IMPROVED APPARATUS FOR SECURING DOORS OF SAFES, CLOSETS, AND APARTMENTS
Year: 1858

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Alfred Vincent Newton, of the Office for Patents,
66, Chancery Lane, in the County of Middlesex, Mechanical Draughts-
man, for the Invention of "IMPROVED APPARATUS FOR SECURING DOORS OF
SAFES, CLOSETS, AND APARTMENTS."-A communication.
Sealed the 8th April 1859, and dated the 11th November 1858.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Alfred Vincent Newton at
the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the
11th November 1858.
I, ALFRED VINCENT NEWTON, of the Office for Patents, 66, Chancery Lane,
in the County of Middlesex, Mechanical Draughtsman, do hereby declare the
nature of the said Invention for "IMPROVED APPARATUS FOR SECURING DOORS
OF SAFES, CLOSETS, AND APARTMENTS," to be as follows:-
This Invention relates to the locking of doors of bank safes, closets, and
apartments on the inside automically, by means of latching bars operated by a
clockwork movement when applied to the doors of bank safes; but to the
locking or unlocking the doors of rooms in hotels, &c., by combining an
auxiliary bell pulling wire with the ordinary bell pulling wire of the room.
On the inside of the door on an excentric axis is secured a cruciform bar,
which is intended to act as a bolt, and by its own gravity, when liberated
from a detent latching lever, will unlock the door.

page_text: To latch the bar, a handle is secured to the axis (outside of the door,) and
on being turned while shutting the door, it depresses the ends of the cross
bar, till they lock into recesses formed in the side walls of the safe and
brackets on the inside of the door, where they are firmly held until liberated
by a clock movement releasing the long arm of a pendulous latch which is
suspended on a pin within the safe, and holds the bars in their recesses.
In the face of the dial plate of the clock movement is a pin, which coming
in contact with the end of the long arm of the latch lever, will lift it so as to
allow the cross bars to drop back from their recesses, and leave the door of the
safe free to open.
For locking the doors of apartments in hotels, a series of bell cranks are
arranged in any suitable way in the rooms and halls of the building, so as to
allow the occupant to transmit signals through the bell pulling wires to a
bell or annunciator arranged in the office of the building.
To one of the bell cranks, for instance, is attached an auxiliary bell pulling
wire connected to suitable bell cranks, and terminating in a handle or knob in
a room-registering desk in the office, so as to be under the control of the
clerk. At the room end of the ordinary bell wire is attached a second
auxiliary pulling wire, which connects to a latch or bolt concealed in the
casing of the door frame. By means of a spring attached thereto, the bolt is
projected into a recess in the edge of the door to lock it, whenever liberated
by the withdrawal of a detent pin by the tenant on leaving his room, and thus
the door is securely locked during his absence, and as the detent pin has no
control over the bolt, the door cannot be unlocked again unless application is
made at the room-registering desk, when the clerk opens it again by auxiliary
bell pulling wires attached to the main pulling wire.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said Alfred Vincent Newton in the Great Seal Patent Office on
the 11th May 1859.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, ALFRED
VINCENT NEWTON, of the Office for Patents, 66, Chancery Lane, in the County
of Middlesex, Mechanical Draughtsman, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Eleventh day of November, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and fifty-eight, in the twenty-second year of Her
reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto me, the

page_text: said Alfred Vincent Newton, Her special license that I, the said Alfred
Vincent Newton, my executors, administrators, and assigns, or such others as
I, the said Alfred Vincent Newton, 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 "IM-
PROVED APPARATUS FOR SECURING DOORS OF SAFES, CLOSETS, AND APARTMENTS,"
being a communication from abroad, upon the condition (amongst others) that
I, the said Alfred Vincent Newton, by an instrument in writing under my
hand and seal, should particularly 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 in the Great Seal Patent Office within six calendar months
next and immediately after the date of the said Letters Patent.
NOW KNOW YE, that I, the said Alfred Vincent Newton, do hereby
declare the nature of the said Invention, and in what manner the same is to be
performed, to be particularly described and ascertained in and by the following
statement, reference being had to the Drawings hereunto annexed, and to the
letters and figures marked thereon (that is to say :-
This Invention, as communicated to me by my foreign correspondent, relates
to the locking of doors of bank safes, closets, and apartments on the inside
automically, by means of latching bars operated by a clockwork movement
when applied to the doors of bank safes; but when the Invention is applied to
the locking or unlocking the doors of rooms in hotels, &c., by combining an
auxiliary bell pulling wire with the ordinary bell pulling wire of the room.
In the accompanying Drawing, Fig. 1 is an interior view of a safe, looking
in from the back, showing the cross bars, latching lever, and automatic
apparatus; Fig. 2 is a front elevation of the safe; Fig. 3 is a transverse
section of the safe through the line X, X, of Fig. 1; Fig. 4 represents the
bell pulling wires of a house, as applied and operated to withdraw the bolt of
a room door on the second floor of a house; Fig. 5 is a representation of the
outside of the door, showing the detent knob for operating the bolt; and
Fig. 6 is a section of the door and frame through the line X, X, of Fig. 4.
A represents the walls of an iron safe, and B the door thereof. On the
inside of the door, on an axis C, is secured a cruciform bar D, excentric to its
true centre, so as to cause the back end of the bars to preponderate, and thus,
by their own gravity when liberated from a detent latching lever, unlock the
door. To latch the bar, a handle E is secured to the axis C outside of the
door, and on being turned while shutting the door, it depresses the ends of

page_text: the cruciform bar D till they lock into recesses formed in the side walls of the
safe and brackets F, F, on the inside of the door, where they are firmly held
until liberated by the clock movement releasing the pendulous latch lever G
from holding the ends of the bar D in their recesses. This latch lever is
suspended on a pin H on the inside of the safe, in such a way as to balance
somewhat like a pendulum, and thereby be moved from side to side by the
automatic apparatus with the least movement of power. The shape of this
latch lever is somewhat like an inverted V, but of irregular lengths of arms.
The short arm g acts as a latch to keep the bar D in a locking position, and
it is held down upon the bar D by the pressure of the spring I at its back.
The liberation of the arm g² is effected by a pin J in the face of the dial plate
K, coming in contact with the end of the long arm G of the latch lever,
whereby the lever is rocked sufficiently to allow the cruciform bar D to drop
back from the recesses, and leave the door of the safe free to open.
L repre-
sents the frame and movements of an ordinary lever clockwork movement; as
no special claim is set up for the clockwork, and any clockwork movement
will answer the purpose designed, it is not deemed important to give any
lengthened description of the clock. M (Fig. 4) represents the walls and
flooring of a section of a building, and m³, a door leading to one of the rooms
thereof on the second floor; N1, N2, N3, are a series of bell cranks, arranged in
any suitable way in the rooms and halls of the building, so as to allow the
occupant to transmit signals through the bell pulling wires P to a bell or
annunciator Q arranged in the office of the building. To one of the bell
cranks N2, for instance, is attached an auxiliary bell pulling wire R, connected
to suitable bell cranks S¹ and S³, and terminating in a handle or knob T in a
room-registering desk in the office, so as to be under the control of the clerk.
At the room end of the ordinary bell wire P is attached a second auxiliary
pulling wire U, which connects to a latch or bolt V concealed in the casing of
the door frame, and having a spring 3 attached thereto. The object of this
spring is to project the bolt into a recess in the edge of the door to lock it
whenever liberated by the withdrawal of a detent pin W by the tenant on
leaving his room. The door is thus securely locked for the time of his
absence, and as the detent pin has no control over the bolt V, the door cannot
be unlocked again unless application is made at the room-registering desk,
when the clerk opens it again by operating the knob T, which, through the
auxiliary bell-pulling wires R and U attached to the main pulling wire P,
withdraws the bolt V, which is then again caught on the end of the detent
pin W, and the door is thus free to be opened. To guard against the room
being locked while the tenant is in his room, a knob Y is attached to the

page_text: inside of the bolt, which, projecting into the room, is always at his command,
consequently the bolt may be re-adjusted on the detent pin whenever desired.
Having now described the Invention of improved apparatus for securing
doors of safes, closets, and apartments, as communicated to me by my foreign
correspondent, and explained the manner of carrying the same into effect, I
wish it to be understood that under the above in part recited Letters Patent
I claim,-
1st, the application to bank safe and other doors of a cruciform bar, or its
equivalent, mounted on an axis excentric to its true axis, for the purpose
above set forth.
2ndly, the use, in combination with the excentric locking bar, of a pendulum
latch lever, secured to the inside of a chamber or safe, and operated by a
clockwork movement.
And, 3dly, the use of the bell pulling wire P, in combination with the auxiliary
wires R and U and latch lever V, arranged and operating for the purposes
herein-before set forth.
In witness whereof, I, the said Alfred Vincent Newton, have hereunto
set my hand and seal, this Fifth day of May, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and fifty-nine.
Witness,
J. W. MOFFATT,
66, Chancery Lane.
A. V. NEWTON. (L.S.)