Improvements in Book Cases and the like.
Year: 1899

page_text: Date of Application, 15th Dec., 1899
Complete Specification Left, 22nd Dec., 1899 —Accepted, 17th Feb., 1900
Improvements in Book Cases and the like.
We, IRVIN ELMER ROCKWELL, of 901, Pratt Avenue, in the City of Chicago, in
the County of Cook and State of Illinois, Merchant, and JAMES DAVID ADAMS, of
Wabash, in the County of Wabash and State of Indiana, Superintendent, both
in the United States of America, do hereby declare the nature of this invention
to be as follows:
-
Our invention relates to that class of book and other cases having one or more
compartments with an open front, and provided with ways at the upper portion
of their end walls, doors or covers for their open sides adapted to be moved
along said ways, and hinge or pivot connections at the outer ends of said ways
whereon the doors are supported and on which they are swung in opening and
closing them.
Our invention relates more particularly to improved means for supporting
and operating the doors and may be applied generally to bookcases, chests or
cupboards of fixed dimensions, to sectional bookcases, or to a single compartment
cupboard or case.
The improved case comprises end walls, the back wall and the bottom wall,
all of which are, or may be, entirely closed. For the purpose of adapting the
case or section to have matching relation with other similarly formed sections,
the bottom wall is longitudinally grooved, to receive correspondingly positioned
strips of a similar section to form an expansion bookcase. The inner surface of
the end walls and of the bottom wall are also rabbeted, the end walls at their
upper portions, and the bottom wall along its front edge. This affords stops or
abutments for the door frame such doors being usually of sash form, and pro-
vided with the glass. The door, or door frame, is provided at each end with the
hook shaped hinge member which has its body portion perforated for the passage
of fastenings and the body portion is preferably set in a mortise or recess in the
edge of the door, its hook projecting beyond the plane of the inner surface of the
door. To the end walls are attached slideways, said ways being preferably com-
posed of metal bars or rods but preferably thin metal bars set edgewise and
secured to the end walls by means of screws or other fastenings passing through
washers and into the end walls. The particular manner of constructing and
supporting these slideways is not so important, but they are so constructed and
positioned as to furnish tracks or ways for the door to slide upon, and for this
purpose they are shown placed parallel to the end walls at a distance below the
top wall of the compartment about equal to the thickness of the door frame and
separated or set out from the end walls to provide runways for the hooks.
Each end wall of the casing being provided with a similar slideway, and each
end of the door with a like hook, the door is easily placed in position or removed
from the case by entering the hinge hooks in the runways. These hooks taking
over the washers or other stops closing the outer ends of the runways afford hinges
whereon the door is swung and whereby it is supported when closed.
The hooks are so positioned with reference to the slideways as to contact there-
with to prevent the door from binding or sticking and to cause it to move in
substantial parallelism with the end walls of the case, the door is of such length

page_text: as to afford a slight clearance at its ends and there is also preferably a slight
clearance between the outer sides of the hooks and the end walls of the case.
The hooks are in contact with the sides of the slideways and this is the preferred
construction although said hooks may perform the function of guides if they
be not normally in contact with the slideways provided that they are so disposed
as to engage the slideways to prevent the door being pushed or drawn so far out
of parallelism as to cause it to stick or bind.
Such
The form and arrangement of the hinge hooks or guides and of the slideways
may be varied; and instead of rabbeting the end and bottom walls, strips might
be secured thereon to form stops or abutments for the door to close upon.
and similar structural changes may be made without departing from the spirit
and scope of our invention.
We have found that doors supported in the manner above described can be
manipulated with little friction and noise and moved in and out without sticking
even if grasped at one side only. The metal parts are inexpensive, easily attached,
and may be applied to any form of case or cupboard without interfering with the
storage space thereof.
We prefer to rabbet the upper portions of the end walls of the case to provide
longitudinal grooves or channels to receive the slideways and afford the runways
for the hooks and these grooves or channels are preferably of such depth as to
accommodate slideways and hooks without projecting beyond the plane of the
inner surface of said end wall. The hooks themselves are preferably located
outside of the slideways and are thereby prevented from coming in contact with
the books or other articles during their movement, although for the purpose of
serving as guides these hooks might be located to bear upon the inner sides of
the slideways.
In the construction described these hooks serve both as guides and as hinge
members but it is within the scope of our invention to separate these functions.
Dated this 15th 1
1000
HASELTINE, LAKE & Co.,
45, Southampton Buildings, London, W.C., Agents for the Applicants.
Improvements in Book Cases and the like.
We, IRVIN ELMER ROCKWELL, of 901, Pratt Avenue, in the City of Chicago, in
the County of Cook and State of Illinois, Merchant, and JAMES DAVID ADAMS, of
Wabash, in the County of Wabash and State of Indiana, Superintendent, both
in the United States of America, do hereby declare the nature of this invention
and in what manner the same is to be performed, to be particularly described and
ascertained in and by the following statement:-
Our invention relates to that class of book and other cases having one or more
compartments with an open front, and provided with ways at the upper portion
of their end walls, doors or covers for their open sides adapted to be moved
along said ways, and hinge or pivot connections at the other ends of said ways
whereon the doors are supported and on which they are swung in opening and
closing them.
Our invention relates more particularly to improved means for supporting
and operating the doors and may be applied generally to bookcases, chests or
cupboards of fixed dimensions, to sectional bookcases, or to a single compartment
cupboard or case.
In the accompanying drawings we have shown our invention as applied to one
section of a sectional or expansion bookcase.

page_text: Figure 1 is a perspecti
swung down to close its front;
Figure 2 is a sectional view on the line 2-2 of Figure 1, showing the door in
the closed position;
Figure 3 is a partial sectional view on the line 2-2 of Figure 1, showing the
door open and supported on its ways;
Figure 4 is a partial plan view with the top strips of the section removed and
the door down;
Figure 5 is an edge view of the end of the door with a hinge hook applied
thereto; and
Figure 5 is a sectional detail.
In the drawings 6 represents the end walls, 7 the back wall and 8 the bottom
wall, all of which are, or may be, entirely closed. For the purpose of adapting
the case or section (shown complete in Figure 1) to have matching relation with
other similarly formed sections, the bottom wall is longitudinally grooved, as at 9,
to receive correspondingly positioned strips 10 of a similar section to form an
expansion bookcase. The inner surface of the end walls 6 and of the bottom
wall 8 are also rabbeted, the end walls at their upper portions, as shown at 11,
and the bottom wall along its front edge, as shown at 12. This affords stops or
abutments for the door frame 13, such doors being usually of sash form, and pro-
vided with the glass 14. The door, or door frame, is provided at each end with the
hook shaped hinge member 15, which has its body portion perforated for the
passage of fastenings 16, and the body portion is preferably set in a mortise or
recess in the edge of the door, its hook 17 projecting beyond the plane of the inner
surface of the door. To the end walls 6 are attached slideways, said ways being
preferably composed of metal bars or rods 18, but preferably thin metal bars set
edgewise and secured to the end walls by means of screws or other fastenings 19
passing through washers 20 and into the end walls. The particular manner of
constructing and supporting these slideways is not so important, but they are
so constructed and positioned as to furnish tracks or ways for the door to slide upon,
and for this purpose they are shown placed parallel to the end walls at a distance
below the top wall of the compartment about equal to the thickness of the door
frame and separated or set out from the end walls to provide runways 21 for the
hooks 17.
Each end wall of the casing being provided with a similar slideway, and each
end of the door with a like hook, the door is easily placed in position or removed
from the case by entering the hinge hooks in the runways 21. These hooks taking
over the washers or other stops closing the outer ends of the runways afford hinges
whereon the door is swung and whereby it is supported when closed.
The hooks are so positioned with reference to the slideways as to contact there-
with to prevent the door from binding or sticking and to cause it to move in
substantial parallelism with the end walls of the case, the door is of such length
as to afford a slight clearance at its ends and there is also preferably a slight
clearance between the outer sides of the hooks and the end walls of the case
as shown in Figure 5*. The hooks are shown in contact with the sides of the
slideways and this is the preferred construction although said hooks may perform
the function of guides if they be not normally in contact with the slideways pro-
vided that they are so disposed as to engage the slideways to prevent the door
being pushed or drawn so far out of parallelism as to cause it to stick or bind.
The form and arrangement of the hinge hooks or guides and of the slideways
may be varied; and instead of rabbeting the end and bottom walls, strips might
be secured thereon to form stops or abutments for the door to close upon. Such
and similar structural changes may be made without departing from the spirit
and scope of our invention.
We have found that doors supported in the manner above described can be
manipulated with little friction and noise and moved in and out without sticking
even if grasped at one side only. The metal parts are inexpensive, easily attached,

page_text: and may be applied to any form of case or cupboard without interfering with the
storage space thereof.
We prefer to rabbet the upper portions of the end walls of the case to provide
longitudinal grooves or channels to receive the slideways and afford the runways
for the hooks, and these grooves or channels are preferably of such depth as to
accommodate slideways and hooks without projecting beyond the plane of the
inner surface of said end wall. The hooks themselves are preferably located
outside of the slideways and are thereby prevented from coming in contact with
the hooks or other articles during their movement, although for the purpose of
serving as guides these hooks might be located to bear upon the inner sides of
the slideways.
In the construction described these hooks serve both as guides and as hinge
members but it is within the scope of our invention to separate these functions.
Having now particularly described and ascertained the nature of our said
invention and in what manner the same is to be performed, we declare that
what we claim is :--
1. The combination, with a case or cupboard and a door or closure for the front
thereof, of a door support comprising fixed bars or rods adjacent to the upper
corners of the compartment and affording slideways for the door, guides carried
by the door and having lateral bearings against the fixed bars or rods, hinge
members carried by the door, and, stops at the outer ends of the slideways in
position to engage said hinge members when the door is turned out and afford-
ing pivots on which the door may be swung, substantially as described.
2. The combination with a book or other case of a door support comprising
bars or rods secured adjacent to the end walls of the case, but separated there-
from to provide runways and affording on their upper surfaces slideways for
the door, hooks attached to the door and adapted to move in said runways to
contact with the sides of said bars and to afford a hinge on which the door may
be swung, substantially as described.
3. The combination with a book or other case and its door, of a door support
comprising metal rods or bars secured to the end walls of the case, but separated
therefrom and providing therewith runways closed at their forward ends, and
hooks attached to the ends of the door and adapted to travel within said runways.
whereby to guide the door and to form hinges on which the door may be swung,
substantially as described.
4. The combination with a case or compartment, having slideways secured
adjacent to its end walls, but separated therefrom to provide runways, of a door
or closure having hinge members secured to its ends and projecting below its
inner surface to permit the doors to contact with the slideways, said hooks being
adapted to enter and be moved along the runways and being so positioned as
to contact with the slideways to guide the door in its movements and also to
provide hinges on which the door may be swung, substantially as described.
5. The combination with a casing or compartment having its end walls
rabbeted or recessed at their upper ends to provide horizontal channels, slide-
ways secured to the end walls within said channels but separated therefrom to
provide runways, and a door having hooks secured to its ends and adapted to
travel in said runways but without contact with the bottom wall of the groove
or channel, substantially as described.
De
HASELTINE, LAKE & Co..
45, Southampton Buildings, London, W.C., Agents for the Applicants.