IMPROVEMENTS IN SUPPORTS FOR SUPPORTING AND ADJUSTING UMBRELLAS, PARASOLS, AND OTHER LIKE ARTICLES
Year: 1870

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by Edward Parsons North at
the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on
the 3rd May 1870.
I, EDWARD PARSONS NORTH, of Birmingham, in the County of
Warwick, Manufacturer, do hereby declare the nature of the said
Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN SUPPORTS FOR SUPPORTING AND ADJUSTING
UMBRELLAS, PARASOLS, AND OTHER LIKE ARTICLES," to be as follows :-
My Invention consists of the construction and combination or
arrangement herein-after described of the parts of supports for supporting
and adjusting umbrellas, parasols, screens, and other articles whereby
an umbrella, parasol, or screen, or other like article can be supported in
a carriage or elsewhere at the required height or at any required angle
or position. I will describe my Invention as applied to a carriage. To
the seat of the carriage or other part a foundation or fixing plate is
screwed or attached; to this foundation plate a vertical rod capable of
being fixed and removed by a screw is connected. The said rod is
capable of turning upon a centre so as to assume a horizontal position
parallel to the edge of the carriage seat when not in use. Upon this

page_text: rod is a sliding tubular socket capable of being fixed at any required
height and position on the rod. by means of a binding screw. The said
sliding socket carries a clamp turning in a vertical plane upon the said
socket. By means of a binding screw this clamp can be fixed at the
required angle, or by changing the position of the said binding screw it
may be made to engage in one of a series of holes made in the axis upon
which the clamp turns and thereby firmly fix it in its position. The
handle of the umbrella to be supported is inserted in the clamp which
is screwed down until it grips the handle firmly. By means of the
binding screw of the clamp the umbrella may be fixed with its stick
either in a vertical position or inclined at any angle to a vertical line.
By means of the sliding socket and its binding screw, the umbrella
may be fixed at any required height and position around the vertical
rod.
In boisterous weather, or where very great firmness is required, the
binding screw of the clamp is made to engage in one of the holes hercin-
before described, and the sliding socket is more firmly fixed on the rod
in the following manner:-A series of cross holes is made in the vertical
rod into any one of which a screw pin may be inserted. The lower edge
of the sliding socket is provided with a series of notches, any one of
which may be brought down upon the projecting part of the screw pin,
and the rotatory motion of the socket upon the rod thereby effectually
prevented. The vertical rod described may be provided with a pointed or
spiked end in place of the foundation plate and fixing screw described.
The pointed or spiked end of the rod being forced into the ground the
apparatus may be used to support and adjust umbrellas and sunshades
for out-of-door purposes. The rod described for fixing the support to the
ground may be dispensed with, and a pole or walking stick employed
instead. In this case I dispense with the sliding socket and employ in
place of it a second clamp by which the support is connected to the pole
or stick.