IMPROVEMENTS IN ATTACHING DOOR AND OTHER KNOBS OR HANDLES TO AND ADJUSTING THEM ON THEIR SPINDLES
Year: 1880

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by William Macvitie at the Office of the
Commissioners of Patents on the 11th October 1880.
WILLIAM MACVITIE, of Birmingham, in the County of Warwick, Manufacturer.
"IMPROVEMENTS IN ATTACHING DOOR AND OTHER KNOBS OR HANDLES TO AND
ADJUSTING THEM ON THEIR SPINDLES."
My Invention consists of the construction and combinations of parts herein after
described for attaching door and other knobs or handles to and adjusting them on
their spindles.
I will describe my Invention as applied to door knobs and their spindles.
My Invention is applicable to the attaching of the moveable door knob to and
adjusting it on its spindle as well as to the attaching of the fixed knob to its
spindle, but the fixed knob may be attached in the ordinary way, and the moveable
knob be attached and adjusted according to my Invention.
At
I use a plain or unscrewed square spindle, and I make that part of the spindle
on which the moveable knob is to be fixed of a trough shape in cross section.
the open top of the trough I place a flat spring fitting closely in the said trough,
The fixed end
and having at its free end a projecting tooth with an inclined face.
of the spring is rivetted or otherwise secured to the middle of the spindle, that is,
midway between its ends. When the spring is in its normal position it is situated
flush with the spindle. When pressure is put upon the inclined face of the tooth
in the act of fastening the knob, as herein after described, the spring is depressed
in the trough of the spindle, and the projecting tooth of the spring is made to lie
flush with the open top of the trough. I fix in the axis of the neck of the moveable
metallic knob, and in case of non-metallic knobs in the axis of the metallic mount
In one of the
a square tube of a size proper for the square spindle to fit closely in.
faces of the square tube I make a series of parallel cross slots or openings equi-distant
from each other, and of a size proper for the spring tooth on the spindle to engage
with. Instead of cross slots, cross depressions may be made in the square tube.
In attaching the moveable knob to its spindle the knob is passed onto the spindle
with the slotted side of the tube in the knob presented to the inclined face of the
spring tooth at the end of the spindle. The spring tooth is thereby depressed
into its spindle by the slotted tube, and when the knob has been adjusted to the

page_text: proper distance on the spindle the said spring tooth snaps into that cross slot in
the tube which has been brought opposite to it and thus fixes the knob to its
spindle in its adjusted position. As the knob is passed to its place on the spindle
the spring tooth engages with and is pressed out of the several cross slots behind
that with which it engages to fix the knob in its adjusted position after the manner
of a pawl working over the teeth of a ratchet wheel. In order to remove the
moveable knob from the spindle it is necessary to depress the spring into the trough
of the spindle, so as to withdraw its tooth from the cross slot in the knob. For
this purpose a hole is made in the neck of the knob opposite the face of the spring.
By passing the point of a bradawl or the stem of a carpet pin or other fine rod
down the hole in the neck of the knob so as to press upon the spring and depress
it into the spindle, the inclined tooth of the spring is liberated from the cross slot
in the tube of the knob, and the latter may be withdrawn from the spindle.
In attaching the fixed knob to its spindle according to my Invention I make a
single cross slot in the tube in the neck of the knob and the spring tooth has no
incline upon its face. In this case the spring tooth is depressed by hand before
passing the knob onto the spindle, the spring tooth snapping into the single cross
slot or opening to fix the knob, the straight tooth when engaged in the cross slot
preventing the knob having motion in either direction on its spindle. The fixed
knob is released by depressing the spring tooth by pressure upon the spring at the
front of the neck of the knob.
When both knobs are attached to the spindle according to my Invention, the
spindle is made trough shaped throughout, or nearly throughout; its whole
length and the two springs are made by preference of one strip of steel, an enlarged
part at the middle of the strip being rivetted to the middle of the spindle.