AN IMPROVED BELL, GONG, OR ALARUM TABLE
Year: 1871

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by Nathaniel Miles at the Office
of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the 20th
September 1871.
I
I, NATHANIEL MILES, of Ramsgate, in the County of Kent, Bell
Hanger, do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for "AN
IMPROVED BELL, GONG, OR ALARUM TABLE," to be as follows:-
:―
This Invention relates to an improved bell, gong, or alarum table
adapted for use in public, concert, or music halls, or in other rooms
or apartments, or in hotels, taverns, cafés, or similar places; as well
as in private dwellings or houses. The improved table is intended
to be constructed of an oblong, square, round, elliptical, or any other
suitable shape, with either straight, Elizabethan, scroll, spiral, twisted,
fluted, or plain column legs, either in metal or wood, and with either
a wooden, a marble, or a metal top, or a combination of any of such
materials..
To carry the Invention into practical effect I place by preference at
the sides of the table immediately under the top so that the bell, gong,

page_text: .
or alarum can be operated upon by hand (or at the base or feet of the
leg or legs of the table so that it can be operated by foot), ordinary bell
pulls, or handles, or press pulls, countersunk keys, or knobs, or levers,
or other similar means in general use for sounding or operating bells.
For example, I will describe one mode of attaching any one bell pull (or
other means above-mentioned) to the table and the manner in which the
bell, gong, or alarum is operated upon thereby. It may here be
mentioned that when the gong is to be operated by foot, knobs or levers
are the most suitable of the means above-mentioned to place at the base
of the leg of the table. When the lever or knob is placed at the base of
the leg of the table I attach it to a trigger, bell crank, or similar device;
this is connected either by a rod, a lever, or a line placed in the leg with
a hammer rod, which acts upon and sounds the gong (which I will
suppose is placed at about the centre of the under part of the top of the
table). This hammer rod works through a spiral spring, so that when.
the lever or knob is released from the pressure of the foot the spring
forces the hammer rod to sound the bell.
When any of these means is placed at the side of the table so as
to operate the bell by hand it is connected either direct or by means of
wire and bell cranks (secured to the under part of the table) to the
spring hammer rod. The hammer rod is acted upon by the spiral spring
in such a manner (on the bell pull or other means above-mentioned
being released from the hand) as to strike a swing hammer attached by
a staple plate to the table close to the bell. The action is simply
thus: When the pulls or other means are operated upon either by
hand or foot the spiral spring is compressed, and when said means is
released the recoil of the spring forces the hammer against the bell and
so sounds it.

page_text: which are attached to the table or placed in any convenient part of the
room or apartment.
:
It may here be mentioned that the bell, gong, or alarum appliance
and its connections can be adapted and applied to any ordinary tables.