Democratic Sentinel, Volume 18, Number 23, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 22 June 1894 — SERGT. PURCELL’S INVENTION. [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

SERGT. PURCELL’S INVENTION.

The Police Officer’s Safety Scheme for Elevator Hatchways. . Police Sergeant Thomas Purcell, New York City, has invented an automatic door for elevator hatchways which is valuable and practical as a preventive of accidents and an obstruction to the spread of Are. The illustration shows that the doors part from the central line and retire within horizontal recesses as the cage approaches. When the cage has passed the hatches are automatically drawn

out and brought together. A pair of angle arms are pivotally secured to a plate fixedly attached to the side wall of the well. The depending extremities of these arms are connected by link bars to the respective hatches. A precisely similar arrangement is provided below, except in an inverted order. The shorter arm extremities are notched or recessed. Secured to the side stile of the cage is a short bar, the projecting ends of which carry studs, into whose path the recessed inner extremities of the arms project. When the cage is about to descend the hatches are closed and the studs are about to engage in the recesses. This must cause a positive swing movement of the arms that will drive the hatch doors apart and allow the cage to pass. As the same actuating studs engage the lower set of arms (they having been brought to the position indicated by the dotted lines), a positive closing movement will be exerted, the top of the cage meanwhile having passed below that floor. It is obvious that the posts are always set ready for engagement, either up or down, and no mistake can be made. It will be understood that this principle, with suitable modifications, can be adapted to open or close the ordinary vertical door commonly used. Doing Good by Stealth.—Missionary—“The money which you have given to the cause will be like bread cast upon the water.” Drummer—“Oh, that’s all right. I shall charge It in my expenses.”—Boston Transcript

AUTOMATIC ELEVATOR DOOR.