

page_text: COMPLETE SPECIFICATION.
Improvements in Trays for the Storage or Exhibition of Fruit
and the like.
I, HENRY ADAIR ORR, of Pemberley Cottage, Bedford, in the County of
Bedford, Engineer, do hereby declare the nature of this invention, and in what
nanner the same is to be performed, to be particularly described and ascertained
n and by the following statement :-
My invention relates to improvements in trays adapted for use in handling,
orting, storing, or exhibiting fruit and other light and perishable goods, edible
or otherwise.
The object of the invention is to provide a tray complete in itself and, further,
ne adapted,
(a.) By being combined with a series of duplicates of itself, to produce a
practicable and self-supporting vertical series of shelves possessing distinctive
properties:
(b.) By being combined in a specific way with a duplicate of itself, to provide
a stronger tray having the same practicable area as the uncombined tray as
well as an upstanding side along each of the four edges of the said stronger
tray:
(c.) By being combined in a specific way with a duplicate of itself, to provide
a stronger tray having the same practicable area as the uncombined tray as
well as an upstanding side along each of the four edges of the said stronger
tray, and adapted, by being combined with a series of duplicates of itself,
to produce a practicable and self-supporting vertical series of trays or
shelves:
(d.) By being combined in a specific way with a duplicate of itself, to
economise space in respect of storage or of transit.
Referring to the accompanying drawings, which are to be taken as part of this
Specification and read therewith,
Figure 1 is a plan of one of my improved trays uncombined with a duplicate.
Figure 2 is a plan of four of my improved trays combined each with a duplicate
of itself, to provide two stronger trays, or to economise space in respect of storage
or of transit.
Figure 3 is a section on the line 3-3 of Figure 2.
Figure 4 is a front elevation of a stack of four of my improved trays illustrating
their use as stock trays.
Figure 5 is a side elevation of a stack of five improved trays in use as stock
rays.
Figure 6 is a perspective view of one of the improved trays.
The bottom or floor of an improved tray may be made of any suitable material
and be either solid or open. It is, preferably, quadrangular in shape. The style
llustrated is a convenient one taking into consideration the uses of the invention,
for it light, permits of thorough ventilation, and is capable of preventing, more
or less, the articles placed upon the trays, rolling up against each other. But it
must be distinctly understood that the material as well as the construction of the
bottom or floor of my improved tray is outside the scope of my invention, and may,
for that reason, be varied as may be required. The figures shew this floor as
consisting of a series of parallel slats a, a separated by equal distances from each
other by distance and stiffening pieces a', a'. The latter and the respective ends of
the slats a, a are made fast in any convenient way in two transverse tray sides.
Each side is illustrated as consisting of two bars b, 61, fixed edge to edge one upon
the other and holding the respective ends of the series of slats and stiffening pieces
firmly between them. The manner in which the tray sides and bottom or floor are

page_text: made fast to each other may be varied to any extent. As the tray bottom a a¹ is
quadrangular in shape, the two tray sides b¹are, necessarily parallel.
c, c are two hand holes, one in each top bar b'.
d, d are guides or stops, two on each tray side, fast thereto and with their adjacent
faces in the same plane. The four guides are uniform in shape and size. Each
one is fixed at or near the outside end of each tray side. The height of a guide
must not be greater than the height of a side bb' of the tray, or, what is the same
thing, not more than the height of the top of the floor of one tray to the top of
the Hoor of the one next above when stacked in position. Each guide projects
above its respective tray side and stops short by an equal distance of the bottom
thereof. Such projection above the said side 661 may be of any suitable degree
but it must be cominon to the guides of all trays to be used in combination. It is
preferable to fix the floor a a¹ of the tray to the sides bb' at such a height that the
measurement from the bottom of the side to the bottom of the floor is the same as
from the bottom of the floor to the top of the guides d, d. The functions of these
latter are to guide and maintain in position the next tray put upon the one to which
they are affixed; to maintain when the trays are being put in stacks side by side, a
sufficient distance between them for conveniently getting at the hand holes c, c of
the top trays; to check any tendency there may be for the sides of the tray next
above, to spread at the bottom by reason of the load on its floor; and to strengthen
the respective tray sides of which they are a part.
Ledges adapted to prevent articles falling over the edges of the bottom a a¹, may
be added to the open ends of a tray.
The adaptation specified above under (a.) is illustrated in Figures 4 and 5. As
the sides of a tray are parallel with each other and the adjacent faces of them and
of the respective guides or stops, in the same planes, it follows that the tops of any
pair of tray sides form a seating guarded by the projecting tops of the respective
guides for the bottoms of the tray sides of the tray above, the guides of which rest
upon the last mentioned guides. The tray bottoms a a¹ are now equidistant
shelves; and the tray sides b 6, the stationary sides or frame of the vertical series
of shelves, by virtue of the respective guides or stops d, d, locking their respective
tray sides in two vertical and parallel planes. It is obvious that the heights of the
top and bottom bars 66¹ limit the practicable distance between any two trays or
shelves a a¹ in the series. So too is the necessity of the distance of the projection
of a guide or stop d, above its tray side 66' and by which it stops short of the
bottom of the said side, being common to all the trays to be combined in the series
of trays or shelves.
The adaptation specified above under (b.) is illustrated in Figures 2 and 3. Two
trays are combined together to provide a stronger tray by turning one upside
down; turning the other one (the duplicate tray) through the angle necessary to
set its sides at right angles with those of the inverted tray, and laying it down
upon the latter. The under faces of the two tray floors or bottoms a a', a a¹, are now
in the same plane: the bottoms (inverted) of the guides d, d, of the inverted tray
and the tops of the sides 66, 661 of the other or top tray are in the same plane:
the tops of the sides bb, bb, of the said other or top tray and the bottoms of the
sides bb, bb, (inverted) of the inverted tray are in another plane; while the
bottoms of the sides bb, 66, of the said other or top tray and the tops (inverted)
It will be
of the guides d, d, of the inverted tray are in a third plane, likewise.
found that the stronger tray has the same practicable area as either the uncombined
tray or its duplicate that it has an upstanding side along its four edges, and also,
is capable of taking a level bearing upon a level surface. This term "stronger
tray is to be understood as meaning the herein specified combination of the single
trays.
The adaptation specified above under (c.) is illustrated in Figure 4. A single
tray is first combined with a duplicate to form one stronger tray. The sides bb', bb',
of the top tray of each stronger tray (excepting the bottom one of the series) rest
upon the sides bb', bb', and within the stops d d, of the top tray of the stronger

page_text: tray beneath. The sides 66', bb¹, (inverted) of the inverted tray of each stronger
tray, rest upon, with their stops d, d, outside, the sides bb, bb, (inverted) of the
inverted tray of the stronger tray beneath.
The adaptation specified above under (d.) is illustrated in Figures 2 and 3. The
act of combining single trays together to economise space in respect of storage or
of transit is the same as described in the two preceding paragraphs.
The foregoing description as well as the figures deal with my improved tray as a
square one. It must not be supposed that the invention excludes all other shapes-
it does not do so. Oblong trays with sides and guides as described above are
included within the invention but it must be explained that two oblong trays cannot
be combined to form a stronger tray, so that neither adaptations (b.) nor (c.) can
be realised unless the trays are square.
Having now particularly described and ascertained the nature of my said inven-
tion, and in what manner the same is to be performed, I declare that what I
claim is
1. The improved tray, as set forth.
2. The stronger tray, as set forth.
3. The hereinbefore described combination of stronger trays in vertical series, as
set forth.
Dated thin 7th 11005
PHILLIPS & LEIGH,
22, Southampton Buildings, Chancery Lane, W.C.,
Agents to the Applicant.