IMPROVEMENTS IN RACKS OR HOLDERS FOR WHIPS, CANES, AND OTHER LIKE ARTICLES
Year: 1867

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by John Henry Johnson at the Office
of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the 30th October
1867. A communication from abroad by Edward Richmond, of New
York, in the United States of America.
I, JOHN HENRY JOHNSON, of 47, Lincoln's Inn Fields, in the County of
Middlesex, Gentleman, do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention
for "IMPROVEMENTS IN RACKS OR HOLDERS FOR WHIPS, CANES, AND OTHER LIKE
ARTICLES," a communication to me from abroad by Edward Richmond, of
New York, in the United States of America, to be as follows:-
This Invention relates to racks for holding whips and other like articles,
and, consists mainly in the combination with a skeleton or perforated frame of
wood or other suitable material of an elastic binding or holding device,
arranged in the perforations of the said frame in such manner as to hold any
object placed or inserted in the perforated frame. The rack thus constructed
can be put to various uses. It may be employed
It may be employed to hold 'brooms, whips,
canes, and other like articles; or when made smaller it can be used as a pen
or pencil rack. The frame is composed of two perforated plates of wood or
other suitable material, between which a sheet of vulcanized rubber is
interposed, which in this case constitutes the elastic binding device. In that
portion of the rubber which extends across each of the circular perforations in
the frame a series of radial slits is cut, so as to allow a cane or the handle of
a whip or broom to be forced through. To facilitate this operation per-
forations smaller than but concentric with the perforations in the plates inay

page_text: be formed in the rubber. When the whip or other article is thus placed in
the rack the rubber closes tightly around it and holds it securely and firmly.
It is found desirable to suspend, a whip by its tip or lash, so as to keep it
perfectly straight when not in use. To this end I form V or wedge shaped
openings in the edge of the plates, a smaller opening or slit being formed in a
corresponding manner in the rubber which is thus uncovered. The lash may
be forced or jammed back in these openings until it is tightly grasped by the
rubber, which holds the whip suspended in this position. When the rack is
placed some distance above the ground it is very difficult if not impossible for
any one holding the whip by its butt to force the lash into the openings, I
therefore employ in this connection a wire or other suitable guiding device,
which is formed of two parts, the shank and the guide prop, the two being bent
so as to be at right angles with each other. The shank is inserted on the top of
the rack, so that the guide will extend across above or traverse the openings.
When it is desired to suspend the whip by its top the operator holding the
butt of the whip slips or throws the upper end or each between the wire guide
and top of the rack; as soon as this is done he pulls directly downwards upon
the whip, and the lash being now prevented from springing away from the rack
by the guide under which it is held is gradually drawn into the slit or
opening until it is clasped tightly by the rubber. The guide part may turn
upon its shank as a pivot, so as to increase or lessen the angle at which it
crosses the opening; and in order to guide the lash more surely into the
opening that part of it immediately over the said opening may be bent or
corrugated, so as to receive the lash and direct its movement.
The rack may
r
be attached to the wall either by brackets or by screws. When made smaller
and of circular or other suitable form it can be supported on a stand or
pedestal, and used for holding pens, pencils, and other similar articles.
Instead of using rubber as the holding device, wooden or other suitable plate
backed by springs may be arranged around the sides of the perforations in the
plates, so as to encircle and grasp any article inserted between them. I
some cases I employ split pins, somewhat like clothes pins, inserted in a board
which is fast to the wall, the whip being grasped between the sides of the spli
pins and suspended as before described.