US1252112A - Porch-shade. - Google Patents

Description

A. C. HOUGH.

PORCH SHADE.

APPLICATION FILED NOV. 7,.1913.

1,252,.1 12. Patented Jan. 1,1918;

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LIGHT GPE'E o at Wu mint 1%.. HE-E WITNESSES; 1 MVE/VTOR ATTORNEICS.

A. C. HOUGH.

PORCH SHADE. APPLICATION FILED NOV. 7, ma.

2 SHEBTSSHEET 2.

4 o o u FEEL & E'HEL iV/TZVESgESi I L'VVENTOR.

fie Q7 @atw AZEL C. HOUGH, OF JANESVILLE, WISCONSIN.

PORCH-SHADE.

Application filed November 7,1913.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, A2121. 0. HoUoH, a citizen of the United States of America, residing at Janesville, in the county of Rock and State of Wisconsin, have invented a new and useful Porch-Shade, of which the following is a specification.

My invention relates to improvements in shades, which are commonly termed porch shades for the reason that they areso extensively employed in connection with porches, and which include in their con-- struction weft units made of strips of wood, and consists essentially of a shade made up with alternately arrangedwide and narrow slats, as hereinafter set forth.

It will be clearly understood by all who are skilled in the art of chromatics that, where the slats of a shade are of the same width throughout such shade, it is impracticable not to say impossible to use a very great number of color combinations. which are available and can be readily utilized to great advantage when some of the slats are narrower than others, or in other words, when the slats contrast with each other in width as well as in color. It is inadvisable or impracticable for example, to associate together or use in conjunction with one another wide' slats, where there is very strong color contrast between different slats, the reason for this obviously resulting, not from the fact that the color combination in itself may be inharmonious, but rather from the fact that two adjacent slats in contrasting colors bulk alike and so produce a fabric that is-inartistic, and is entirelv impossible so far as shade making and selling are concerned.

To illustrate the point in question, let it be assumed that. in a shade, wide tan colored slat be followed bv a narrow seal brown slat, and the latter followed by a wide light green slat, and this light green slat followed by another seal brown slat, this combination being repeated as often as necessary to make up the shade, regardless of its size. The result thus secured must be entirely harmonious and extremely pleasing to the eye, whereas the same color combinations with all wide'slats or with all narrow slats would, from the artistic standpoint,be impossible, and from thetrade selling standpoint enti'relyimpracticable; The facttha-t a small nt asting loa thatis s y;

Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented J an. 1, 1918.

Serial No. 799,804.

the amount displayed on a narrow slat, can be interposed between two wide slats of a different (yet harmonizing) color or colors, adds very greatly to the range of desirable color combinations possible and available, hence the difference in results to be obtained by the use of wide and narrow slats in the same shade, over the results to be obtained by the use of all wide or all narrow slats is exceedingly great.

The principal object of my invention, therefore,- is toprovide' means for greatly enhancing the appearance'of shades, at the same time for increasing widely the range of available color combinationsor schemes for shades, in accordance with the statements hereinbefore appearing, to the end that shades areproduced of improved appearance in texture and color in great va.-. riety, hence of greater value both to producer and consumer.

Another object of my inventionis to produce a shade which will roll and unroll more readily than shades of the old type with wide slats throughout, and which can be rolled into a smaller compass than can the old type of shade.

Still another object is to cheapen the construction of shades by employing therein weft units or slats of different widths.

ther objects and advantages will appear in the course of the following description.

I attain the objects and secure the advantages of my invention by the means illustrated in the accompanying drawings, in which Figure l is a side elevation of a shade which embodies my invention in a practical form; Fig. 2, an edge view of said shade; Fig. 3, a side elevation of a portion of a shade-which is slightly modified from the construction first shown, and, Fig. 4:, a side elevation of a portion'of a shade, disclosing a construction which slightly differs from either of the other two.

Similar figures refer to similar parts throughout theseveral views.

Although I have shown and will describe in detail only three constructions or forms of my invention, it' is to be understood that there are a great variety of other constructions' or forms thereof, and that I do not, therefore, desire or intend to be restricted to the three herein just mentioned.

Referring to the cflrawings, it: will be. obi-- served that, in its general aspect, my invention relates to and includes a shade of woven variety and comprising alternately arranged, and contrasting in texture or in both texture and color, wide and narrow weft units 1 and 2 respectively, held in place relative to each other by means of warp strands 3. These constitute the body of the shade, and there are usually provided for such body, at the top and bottom, some suitable means for supporting and weighting the shade, such means in the present case consisting of a strip 4 on each side or on front and back of the uppermost slat, which is one of the slats 1,. and of the lowermost slat, which is also a wide slat 1. The upper pair of strips 1 is nailed or otherwise secured to the top slat 1 and the same thing is true of the lower pairof strips 4: relative to the'bottom slat 1.

In the first view there is a single narrow strip 2 between each adjacent pair of wide strips 1; and in this view is depicted the color scheme set forth in detail in the earlier part of this specification, in order to serve as an illustration of the contrasting feature relative to colors or shades, as well as the contrast in texture. It has not been deemed necessary to work out the chromatic contrast in the last two views.

In Fig. 3 there are two narrow strips 2 interposed between each pair of adjacent wide strips 1, while in Fig. 4 there are three narrow strips between each pair of adjacent wide strips, except at the bottom.

It must now be clear that numerous different combinations are made possible by the use of wide and narrow strips, especially so by introducing into the construction the art of chromatics, and that substantial ground is found for the advantages hereinbefore presented at some length.

The employment of narrow slats of less width than has usually been employed, where the slats are of like width throughout, enables me to construct a shade at less expense than heretofore, because of the fact that narrow slats may be made from material which would otherwise be waste material, and, as the narrow slats are more flexible than the wide slats, they can be handled more rapidly in a machine designed for the manufacture of the shade by machinery. The wide slats, however, give the desired strength, rigidity and resistance against diagonal thrust which would not be obtained if the. shade were made wholly of narrow slats. lVhen a porch shade of the slat construction is made wherein the slats are all of the same width, the warp strands by which the slats are held in position are affected by changes of atmosphere and give and take or stretch and shrink, thus at different times becoming slightly elongated. This, how- 5 ever, does not occur uniformly throughout rated, thus presenting openings between the edges of the slats which are not uniform in width from end to end and which are readily noticeable, causing the shade to present an objectionable appearance, or, in other words, taking from the shade that uniform appearance requisite to give the'desired' satisfaction and commercial value. It is to be noted also that when the warp strands are elongated the elongation takes place to the largest extent where the greatest weight is supported, so that the open shade draws most heavily on the portion of the warp strands at the top of the shade, because-of the weight below, and the drawing or stretching becomes less toward the bottom. This is objectionable because the shade when so distorted presents an unsatisfactory ap pearance, with wide open slits at the top and narrow open slits at the bottom. Now, while these objections from a mechanical standpoint may not be overcome, the effect 7 or result so far as objectionable appearance is concerned is overcome by theemployment of both wide and narrow slats, because the variation in the general appearance of the shade caused by variation in widths of the slats presents to the eye of the observer the predominant feature, and the lesser irregularities, because of the variations in the widths of the'openings between the slats, are

not noticeable. It is a well recognized fact that minor imperfections or minor details are not noticeable when found in conjunc tion with larger and more noticeable variations or difierences, so that the marked difference'in appearance caused by variations in the widths of the slats overshadows the diflerences or imperfections in the width of the openings between the slats, and the same is not noticeable so that, while any defect of this character might prove a serious objection in a shade having slats all of the same width, it is found that it is not at all :objectionable in a shade having slats of different widths, and the commercial value of the shade made up of slats of different widths is not injuriously affected by reason of the defects before referred to and which are seriously objectionable in a shade made up of slats of the same width.

The common width of slats for shades of this character, when they are made all of the same width, is approximately seveneighths of an inch, because seven-eighths of an inch is the recognized standard thickness in board measure of regular stock material, the boards being sawed in the rough at one inch and when planed one-sixteenth of an inch is taken from each surface and the slats are cut from the edge of a dressed board and this material has a standard value in the market and the expense of manufacture of articles from stock of this kind cannot be lessened to any material extent, and, if any portion of the shade can be made up of slats of less Width than the thickness of standard measure, then the stock comes from a field of supplies which in a great measure is classed as Waste and for this reason a shade may be made at less expense. Such a shade contains therein or in part consists of slats Which are of a Width of material or of a material the Width of Which is of less thickness than the standard recognized in the trade.

That these shades are economical in the utilization of Weft material, and are flexible and capable of being compactly rolled, are all self-evident facts.

I make no claim herein to any particular weave or to any special top and bottom construction, but What I do claim as my invention, and desire to secure by Letters Patent, is

As an improved article of manufacture, a porch shade consisting of a plurality of Warp strands, a plurality of Wide flat-sided Weft units in the Warp at intervals, and a plurality of narrow flat-sided Weft units arranged in said Warp in the intervals between said Wide units, said Weft units being separated from each other by said Warp strands.

AZEL C. HOUGH.

Witnesses:

ALFRED C. FAIRBANKS, F. A. CUTTER.

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

Washington, D. G.

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