A Safeguard Against Screw Loosening on Electric Incandescent Lamp Shade-holders.
Year: 1899

page_text: Date of Application, 29th Apr., 1899
Complete Specification Left. 5th Jan., 1900- Accepted, 7th Apr., 1900
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION.
A Safeguard Against Screw Loosening on Electric Incandescent
Lamp Shade-holders.
We WILHELM SCHLOESSER, Manufacturer, of Eitorf, holder of the Firm
Kammgarnspinnerei Eitorf," and HERMANN MOERES, Electrotechnologist, of
Eitorf, in the Province of Rhineland and Kingdom of Prussia, do hereby
declare the nature of this invention to be as follows:
-
On the usual shade-holders for electric incandescent lamps, in which the
shades are held by press-screws (as a rule three), adjusted in the holder, one
often finds the drawback, that by a shaking of holder and shade, the press-
screws go by degrees backwards, i.e. turn outwards in the holder, and thus is
the shade gradually held looser, till one day or other the moment arrives when
one of the screws completely quits the edge of the shade, and the latter falls
down, not only entailing the breaking of the object itself, but often of other
objects which happen to the lying under it, which again, according to their
nature, can also do damage, e.g. the lying under such falling shade, of a glass,
or a bottle of ink, oil, acid, or the like, and lastly the shade can easily do injury
to persons themselves.
This unintentional loosening of the screws and the falling of the shades
caused thereby is now once and for all done away with by the invention, repre-
sented in various ways of being carried out, in the accompanying drawing,
and therefor all the depicted evils and accidents are got rid of.
The invention, in the main, lies therein, that caps are brought to bear on top
of the screw-heads, which are firmly pressed against the screws by tensely
drawn springs, and so that they even rub against the milling on the screw-
head circumference and thus prevent it from unintentional turning.
In Figs. 1 and 2 of the accompanying drawing, one method of carrying out
the invention is represented, wherein the caps are drawn upwards onto the
mother-screw by spiral springs running vertically up and along each arm of
the shade-holder and fastened at their upper ends, and in fact Fig. 1
shows all the springs in expanded condition, whilst Fig. 2 shows one of the caps
lifted off, and the spring thereof relaxed.
In Figs. 3-6, the mode of carrying out the invention, by horizontal spiral
springs holding the caps on the screw heads, is shown in various working stages,
of which Fig. 3 exhibits the adjustment of shade holder as represented in
Figs. 1, and 2, but without a connecting ring between the lower ends of the
free arms, so that the latter remain somewhat pliant and moveable (a form of
the holder in which a falling of the shades the most often occurs, because not
only do the screws give but also the arms of the holder themselves), Figs. 4
and 5 being elevation and plan of a form of the shade-holder with perfectly
short arms, whilst Fig. 6 represents the well-known now mostly employed shade-
holder with a lower connecting ring between the separate arms. Figs. 7-10
show details in a larger scale, and as a fact Figs. 7 and 8 give us lateral and

page_text: horizontally between the separate caps in the case of a shade-holder with
connecting ring b between the lower ends of the arms a, to allow the spiral
spring e to cross above the ring as in Fig. 6, as otherwise it would lie thereon
in stretched condition, which would not act well on account of the convexity
of the ring, and therefore slip off. In this case the caps d must be lengthened
upwards, so that their upper ends form or receive the eyes for connecting up
with the spiral spring e as shown in Fig. 6; in the last case, the lower screw-
head-holding and enclosing ends of the caps & must at least have the lateral
flaps or prominences f, similarly to Figs. 7 and 8, and the lowest thereof be
provided with an inner bend g, as the spiral spring acting at the upper ends
of the cap have the tendency, leverlike to turn these latter up at the uppermost
point of the screw-head edge and so to drag off the lower end of the cap out-
wards from the screw-head. This is put an end to by the bent over flaps g.
To remove, in this case, the cap d from the screw-head, one has firstly to draw
it so far down. that the flap g passes outwards behind and beyond the screw-head,
and can then lift the cap off, i.e. push it upwards to admit of the screw freely
turning.
In the arrangement as in Figs. 3 and 4, one can either like Fig. 5 shows,
equidistantly from each other, adjust similar flaps f on the circumference of the
cap (four are drawn). which standing straight, i.e. without bend, lie along the
edge of the screw-head and enclose it, or one can, as Figs. 9 and 10 show, adopt
two flaps lying opposite each other with inner bendings. In the first case
each cap is simply lifted off in the direction of the screw axis, i.e. radially from
the shade-holder in order to remove it from the screw-head appertaining thereto,
whereby both the neighbouring spiral springs c are drawn out somewhat longer.
In the latter case however, to remove the cap from the screw-head appertaining
thereto, one has to move or push it laterally somewhat along the frontal surface
of the screw-head, i.e. at right angles to the screw axis and tangentially to the
shade-holder till the flaps g pass beyond the screw-head and one can now raise
the entire cap and push it upwards or outwards.
Besides the sketched and described forms, manifold other trivial alterations
can be made in the adjustment of the springs e of the caps d and their promi-
nences which however in the end revert to the selfsame ground idea and
ground construction.
The spiral springs e can of course be made of any possible suitable material,
e.g. steel, brass, copper, and so on.
Those of steel would naturally spring the best and maintain their springing
powers the longest whereas those of copper or brass would look the best; as
the shade-holders are usually made of brass or copper (bronze), therefore the
springs could be made of the same colour as the shade-holder.
Dated this 25th day of April 1899.
66
A Safeguard Against Screw Loosening on Electric Incandescent
Lamp Shade-holders.
We WILHELM SCHLOESSER. Manufacturer, of Eitorf, holder of the Firm
Kammgarnspinnerei Eitorf," and HERMANN MOERES, Electrotechnologist, of
Eitorf, in the Province of Rhineland and Kingdom of Prussia, do hereby

page_text: the caps d, so that it is quite sufficient to place such projections f on the lower
half of the circumference of the caps d.
Their form and number are ad libetum, but as drawn in Figs. 7 and 8, two
lateral and one lower prominence suffice, which latter is preferably provided
with a slight upward bend g, so that a springing off outwards of the cap is
efficaciously prevented. These caps therefore in unused condition hang down
vertically on the spiral springs above the screw c, and when one desires to bring
them over the screw-heads, are drawn down so low that by letting them go,
their prominences f pass over the screw-heads, and thus shut these between
the said prominences, which is automatically achieved by the spiral spring as
soon as the cap d is liberated.
Of course the cap d can be constructed in the wise that the disc can be made
to have by pressing, a broad bent-round edge which by lateral slits can be
turned into so many single somewhat springy flaps, so that one can press the
cap itself springingly and gripingly onto the screw-head c.
Whilst in the forms of execution as in Figs. 1 and 2, each cap d hangs down
separately from a spiral spring e, in those of Figs. 3-5 all the caps d are con-
nected with each other by spiral springs e, so that the entire forms a sort of
ring or closed chain.
This form of carrying out is namely suitable for those shade-holders, in which
the connecting ring between the several arms a is wanting, as is represented in
two different constructions in Figs. 3-5.
The form as given in Fig. 3 is the formerly used and appreciated shape of
the shade-holder, before the introduction of the construction as given in Figs. 1
and 2 as the arms are comparatively long and not connected together by a ring,
their lower free ends give somewhat, i.e. allow themselves to be more easily
brought assunder or together, even when they are made of thicker material, i.e.
As a
are stronger made, than the arms of the construction of Figs. 1 and 2.
result, the shade can, with these holders, loosen far more easily than with all
others, as not only do the screws gradually relax, but the arms themselves press
One chose therefore and
assunder, and let the shade fall down between them.
used in preference the form represented in Figs. 4 and 5, In these, the arms
are comparatively short, and run at first slantingly outwards and then vertically
downwards, so that a springing, or a bending of the same cannot take place.
Whilst in the case of the shade-holder construction, shown in Figs. 3 and 4,
where no lower connecting ring between the arms a exists, the caps d simply
have on both sides in the middle an eye whereon the spiral springs join, i.e.
these latter are in a line with the screws c, i.e. take the place of the ring b of
Figs. 1 and 2 it is natheless necessary, if one wish to have the spiral spring lie
horizontally between the separate caps d in the case of a shade-holder with
connecting ring b between the lower ends of the arms a, to allow the spiral
spring e to cross above the ring b as in Fig. 6, as otherwise it would lie thereon
in stretched condition, which would not act well on account of the convexity
must be lengthened
of the ring, and therefore slip off. In this case the caps
upwards, so that their upper ends form or receive the eyes for connecting up
with the spiral spring e as shown in Fig. 6: in the last case, the lower screw-
head-holding and enclosing ends of the caps & must at least have the lateral
flaps or prominences f, similarly to Figs. 7 and 8, and the lowest thereof be
provided with an inner bend g, as the spiral spring acting at the upper ends
of the cap have the tendancy leverlike to turn these latter up at the uppermost
point of the screw-head edge and so to drag off the lower end of the cap out-
wards from the screw-head. This is put an end to by the bent over flap g.
To remove in this case, the cap d from the screw-head, one has firstly to draw
it so far down that the flap g passes outwards behind and beyond the screw-head,
and can then lift the cap off, i.e. push it upwards to admit of the screw freely
turning.
In the arrangement as in Figs. 3 and 4, one can either like Fig. 5 shows,