US2194061A - Device for protection of banks against robberies - Google Patents

Description

March 19, 1940. A. wmucfi 2,194,061

, DEVICE FOR PROTECTION OF BANKS AGAINST ROBBERIES Filed Dec. 17, 1937 2 Sheets-Sheet l INVENTQR. 50 94 W/OUCH. B

Y aw Z @A/ ATTORNEY.

March 19, 1940. A w uc 2,194,361

DEVICE FOR PROTECTION OF BANKS AGAINST ROBBERIES Filed Dec. 17, 1937 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 INVENTOR. 50 9 34 W/D/O'?- TORN A BY.

Patented Mar. 19, 1940 PATENT OFFICE DEVICE FOR PROTECTION OF BANKS AGAINST ROBBERIES Adam Widuch, MichiganCity, Ind., assignor of one-half to Caroline Ciaglo, Hamtramck,

Mich.

Application December 1'7, 1937, Serial No. 180,325

2 Claims.

The purpose of my invention is to provide means to prevent robberies of banks, said means being simple in construction and design and yet efficient and made so that the device may be easily installed in practically every bank. Another purpose of my device is not only to afford the banks and similar institutions a thorough protection against robberies, but also to make it possible for the employees of a given bank to entrap the would-be robbers within the bank, and to prevent their escape therefrom until lawenforcing agencies have had time to apprehend them within the premises of the bank.

I shall now proceed to give a thorough description of my device, referring to the accompanying drawings, in which:

Fig. 1 is an elevation illustrating that part of the cashiers cage which embodies my device, also the plan elevation of the door leading to the bank.

Fig. 2 shows a sectional view of the cashiers window, taken on line 22 in Fig. l.

Fig. 3 shows the arrangement of some parts of the device shown in Fig. 1.

Fig. 4 shows a View, partly in section, of a pneumatic pump forming a part of my device.

Fig. 5 shows a detailed View of the shuttertripping mechanism of my device.

Fig 6 shows the mechanism, partly in section, serving to lock the door of the bank.

Fig. 7 shows the detail of the pivoted arm supporting a horizontal bar 23, as shown in Fig. 1.

Similar numerals refer to similar parts throughout the several views.

In order that my invention be most efiicient and operable, it is desirable that the bank have a compartment partitioned from that section of the bank to which the general public has access. This may be efiected in several ways. One of them would be, for instance, to have a separate enclosure, a sort of an island enclosure, on the floor of the bank, or it would be possible to have the bank partitioned by one or more walls, as the case may be, for the purposes of providing room exclusively for the personnel'of the bank. My invention contemplates, therefore, a solid wall partition between the employees of the bank and the general public, and calls for grilled windows placed in that wall, at which windows all ordinary business transactions may be conducted.

In my drawings, this wall is indicated by numeral III, while grills are indicated by number II. Right above said grilled windows there is a shutter I2, made preferably of steel, resting on movable lugs or supports 2|. The shutters are adapted to be lowered or raised and, for the purpose of keeping them in a desired plane, they are provided with tongues I4 sliding within suitable grooves in guiding posts I3. Said lugs are adapted to be actuated by cables 22, although cables may be easily substituted by rods, said cables being attached to a horizontal bar 23, extending in front of all the grills where it is at all times accessible to the employees working at said windows. The bar is supported by pivoted arms 25 mounted on brackets 25, attached to the wall ill. The purpose of said bar is to serve as a means whereby the lugs 2i may be withdrawn into the space within the guiding post I3, so that shutter I2, deprived of the support of the lugs, may slide down in front of the grills, thus shutting off the employees from the view of the persons outside, within the space provided for the public. With the shutters down, the employees within the section normally occupied by them would be free from any danger from the persons outside said grill.

The construction of the mechanism actuating the lugs is shown in Fig. 5 and will be described below.

The lower part of said shutter I2 is provided with projections I5. Attached to one of these projections is cable 25, which leads downward through an opening in the floor 33 and, guided by sheaves 21 and 28, is connected to lever 29.

One of the arms of the lever is weighed down by weight 3|. The other arm serves to actuate an upright bolt 33 which is adapted to fit into socket 34 in the bottom part of the hinged door 35, when said door is in its normal closed position. 32 indicates a spring holding the bolt in its normal position out of the socket 34. When the shutter is down, it may be raised by means of compressed air delivered from storage tank if." and supplied to cylinders II, where said air actuates shafts I6 mounted on pistons disposed within said cyhnders, as described below. 35 indicates hinges.

The employees of the bank, as above specified, are within the enclosure reserved for them and within easy distance from the bar 23. In case of any attempted robbery, all that any of the employees has to do is to step upon bar 23. The bar, being connected to cables 22, acts by means of said cables upon lugs ZI, withdrawing them from under the shutter I2, whereupon said shutter falls rapidly to the base of the windows, 38, thus shielding the interior of the employees enclosure from contact and view of any persons outside said enclosure. At the same time as said shutter falls, cable 26 becomes slack allowing weight 3! to exert a pull upon the respective arm of lever 29, this in turn acting to raise bolt 33 into the door slot 31. As a result, the door leading from or into the bank is effectively locked. It is quite obvious that a number of doors leading to the said bank may be actuated by said cable 26 and that they may be all locked by this arrangement at the same time.

It will be seen therefrom that by means of the above named instrumentalities, a three-fold purpose will be achieved, namely, the robbery will be prevented; the employees will be safe within the enclosure, and the would-be robbers will be entrapped in the bank until the time that officers of the law will be summoned to said bank. It is quite easily conceivable that the shutter may also be connected with an alarm gong placed outside the bank so that in descending, the shutter will serve to close the electric circuit actuating such a gong.

A provision is also made for the eventuality that the door 35 may have to be opened without raising the shutter l2. This may be accomplished by means of cable 38 attached to lever 29 and terminating above the floor 38 in a handle or loop 49. By means of said cable 48, the respective arm of the lever may be raised, thus allowing bolt 33 to slip out from its door socket 3 3.

Having described the manner in which my device works, I shall now proceed to describe with more detail the component parts thereof, although it must be understood that my invention consists not so much in the particular construction of the component parts, as in the general combination of means to lower the shutter and means to lock the doors of the bank.

I stated above that the lugs 21 may be. Withdrawn from under the shutter 52, by means of the movable bar 23. Fig.' 5 shows the detailed construction of this arrangement, where 23 is the bar supported by a pivoted arm 25, mounted on a wall bracket 25. 22 is a cable leading from said bar to a member 39 pivotally mounted at 40, one arm of which 39 is provided with a shoulder 4! bearing against finger 32. Said finger is an integral part of lug 2!, upon which the shutter 12 rests normally. Spring 43, bearing against the body of said lug 2i, keeps it normally under said shutter l2. When bar 23 is depressed by the foot of a person in the bank within the enclosure for the employees, shoulder M is made to shift the lug 2! from under shutter 12, whereupon said shutter, by its own gravity, descends to the baseof the grilled windows over which it is suspended. Describing the mechanism operating the lug 2|, I confined myself to the mechanism operating only one of said lugs at one side end of the shutters. It will be understood, however, that at the other end of the shutter a similar mechanism is also provided.

The construction of the cylinder serving to raise the shutter is shown in Fig. 4. It consists of a shell indicated by numeral M. The shell contains a piston 45 slidingly disposed within said cylinder, said piston being connected to shaft IS. The latter bears against projection I5, afiixed to the lower part of shutter l2. Spring 45 within said cylinder bears against the piston 65 and keeps it normally close to the inlet i9, the latter serving to introduce compressed air into said cylinder. In operation, when it is desired to raise the shutter, the employee within the bank may step upon valve 20, thus permitting compressed air toescape from cylinder 59' by means of a pipe 18, through inlet I9 into the cylinder H. The force of the compressed air.

shifts the piston to the opposite end of the cylinder ll against the tension of the spring 46, and serves to raise shutter l2 by means of shafts l6, until said shutter passes the shiftable lug 2|. When said shutter has passed that point, the shutter is not in a position to descend back to the level of the base of the windows until bar 23 is actuated as above stated. When the supply of air into the cylinder ll is cut off, the tension of the spring 46 serves to return piston 45 with shaft l6 back to its original position close to the inlet I9. The air that is within the cylinder may escape gradually through a suitable pinhole indicated here by numeral 41.

Fig. 6 shows in enlargement the arrangement shown already in Fig. 1, for the purpose of looking the door of the bank.

Other construction for the purpose of effecting the same result, that is, lowering the shutter and closing the door of the bank, maybe provided without departing from the idea of my invention. I, therefore, claim thefollowing:

-1. In a protecting apparatus for a baking room having an entrance, a door for the entrance hinged at one side and having a socket open at its bottom, and a partition dividing said room into a customers chamber and a tellers cage and formed with a service window; said apparatus comprising a shield for said window slidable vertically from a raised position to a lowered position inshielding relation to the window, a strip along the bottom of said shield having extended end portions forming arms extending from opposite sides of the shield, means for raising said shield having engagement with said arms, latch means for releasably securing the shield in its raised position, manually actuated means for moving the latch means to a releasing position, means for securing said door closed including a bolt and a pivoted lever for shifting the bolt into and out of an extended position to enter the socket and secure the door closed, a weight urging said lever towards a position for extending the bolt to its'operative position, and a pull line having one end secured to said lever and its other end secured to one arm of said shield for moving the'lever to a position eiiecting retrac-- tion of the bolt when the shield is shifted upwardly to its raised position, downward movement of the shield slacking the pull line and allowing movement of the weighted lever to a position shifting the bolt to its extended position into the socket for securing the door closed.

2. In a protecting apparatus for a banking room having an entrance door hinged at one side, a socket carried by said door and opening through the lower end of the door, an opening being formed through the floor of the room for registering with the socket when the door is closed; said apparatus comprising a lever pivotally mounted horizontally under the floor of the banking room, a bolt slidable through the opening, a spring urging said pin downwardly to a retracted position and holding its lower end upon one end of said lever, a weight carried by the other end of said lever for tilting the lever and shifting said bolt upwardly to an extended position for engaging in the socket and securing the door closed, and a pull line connected with said lever for tilting the lever about its pivot in op-

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