IMPROVED MEANS FOR CLOSING DOORS OR WINDOWS
Year: 1867

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by Antoine Verdalle at the Office of
the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the 5th November
1867.
I, ANTOINE VERDALLE, of No. 15, Passage des Petites Ecuries, Paris, in
the Empire of France, Joiner, do hereby declare the nature of the said
Invention for "IMPROVED MEANS FOR CLOSING DOORS OR WINDOWS," to be as
follows:-
In new windows of ordinary make it always happens, and especially in the
rainy season, that they cannot be properly closed because of the swelling of
the wood. Recourse must then be had to the plane or the saw, but during
the hot and dry season the wood coming back to its natural state there is a
want of wood where there was too much, and by these gaps enter light, wind,
and dust. Further, in windows or casements thus repaired there is no longer
the purity of lines that one has a right to exact, and which constitutes one of
the main ornaments.
In carpeted apartments a space must necessarily be left at the bottom of
the door to permit its being opened and closed at will. The carpet being
removed this open space remains, is always disagreable, and often incom-
modious; but in houses recently built the inconveniences are much more
serious, as in consequence of the inevitable settling of the masonry and the
beams the doors and the windows partly lose their plumb, the angles are no
longer straight, nothing closes properly, and everything is to be repaired.
Struck with these defects I have sought to do away with them, and I will
now describe (reference being had to the accompanying two Sheets of Drawing

page_text: 'forming part of this my Provisional Specification) the manner in which I have
succeeded in making doors and windows, which close with nicety in all
seasons, and are subject to none of the disadvantages above cited as apper-
taining to ordinary windows or casements, outside shutters, and doors.
To a fixed frame A, B, C, D (Sheet 1), are attached by screws (herein-
after described) a moveable cross piece E, and two uprights F, G, also
moveable, and on the face H of which are fixed the casements.
A certain
open space I is left between the uprights, their cross piece, and the fixed
franie, in order to permit the casement to be moved backward or forward, or
to be raised and lowered at pleasure by means of the screws, the piece P of
which is slotted (see Sheet 2). The piece Q bas also a slot and staple, and
R serves to close the opening of the slot in order to keep out air or dust.
S is a pin passing through the main screw T; U is a nut to which two screws
are attached, fixed as well as the main screw in the frame A, B, C, D,
whereas the screws V, X, are fixed in the moveable part. Let us
examine the play of the uprights and of the moveable cross piece, and presume
that the wood swollen by humidity will not permit the closing of the casement,
in this case I if necessary give one turn to the side screws and the moveable
uprights, the end tenons of which slide in grooves made right and left of the
pieces, E, C, are pushed towards the pieces B, D, and thus give as much play
as is required for the closing. If the casement drags and it is desirable to
raise it, the two screws in E are worked, and by means of a chisel the two
moveable uprights are lifted, sliding on the screws, it being only necessary in
order to keep them raised to place a small chock of wood under them. A
single screw only may be operated upon, and this is the case when the base of
the casement or of the door is not quite horizontal. All along the piece C
there is an inclined groove pierced with a hole in the centre, which serves for
the runuing off of water. All the spaces are covered by the framing. For
outside shutters or casements ("contre vents") the moveable cross piece E may
be suppressed. In doors the piece C does not exist.