An Improved "In" and "Out" Indicator for Office or other use.
Year: 1897

page_text: Date of Application, 23rd July, 1897-Accepted, 18th Sept.,
1897
COMPLETE SPECIFICATION.
An Improved "In" and "Out" Indicator for Office or other use.
I, WILLIAM MILLAR, of Nile Court, Ayr, Scotland, Estate Agent, do hereby
declare the nature of this invention and in what manner the same is to
performed, to be particularly described and ascertained in and by the following
statement -
be
My invention has for its object an improved "in" and "out" indicator for
use more especially in offices, but which may also be employed in any other
suitable situation, which shall at once inform the caller whether the proprietor
of a business or a partner or members of a firm or other person is in or out,
engaged or disengaged, and also, in each case, for how long.
I will now proceed to describe my invention and the manner in which I carry
the same into practical effect in connection with the accompanying drawings,
in which similar letters of reference indicate like parts in the various figures.
Fig. 1 is a front elevation of one form of my indicator, to be used with
reference to one person only,
Fig. 2 is a sectional view of Fig. 1 on the line x-x, and
Fig. 3 is an enlarged sectional view of the hands of the dial as shown in Fig. 1,
and hereinafter referred to.
I fix in any convenient position to the outside of a panel of a door d a plate of
metal or other suitable substance a by means of screws or the like. Attached to
or marked upon the centre of this plate is a dial 6 similar to the dial of an
ordinary timepiece, and furnished with large and small hands or pointers c and e
respectively. These large and small hands are respectively carried by a spindle c³
and a sleeve thereon e² (Fig. 3) passing through the door panel to the inner side
of the door. On the inside of the door is fixed a plate a¹ which coincides with
the plate a and has attached thereto or affixed thereon a dial b¹ similar to and
coinciding with the dial b, and the inner ends of the spindle and sleeve e
respectively carry large and small hands or pointers c¹ and e¹ corresponding to
the hands or pointers c and e.
Passing through the door d and the plates a and a¹ are four spindles f, the
ends of which project a short distance on either side of the door: Attached to
the end of each of these spindles on the outside of the door, is a disc fl and
attached to the end of each spindle on the inside of the door is a disc f2 the
discs corresponding exactly with the discs f¹. Each of the spindles f has
attached to the extremity, of its inner end a knob or finger piece k and is capable
of being turned thereby and revolving freely. Each of the discs f1 and 2 have
slots such as s cut in them, the slots in the discs f¹ corresponding exactly with the
slots in the corresponding discs f. Upon the plates a and also upon the plates a¹
are engraved or otherwise marked beneath each pair of discs respectively, and so
as to be visible through the said slots therein, words as follows:-beneath the
first pair of discs the word Out," beneath the second pair of discs the words
"Out, will be in at," beneath the third pair of discs the words "Disengaged till,"
and beneath the fourth pair of discs the words "Engaged till," as shown in
Fig. 1.
46

page_text: Any one of the spindles of carrying a pair of discs is capable of being revolved
by means of its respective finger piece or knob k so that the slot or slots s in the
discs will be moved away from the said word or words, the latter being then
covered by the discs and consequently invisible.
On the outside of the door the apparatus may, if required, be enclosed in a
case with a transparent face, and the apparatus is preferably worked from the
inside of the door by means of the duplicate apparatus and the knobs kas
described, as follows:-
.
"
Should the occupier of the Office or other place, to the door of which the
indicator is attached, be out, then the pair of discs beneath which the word
"Out" is marked are turned by means of the finger piece or knob k until the
word Out" appears behind the slot in the inner disc of the pair; now, as the
outer disc exactly corresponds to this inner disc in every respect, the word "Out'
will be exposed beneath the slot in the outer disc of the pair on the outside of the
door to the view of any possible caller: the remaining pairs of discs being now
turned so that the words beneath them are invisible, and the hands of the dial,
if thought fit, being set so as to point to the hour when the occupier of the Office
or the like went out.
If the occupier of the Office is "In" but engaged, then the disc beneath which
the words " Engaged till" are marked are turned in the same way as before
described, so as to expose these words to the view of any possible caller and the
hands of the dial are set so as to point to the time till which the said occupier
is engaged all the remaining dises being turned so as to conceal the words
marked beneath them. The remaining discs may obviously be operated in a
similar way.
The discs are shown situated in the corners of square plates but the plates may
be any required shape and the relative positions of the discs varied.
Fig. 4 shows the front elevation of an apparatus made according to my
invention for use in an Office where there are two partners; and,
Fig. 5 is a sectional view of Fig. 4 on the line y-y.
In this case I employ the plates a and a¹ as before, attached respectively to
the outside and inside of the door d. I do not now employ the dial and hands
or pointers but I may or may not, as thought convenient, attach a timepiece such
ast to the outside of the door, or a timepiece may be fitted into an opening or
recess in the door.
"
Marked in any suitable way, preferably as shown in Fig. 4, on fixed dials on the
Out,"
outer plate a are the words
"Out will be in at,' "Disengaged till,"
"Engaged till"; these fixed dials being numbered I, II, III, and IV respectively.
Shown also on the plate a are the names of the partners marked on a card and
having reference numbers thereto, as shown at n Fig. 4; the said card being
attached by being slid into a suitable framework. Or these names may be
printed, painted, or otherwise marked on or attached to the plate a in any
suitable manner.
<
Attached also to the plate a in any suitable way, preferably as shown at n¹
Fig. 4, is a card or the like marked off into a number of vertical columns (the
card at n¹ being shown with the lower half thereof broken away) the first of these
columns is called the Nos. column and in it appear the numbers corresponding to
the names of the partners as shown on the card or the like n; the next four
vertical columns are marked I, II, III, IV respectively and refer to the fixed
dials; the last vertical column is called the Hours" column and behind slots
such as therein appears the time referring to the engagements of the several
partners of the business or the like; one slot in this last column corresponding to
each of the reference Nos. in the first column. Passing through the card n', the
plate a, the door and the plate a¹ are horizontal slots 2; these slots are of
sufficient length to extend across the four dial, columns. Attached to the. plate a
on the inside of the door, is a card or the like n² similar to and corresponding
in every respect with the card n¹, with the exception that on the card n² the

page_text: "Hours" column need not appear. Passing through each of the slotss s² and so as
to be capable of sliding therein is a rod ; this rod 3 is of sufficient length to
extend a short distance beyond the door and apparatus on either side and has
attached to the outer extremity thereof a pointer such as h and to the inner
extremity thereof a similar pointer such as h¹. The time indicating the engage-
ments of the partners or the like is caused to appear behind each of the slots s¹
by means of a set of three hollow cylinders 11, 12, 13, arranged concentrically, which
pass through the door, have their ends at both extremities flanged and are capable
of revolving freely round one another. Upon the flanges of the outermost
cylinders at either side of the door are marked numbers from 1 to 12, and on the
flanges on the ends of the two inner cylinders on either side of the door are
marked numbers from 0 to 9. These cylinders are rotated from the inside of the
door by means of handles or finger-pieces such as each cylinder having one
such handle or finger-piece.
The numbers on the outer cylinder s¹ indicate the hours and the numbers on
the two inner cylinders s3 and 3 indicate the minutes. One set of these time
cylinders is employed for each partner or member of the firm.
The apparatus is operated from the inside of the door as follows:--If the
partner indicated by the numeral 1 is "Out," but "will be in at 3.15, then the
pointer is set (by means of the duplicate pointer h¹ on the inside of the door)
in the column marked II of the dial columns of the card n¹ and the time cylinders
corresponding to partner No. 1 are revolved till the hour 3.15 appears at the
slot s¹.
It will be easily understood that the engagements of the remaining partner
may be registered in the same way, reference being made by means of the
pointer to any required one of the fixed discs I, II, III, or IV.
I have described this apparatus in connection with two partners only, but it
may obviously be adapted to the use of any required number of members ór
partners of a firm.
The time cylinders may be replaced by rollers or other equivalent apparatus
carrying numbers and the card or the like n may be eliminated if desired, the
names of the partners or members appearing on the No. column of the card or
the like n¹.
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) An office or the like indicator attached in duplicate to the inside and out-
side of a door or the like and consisting of a dial and pointers, plates and slotted
revolving discs; constructed and operated substantially as herein described and
illustrated in connection with Figs. 1, 2, and 3 of the accompanying drawings.
(2) An office or the like indicator attached in duplicate to the inside and out-
side of a door or the like and consisting of plates carrying four fixed discs name
and indicating plates such as n and n¹, pointers and time cylinders constructed
and operated substantially as herein described and illustrated in Figs. 4 and 5 of
the accompanying drawings.
(3) In an office or the like "In and Out" indicator the use of time cylinders
constructed and operated as herein described and illustrated in connection with
Figs. 4 and 5 of the accompanying drawings.
CASTLE SMITH,
66
Invention" Office, Mitre Court, Fleet Street, London, E.C.,
Agent for the Applicant.