Improvements in Venetian Blinds.
Year: 1896

page_text: Date of Application,, 3rd: Nov.. 1896-Accepted,, 5th Dec., 1896,
COMPLETE, SPECLEICATION.
Improvements in Venetian Blinds.
I, WILLIAM HENRY DOUGLAS,. of No. 42: Lorne Grove, Fallowfield, Manchester,
in the County of Lancaster; Artist. and. Picture Dealer; 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 improvements in Venetian blinds and more. particularly
to the mechanism for opening and closing the laths thereof..
Referring to the accompanying drawings which are to be taken as part of this
invention and read therewith:-
Figure 1 is a perspective view shewing a blind open for about a third of its
length, and the laths set open.
Figure 2 is a. side elevation shewing a blind open for about a quarter of its
length, and the laths nearly closed upon themselves. by being turned on their
longitudinal axes, inside edges upwards.
Figure 3 is a side elevation of one of the pivots of the top lath.
Figure 4 is a plan. of a triangle.
Figure 5 is a perspective view of the end of bottom lath and its pivot.
Figure 6 is a detail side elevation illustrating a modification.of. the bottom of the
blind and blind frame.
a, a is a rectangular frame within which the blind can rise and fall, and hang
opened to its full length. The vertical strips a', a stand one before and one
behind each side edges of the blind, being thereby adapted, to serve as guides for
it during its up or down motion.
b, bare the intermediate laths of the same construction as heretofore excepting
that as there are no cords. passing through them, as in the ordinary blinds, they
are not punched. They rest as heretofore on the cross pieces c', c¹ of the ladder
tapes c, c.
One side of the frame a, a is closed permanently. This closed. side is, preferably,
the one on the left hand. The opposite one is fitted with a door d, which is hung
to the edge nearest to the wall, as shown. in Figure: 1. The object of the door is
to give access to the. blind laths, b, for the purpose of taking them out of the
tapes and frame, to be dusted and cleaned. The act of detaching any lath from
the tapes and taking it out of the frame and that of replacing, it are. mere matters
of pulling it out and sliding it back into its place as one would pull a book off a
shelf and after having done with it, push it back again. Only that as all the
intermediate laths are replicas of each other, any one will fit in the place previously
occupied by any other.
e is the top lath and f, the bottom lath of the blind. The latter is the fixed lath
while the former is free to move up or down with the others.
The bottom lath f being held to the bottom of the frame a, a, it follows that
the laths b together with the top lathe gather in front of the bottom of the window
instead of in front of the top. This gathering in front of the bottom of the window
is clearly illustrated in Figures 1 and 2:
The blind as a whole is hung from two straps g, g which pass over pulleys g', g'
in the blind head being the top of the frame, as heretofore. The two straps are
held together, face to face, as shewn in Figures 1 and 2, and perforated at regular
intervals, the "cord holder" to adopt the well known name, consisting of a stud
or an inverted hook which may be fixed to the frame a, a, or to the door d.

page_text: held
The
The device for opening or closing the laths bottom, intermediate and top,-
i.., for turning them upon their longitudinal axes, consists of a pivot f, fast to
and projecting from each end of the bottom lath ; bearings for the said pivots
in brackets f, f, fast to the frame a, a; a knob f fast upon a
through the respective bracket f of the right hand pivot f¹; a triangle
prolongation
fast to each end of the top lath e, its base aligned with the said end and itself standing
up vertically at such end; and an eye i fast to the end of each strap g.
triangles h, h are equilateral, so that, as their bases h' are parallel with the plane
of the top lath e, their apices will be on lines perpendicular to a line drawn along
the centre of that lath. In the intermediate or horizontal position of the laths
illustrated in Figure 1, the apices are higher than any other part of the triangles,
and they consequently hang from the eye i. Turning the knob in either direction
will turn the bottom lath on its longitudinal axis, as pulling either of the cords
hanging from the top lath of the ordinary Venetian blind, turns it on its axis, and in
like manner makes all the other laths b, e, in the blind partake of the same motion
to the same degree, also pulling the triangles in the respective direction till one
of the angles at the junction of a side with the base, hangs from the respective eye i.
The triangles h may be fixed to the ends of the top lathe by any suitable means, as
by screws through eyes .
The ladder tapes are preferably, enamelled with a suitable elastic waterproof enamel
or cloth to facilitate the work of keeping them clean, by among other things, preventing
dust settling in as distinguished from only upon thein.
The invention includes the provision of a box below the bottom of the window, of
the proper size to receive the entire blind. With such a box, the frame, blind and
straps will be correspondingly longer, because the bottom lath f will be fast at the
bottom of the said box.
Referring to Figure 6, the modification illustrated therein consists in the door d
being fixed over and to the side of the frame a, instead of being hinged thereto; in
the said frame being open underneath the blind instead of being closed by the bottom
rail; and in the provision of a removeable support at each side of the said frame for
the bottoni lath, in order that there may he, at will, a clear way through which the:
blind may be lowered into a position beneath the frame. k is one of these supports.
It is a bar pivotted upon a stud k on one edge of the side of the frame a and
provided with a thumb screw by which it may be held in a horizontal position
across the frame side. k is a notch in the top edge of the bar. When the thumb
screws are removed, the bars swing downwards under the weight of the blind, as
indicated by the dotted lines in the figure.
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. The hereinbefore described improvement in connection with the opening and
closing of the laths of a Venetian blind.
2. The combination of the hereinbefore described improvement in connection with
the opening and closing the laths of a Venetian blind with the fixed rectangular frame
and unpunched intermediate laths, as set forth.
Dated this 3rd day of November 1908
PHILLIPS & LEIGH,
No. 22 Southampton Buildings, Chancery Lane, London, W.C.,.
Agents for the Applicant.