IMPROVEMENTS IN WINDOW SASHES
Year: 1864

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to William Holbrook, of Duke Street, Bloomsbury,
in the County of Middlesex, for the Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN
WINDOW SASHES."
Sealed the 30th September 1864, and dated the 31st March 1864.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said William Holbrook at
the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the
31st March 1864.
I, WILLIAM HOLBROOK, of Duke Street, Bloomsbury, in the County of
Middlesex, do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for "IMPROVE
MENTS IN WINDOW SASHES," to be as follows:-
This Invention consists of certain improvements in the construction of
window sashes applicable to buildings of every kind, to railway carriages,
omnibuses, and other situations, the objects of the Invention being to enable
the window to be easily raised or lowered and maintained in any desired
position, to be proof against wet or the draught of air, and to be noiseless
either from the action of wind, or the motion of a railway carriage, or other
vehicle.
I propose to apply and fix to the sides, top, and bottom of the recess of the
window sash a layer of india-rubber, gutta percha, or other soft yielding
material, fitting or abutting against the frame of the window, and to insert in
two or more places at the sides of the frame or frames small metallic or
wooden friction rollers or milled-edged wheels set in bearings in brass or other

page_text: fixtures. These friction rollers are allowed to project slightly from the edges
or sides of the frames, and to indent the surfaces of the india-rubber or other
substance, the result being that when the window frame is raised or lowered
by the hand it will remain securely held in the desired position by the
pressure of the rollers and the intervening substance. In course of time the
material would become worn, and the variations of temperature would affect
its firmness; I therefore propose to compensate for these disadvantages by
making the bearings of the rollers adjustable by setting them in sliding boxes,
moving in slots, and regulated by disc-headed screws actuated by the finger,
whereby the pressure of the rollers may at any time be varied as required.
In some cases I propose to dispense altogether with the friction rollers, and
to use only the india-rubber, gutta percha, or any compound yielding material
in a solid strip, so as to effect the objects of the Invention by the friction or
bearing surface thereby created.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said William Holbrook in the Great Seal Patent Office on the
30th September 1864.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, WILLIAM
HOLBROOK, of Duke Street, Bloomsbury, in the County of Middlesex, send
greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Thirty-first day of March, in the year of our Lord One
thousand eight hundred and sixty-four, in the twenty-seventh year of Her
reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto me, the
said William Holbrook, Her special licence that I, the said William Holbrook,
my executors, administrators, and assigns, or such others as I, the said
William Holbrook, my executors, 'administrators, and assigns, should at
any time agree with, and no others, from time to time and at all times
thereafter during the term therein expressed, should. and lawfully might
make, use, exercise, and vend, within the United Kingdom of Great Britain
and Ireland, the Channel Islands, and Isle of Man, an Invention for "IMPROVE-
MENTS IN WINDOW SASHES," upon the condition (amongst others) that I, tho
said William Holbrook, my.executors or administrators, by an instrument in
writing under my, or their, or one of their hands and seals, should par-
ticularly describe and ascertain the nature of the said Invention, and in
what manner the same was to be performed, and cause the same to be filed

page_text: in the Great Seal Patent Office within six calendar months next and imme-
diately after the date of the said Letters Patent.
NOW KNOW YE, that I; the said William Holbrook, do hereby declare
the nature of my said Invention, and in what manner the same is to be per-
formed, to be particularly described and ascertained in and by the following
statement:
My Invention consists of certain improvements in the construction of
window sashes, applicable to buildings of every kind, to railway carriages,
omnibuses, and other situations, the objects of the Invention being to enable
the window to be easily raised or lowered and maintained in any desired
position, to be proof against wet or the draught of air, and to be noiseless,
either from the action of wind, or the motion of a railway carriage, or other
vehicle.
In order to explain my said Invention more completely, I annex a Sheet of
Drawings, in which Fig. 1 represents a vertical section of a portion of the
window.sash, Fig. 2 being a top plan view of part thereof.
a is the ordinary sash frame; b, the inside beading; the cavity c is cut in
the sash frame a to allow of the biting roller d, attached to its face-plate and
bearing e, working within the cavity. The horizontal pins f, f, are here
placed for the purpose of guides for the helical springs 9, 9, to bear against
the rear surface a' of the sash and against the face-plate, in order to cause the
roller to take a proper bearing on the india-rubber h fixed and let into a
groove i in the style.
It will be seen, at Fig. 2, that the diameter of the rubber h is greater than
that of the groove of the roller d, the object of which is, that the serrated or
fluted edges of the roller & shall first bite the rubber at the points k, k, and
that when the pressure is increased, the rubber will yield to the lesser
diameter of the roller, and be bitten by its internal serrated edges also.
This example is more adapted for light window sashes, a roller being
inserted in each sash at the top and bottom and on both sides; but in order
to apply this Invention to single and heavy sashes, weighted with plate glass,
I relieve the weight of the sash and glass by the application of vulcanized
india-rubber springs or stretchers, one of which, l, as shewn in Fig. 8, which
is a front view of a window partly in section, the spring being attached at m
to the top of the style, and descending past the friction rollers n, n, to the
bottom of the window sash to which the rubber is attached; there is a similar
arrangement on the opposite side of the sash, and also on the top sash, the
position of the rubber springs being reversed. It is thus evident that in
raising or lowering these heavy sashes, the springs would act as equivalents

page_text: for the ordinary counterbalance weights and sash lines, thus dispensing witli
the unnecessary work and expense attendant on the old method. Fig. 4 is a
horizontal section of Fig. 3, shewing clearly the position of the rollers & and
the stretchers l.
Having now described the nature of my said, Invention, and the manner
in which the same is to be performed, I would remark, in conclusion, that I
do not limit myself to the precise details and configuration of parts herein
expressed and shewn, as the same may be varied or modified in various ways
without departing from the principle of my Invention; but what I claim and
desire to be secured to me by the herein in part recited Letters Patent is, the
method of controlling the rising and falling of window sashes wherever applied,
by the application of biting rollers on the surfaces of circular or semicircular
india-rubber, together with the arrangement of counterbalancing the weight
of heavy sashes, substantially as herein specified and shewn by the Drawings
annexed.
In witness whereof, I, the said William Holbrook, have hereunto set
my hand and seal, this Twenty-ninth day of September, in the year
of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and sixty-four.
Witness,
ALEX. PRINCE,
Office for Patents,
4, Trafalgar Square,
Charing Cross.
W. HOLBROOK. (LS.)