US1260418A - Connecting device. - Google Patents

Description

w. H. McLAUGHLlN.

. CONNECTING DEVICE. APPLICATION FILED JUNE 21, 1917.

Patented Mar. 26, 1918.

I warren stares rarrrr t me.

WILLIAM H. MoLAUGI-ILIN, 0F HARTFORD, CONNECTICUT, ASSIGNOR TO CASSIUS S. CHASE, OF HARTFGRID, CONNECTICUT.

CONN EGTING DEVICE.

Application filed June 21, 1917.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that 1, WILLIAM H. Mo- LAUGHLIN, a citizen of the United States, residing at Hartford, in the county of Hartford and State of Connecticut, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Connecting Devices, of which the following is a specification.

This invention relates to chain link connectors or fasteners intended by applicant -more particularly for use with anti-skid chains, of the fixed point type, for automobile trucks. However, the invention is not at all limited to this use, but is capable of use to advantage in a great many ways in many different arts. As shown in the first figure of the drawing, it is used to connect the terminal links of an anti-skid chain, as above mentioned. However, it may be used just as easily to connect the terminal links of two or more chains.

The primary object of this invention is to provide means, movable with relation to each other and their casing, to receive and hold chain links and the like against disengagement therefrom. Other objects are, to provide a casing in which said parts move and by which they are held, braced and guided; to provide for the locking of said means in closed position; to provide for expeditious, easy and cheap repair or replacement of parts; to increase durability and simplicity and secure compactness, while at the same time decreasing the cost of manufacture, all of which objects, among others, are accomplished by the combination, construction and arrangement of parts, all as hereinafter more particularly set forth, describedand claimed.

In the accompanying drawings:

Figure 1 represents a central longitudinal sectional view of a device embodying my invention, the blocks and hooks being in side elevation, as applied to the felly of a wheel, also shown in section, the ends of an anti-skidding chain being applied to the hooks or projections, which are closed;

Fig. 2, a similar view of the connector alone, the hooks being in open or separated position;

Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented Mar. 26, 191%.

Serial No. 176,131.

Fig. 3, a detail perspective view of all the parts separated; and i Fig. 1, a detail plan view, broken away, showing a modified form of the means for locking the blocks.

Referring now in detail to the drawings, A indicates the anti-skidding chain having its terminal links passed over the hooks 8, B the solid rubber tire and C the felly of the wheel to which the connector may be attached and will be attached in the use contemplated by applicant.

The casing of the device is composed of a recessed front plate or cap 1 having parallel inner side faces and parallel inner end faces which are at right angles to the inner face of its front wall, which face is parallel to the inner face of the base plate 2. It is important that all of said faces be straight and smooth to engage at all points and brace and guide the blocks 7 hereinafter described.

Both the front plate 1 and base plate 2 are the same in outline, of the same size and provided with two lateral lugs v3, one on each end, and on opposite sides, of the plates. These lugs 3 are provided with perforations 4: to receive fastening bolts 5, which, passing through the perforations in the lugs of both plates and into the felly or other object on which the device is mounted, firmly hold the plates 1 and 2 together and the device as a whole on the felly or other object.

The front wall of plate 1 is provided with a central longitudinal slot 6. The recess of this plate is just wide enough and just deep enough to receive the blocks 7 -snugly, the rear faces of these plates 7 lying flush with the edges of said recess while their front faces are in engagement at all points with the inner face of plate 1 and their side faces are in engagement with the side walls of said recess. Further, this recess will be slightly longer than the combined length of said blocks 7 in order that said blocks may have longitudinal movement therein.

These blocks? are provided with hooks or projections 8, which may be integral with said blocks as shown, and are to be made and projecting through the slot 6 of said plate.

It is to be noted that the distance between the ends of slot 6 and the respective end walls of the recess corresponds to the dis tance between the outer ends of the blocks 7 and the outer sides of their respective hooks 0r projections 8, in order that, in locked position, the block indirectly acted on by the locking means may engage the wall of the end of said slot and the end wall of the recess and be firmly braced thereby, as well as on all other faces.

To look these blocks 7 in place I provide a locking thumb-screw 9 working through internally screw-threaded bore 10 in the center of one of the ends of the front plate 1, the inner end of this screw 9 engaging the outer end of the adjacent block 7 to force it over until its inner face and the end of its hook, which lie in the same transverse planetaken at right angles to the'face of the block, are in engagement with the inner face of the other block 7 and its hook 8 when the latter block and its hook are in engagement with the adjacent end wall of the recess and the adjacent end wall of the slot 6 respectively.

p In operation, the locking means will be moved out of locking position to release the blocks for longitudinal movement, one of the blocks 7 Wlll be moved away from the other, as shown in Fig. 2, the chain links passedover the ends of the hooks 8, then the blocks will be moved back so that their. inner faces and the ends of their hooks 8' engage when the block away from the look ing means is in engagement with the end wall of the recess and its hook is in engagement with the adjacent end wall of the slot 6, and the locking means will then be actuated to lock them in this position, orthe locking means may be used to force the blocks into this position, thus taking up any slack in the'chain or chains.

In case one of the hooks is broken the bolts 5 are to be removed, a new block 7 carrying a hook 8 inserted and the bolts replaced. In practice, because of the construction of the particular object on which the device as'a whole is mounted, it may be found that the removal of one bolt 5 and the'loosening of the other will allow the device to be turned'on the remaining bolt 5 as a pivot to a point where the two plates may be separated by turning one a little more on the remaining bolt 5 than the other, and access to the interior of the casing gained and a new block 7 inserted in this way, without the necessity for complete removal. i

Of course, where the device is applied to a smooth flat metal surface the latter may take the place of the base-plate 2, which may then be dispensed with.

In the modification shown in Fig. at a cam 11, mounted on a pivot 12 in the end of the plate 1 and having its outer face flush with the outer face of the end of the plate 1 in locking position, is used as a locking and re-.

leasing means instead of the thumb-screw 9 used'in the preferred form. Otherwise the construction and operation isthe'same in both forms. 7 7

All parts are to be of reasonably heavy rigid nonresilient metal to prevent canting of the blocks 7, which, with their hooks S, will preferably be of forged steel inorder to withstand the great strain put upon them in the use to which applicant intends to apply them.

Obviously, this invention may be embodied in a number of forms, each varying in minor ways from the forms above described.

Therefore, it is my intention to cover all such modifications in the appended claims which it is my desire shall be given the broadest construction consistent with their wordmg.

Having thus described myinventiomwhat I clann as new and desire to secure by Letters Patent is:

1. A connecting device comprising alongitudinally slotted plate, in combination with plates adapted tomove longitudinally of said slotted plate and having hooksproj ecting through said slot, means for guidingv said movable plates and means for engaging the end of one of said movable plates for locking said movable plates in position.

2. A connecting device comprisinga lon- V gitudinally slotted recessed plate, in combi nation with plates adapted to move in said recess and guided and braced thereby and having hooks projecting through said slot, and means working through the end of said plate to engage-one of said movable plates to lock the latter in position.

3. A connecting device comprising a longitudinally slotted recessed plate anda base plate, in combination withplates adapted to move in said recess, engaging insuch movementand at rest the front and side walls of said recess and the inner wall of said base plate, and having hooks projecting through said slot, and means -workin g said plates to lock said plates in position. 7 4. A connecting device consisting of alonthrough said slotted plateito engageione of gitudinally slotted recessed plate and a base plate, in combination With plates adapted to move in said recess and having hooks projecting through said slot, means for securing said plates firmly together and means orking through one of said plates to engage one of said movable plates to lock the latter in position. 7

5. A connecting device consisting of a longitudinally slotted recessed plate and a base plate, in combination With plates adapted to move in said recess and having hooks projecting through said slot, means passing through said recessed plate and said base plate to hold them together and in position on some object and means Working through one of the latter plates to engage one of said movable plates to hold the latter in position.

6. A connecting device comprising a plate, in combination With independently mounted plates adapted to move bodily With rela tion thereto and to each other, and means for locking said plates in normal position.

In testimony whereof, I have signed my name to this specification in the presence of two subscribing Witnesses.

lVILLIAM H. MCLAUGHLIN.

Witnesses:

SAML M. HORN, WARREN D. CHASE.

Uopies of this patent may be obtained for five cents each, by addressing the Commissioner of Patents,

Washington, D. G.

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