IMPROVE- MENTS IN THE ROLLERS OF WINDOW AND OTHER BLINDS, AND IN SUPPORTING BLIND ROLLERS, AND IN RAISING AND LOWERING WINDOW AND OTHER BLINDS
Year: 1864

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by Joseph Everard at the Office
of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the 1st August
1864.
I, JOSEPH EVERARD, of Birmingham, in the County of Warwick, Ware-
houseman, do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for "IMPROVE-
MENTS IN THE ROLLERS OF WINDOW AND OTHER BLINDS, AND IN SUPPORTING BLIND
ROLLERS, AND IN RAISING AND LOWERING WINDOW AND OTHER BLINDS," to be
as follows:-
My improvements in the rollers of window and other blinds consist of the
following method of making the said rollers expand and contract in the
direction of their length, so that the said rollers can be used with windows of
different widths. I make the roller of a piece of metallic open-jointed
tubing, that is, tubing having a slit in its whole length and parallel to its axis.
To one end of the roller I attach the pulley on which the blind cord is coiled
and uncoiled, or over which the blind cord passes, the said pulley being
attached to the said roller in the following manner :-The said pulley carries
a short tube of such a diameter that it fits tightly in the hollow roller. The
end of the said short tube has a pin or projection, and in the roller is a slot
having the figure of the letter T. When the tube of the pulley is inserted in
the end of the roller the pin or projection of the said tube enters the slot in
the roller, and when the said tube is pushed home and turned to the right or
left the pin or projection enters the cross slot in the roller, and the pulley is
thereby fixed to the said roller. The pulley described carries one end of the

page_text: axis of the roller; at the other end of the roller, the other end of the axis is
fixed in the following manner :-The ordinary flange carrying the axis is pro-
vided with a short tube capable of sliding in the end of the roller. A
longitudinal slot is made near the end of the roller, and a screw pin on the
tube of the flange engages in the said slot. By sliding the said tube into or
out of the roller the ends of the axis can be separated from or brought nearer
to each other, and the roller thereby lengthened or shortened. The range of
motion of the tube is limited by the length of the slot in the roller. By
tightening the screw pin the tube is fixed, and the roller is kept to the length
to which it has been adjusted. The blind is attached to the roller by being
connected to a narrow strip of wood or metal, which on the removal of one
of the ends of the roller can be passed into the hollow roller, the blind hanging
through the slit in the roller. I support the blind rollers in brackets made
of a cup-like form, into the base of which a screw is fixed by the edge of the
cup being turned or burnished down upon a flange or large head of the screw.
These brackets are fixed to the window frame by being screwed therein.
My improvements in raising and lowering window and other blinds consist
in the following arrangement of parts:-On the outer side of the blind pulley
I fix a ratchet wheel, and below the said ratchet wheel an arm or lever turns
in a vertical plane. Through a hole in the end of the lower and heavier arm
of the lever the blind cord passes, and when the said lever hangs in its normal
position its upper end engages with the ratchet wheel. When the cord is
pulled down for the purpose of raising the blind the rachet wheel can rotate
without impediment from the said lever, and on loosing the blind cord the
said lever engages with the said ratchet wheel, and prevents the rotation of
the blind roller in the opposite direction, and the blind is prevented from
descending. In order to lower the blind it is only necessary to tighten the
blind cord and draw it from its vertical position, so as to make it form an
angle of a few degrees with a vertical line. The lever is thereby disengaged
from the ratchet wheel, and by paying out the cord, still preserving its incli
nation, the blind may be lowered. By loosing the cord entirely it falls into
a vertical position, and the lever again engaging with the ratchet wheel arrests
the further descent of the blind.