Improvements in Air Registers or Ventilators.
Year: 1899

page_text: Date of Application, 6th Jan., 1899-Accepted, 25th Feb., 1899
COMPLETE SPECIFICATION.
Improvements in Air Registers or Ventilators.
I, SILAS TUTTLE, of 89, North Tenth Street, in the Borough of Brooklyn, City,
and State of New York, United States of America, Manufacturer, 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:-
My invention relates to that class of hot air registers or ventilators which are
usually provided with a supporting frame, pivoted fans or valves, and an outside
grating, together with an operating device for moving the fan into open or closed
position.
My invention consists more particularly in the construction of the operating
device for the fans and the combination of the fans therewith, and in the means
for looking said fans in closed position.
In the accompanying drawings, Fig. 1 is a front view of the register, with a
portion of the grating removed, so as to exhibit the operating parts. Figs. 2
and 3 are cross-sections on the line 2, 2 of Fig. 1. Fig. 4 is a similar cross-section
in part, showing the locking action of the sliding bar.
Similar numbers of reference indicate like parts.
1 is the register frame. 2 the grating secured thereto, as by bolts entering
openings 3. Upon the transverse edge of each fan 4 there is a pivot pin 5, and
also a stud pin 6 supported by an offset 7; which may be cast integrally with the fan.
The pivot pins 5 are received in sockets in the frame at one end and at the
other end in half-bearings 8 formed in a ledge 9 on the rear side of the frame;
being retained in said half bearings by a bar 10, which is also provided with half-
bearings. 11, and secured by a detachable bolt, dotted lines 12, Fig. 1. Ou bar 10
are lugs, one of which is shown at 13. Resting upon these lugs is a sliding bar 14
having curved slots 15 which receive the stud pins 6. On the upper side of the
bar 14 are stops 16, and on its forward side is a projection 17, which passes through
the grating, and by means of which the bar 14 can be moved to and fro longi-
tudinally.
A leaf-spring 18 bears upon a shoulder of the projection 17, and forces the
bar 14 rearwardly, so that its rear side rests against the fan pivots 5.
The operation of the device is as follows:-
Assuming the parts to be in the position shown in Fig. 3, with the fans open.
Sliding bar 14 is moved to the right of the drawing by arm 17. The stud pins 6
of the fans are now acted upon by the curved edges of the slots 16, and each
stud pin is caused to describe a circle, as indicated by the curved arrow 19 in
Fig. 3, while the longitudinal edges of the fan describe a circle represented by
the curved arrows 20 in the same figure. When the fans assume their closed
position, as represented in Fig. 4, the stud pins 6 have not reached the left hand
ends of the slots 15, and further movement of the bar 14 now serves to lock the
fans in closed position. That is to say, if the bar 14 be moved still further in
the direction of the arrow 21 in Fig. 4, and into the position represented by
dotted lines in said figure, then as is shown by said dotted lines, the stud pins 6
will have come into a substantially straight portion 23 of the slots, and conse-
quently, any force tending to bring the fan back to an open position, exerted
directly on the fan itself, will be opposed by the stud pin bearing against the

page_text: straight edges of the slot, and as such an application of force to the sliding bar
will obviously not move the bar, it follows therefore that the fans become locked in
closed position. This is of especial advantage in registers of this kind, which may
be used for ventilators, in which case the air moves inwardly through the grating,
as well as hot air registers, in which case the hot air comes outwardly through
the grating. If the faus were not capable of being locked in closed position, a
strong inward draught would tend to open them.
The final position of the fans and of the stud pins in the slots is as represented
in Fig. 2; the bar 14 then having been moved to its extreme limit, to the right
of the drawing. To open the fans again it is of course only necessary to move
the bar 14 in the direction of the arrow 22 of Fig. 2. The bar then slides over
the stud pins 6 for a short distance before the curved edges of the slots act upon
said pins to move them in a reverse direction to that shown in Fig. 3, and so to
rotate the fans into open position until said fans strike the fixed stops 16 of the
bar 14.
The special advantages of this construction are, first, its simplicity and fewness
of narts, second, its ease and certainty of operation, and third, the automatic
locking of the fan in closed position by the operating device itself without the
addition of any extraneous means for that purpose. As to the first point, it will
be noted that the whole operating device is nothing more than a single sliding
bar, in which are formed the slots which engage with the stud pins of the fans.
Inasmuch as the fans are locked, it is no longer necessary to arrange the parts of
the operating device in close friotional contact, so as to hold the fans in closed
position by friction. Therefore the entire device is very easy of operation; and
finally the same movement which closes the fans practically locks them; the
hand almost naturally in pushing over the projection 17 to make the fans shut,
carries it onward a little further and so locks them. Similarly in opening the
fans, the first movement of the bar is to unlock them before it begins to open them.
Having now particularly described and ascertained the nature of my said
invention, and in what manner the same is to be performed, I declare that what
I claim is:-
1. An air register or ventilator, having pivoted fans provided with pins at
their ends, and a locking device engaging with said pins and operating to hold
said fans in closed position.
2. An air register or ventilator having pivoted fans, mechanism for opening and
closing said fans and also for locking said fans in closed position.
3. An air register or ventilator having pivoted fans with projecting stud pins,
in combination with a sliding operating bar having arc-shaped slots engaging
with said pins.
4. An air register or ventilator having pivoted fans and pins thereon, and a
sliding bar having slots adapted to receive said pins; the said slots being formed,
and when said bar is moved acting, to turn said fans on their pivots and also by
their engagement with said pins to lock said fans in closed position.
5. An air register or ventilator having a pivoted fan, a fixed pin. thereon and
a movable bar having a slot receiving said pins, said slot having a curved portion
and a straight portion, whereby when said bar is moved the curved portion of said
slot acting on said fixed pin operates to turn said fan, and the straight portion
of said slot acting on said fixed pin locks said fan in definite position.
7.
1
HASELTINE, LAKE & Co.,
45, Southampton Buildings, London, W.C.,
Agents for the Applicant.