US812109A - Fence-post. - Google Patents

Description

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APPLICATION FILED SEPT.21, 1905.

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N0. 812,109. PATENTED PBB. 6, 1906. G. R. WYATT.

PENGE POST.

APPLICATION I'ILED SBP'LZI, 1905.

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GEORGE RUSSELL WYATT, OF RED W'OOD CITY, CALIFORNIA, ASSIGNOR OF ONE-FOURTH TO XVALTER M. BARRET AND ONE-FOURTH TO ED- TARD F. FITZPATRICK, OF REDWOOD CITY, CALIFORNIA.

FENCE-POST.

Panent'ea Feb. e, 1906.

Application filed September 21,1905. Serial No. 27 9,4=2l.

To r/,ZZ whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, GEonGE RUssELL VVYATT, a citizen of the United States, and a resident of Redwood City, in the county of San Mateo and State of California, have invented a newl and Improved Fence-Post, of which the following is a full, clear, and exact description.

This invention relates to fence-posts, one obj ect being to provide a metal fence-post of novel construction that renders it especially well adapted for receiving and supporting fence-wire material, that may be either separate wires or material woven from Wires.

A further object is to provide novel means which coperate with the posts for stretching and looking fence material upon a plurality of novel posts.

A further object is to provide braces of novel construction for supporting the fenceposts and for maintaining the fence-wire inaterial stretched taut; and a further object is to provide a novel protecting-casing for the base portion of the posts.

The invention consists in the novel construction and combination of parts, as is hereinafter described, and defined in the appended claims.

Reference is to be had to the accompanying drawings, forming a part of this specilication,

in which similar characters of reference indicate corresponding parts in all the ligures.

Figure 1 is a perspective view showing a fence employing my novel post and the novel construction at a corner of the fence. Fig. 2 is an enlarged, broken, and partly-sectional exterior side view of the improved fence. Fig. 3 is a broken and partly-sectional plan view of the improvement, substantially on the line 3 3 in Fig. 2. Fig. 4 is a perspective view of the upper portion of one of the improved fence-posts employed at a right-angular corner of the fence, and Fig. 5 is a perspective view of a novel looking-key employed.

The improvement is shown as applied for the support of fence-wires in order to illustrate clearly the advantages of its special construction.

The improved fence-post that constitutes the essential feature of the invention is preferably cast into form from malleable iron or soft steel, and while they are essentially the same the corner-posts for afence Where the fence-line turns at a right angle differ some- What in detail from the line-posts or those intermediate the corner-posts.

In Figs. 1, 2, and 3 at the right the lineposts are represented, as indicated by the reference character 10 and comprise the following details: The body 10 is uadrangular in coss-section and of a suitab e length for effective service, and in the flat side, that is preferably outermost When erected for service, a vertical channel a is formed at or near the center of Width had by the post-body, said channel extending from a point at or near the normally upper end of the post-body to anotherpoint that is near the surface of the ground when the post is in position for support of other fence material. As indicated at a' in 3 at the right, the channel a in the line-post body 10 is undercut in its defining side walls, and the bottom wall a) of said channel is preferably depressed to give it obr trise-angular form, although this shapefor the bottom of the channel may be somewhat changed without materially affecting the utility of this detail. At suitable intervals similar notches b are formed in the outer corners of the post-body that communicate With the channel (L by cutting through the side walls thereof, these two series of preferably equally-spaced notches extending from near the upper end of the post-body to a point near the bottom of the channel a, as appears at the right in Fig. 2. The depth of the notches b is less than that of the channel a, and the bottoms of the notches are preferably equally distant from the front side of the post-body, but below the undercut formations a'. The notches b are of a proper vertical Width for accommodation of fenee-Wires 11, and the spaces between said notches leave ears b' remain intact With the body of the post, said ears of angular form being substantially hook-shaped, trending toward the channel a from each side wall of the post. Each pair of notches b, that are disposed opposite each other or in the same plane, Will receive a fence wire 11, which may be stretched taut across the post and bedded in said paired notches.

A keeper-key 12, or, if preferred, a plurality of similar ones, is employed for seouring the fence-wres 11 m the notches b and in the IQO - nels e that each have parallel sides are undertions.

channel a at its bottom,-said keeper-key com- .prising a straight bar of metal, rabbeted on its normally front corners and having a Width that adapts it to loosely fit in the channel a, the remaining portion of the key-body being shaped to fit laterally under the hook members of the ears b' and the inner side thereof that is obtuse angular, conforming in sh'iipe to that of the bottom 112 of the channe a.

It will be seen that if a series of fencewires 11 are held by corresponding ends and are stretched across a series of line-posts 10 that have been erected at proper intervals, the wires occupyingv the notches b in parallel planes, all of said wires may be successively Secured upon the posts 10 by forcibly inserting the keeper-key 12 down into the channel v a of a respective post 10 and to facilitate this insertion the inserted end of the key is tapered or given Wedge shape, as is shown at c in Fig. 5. To further eXplain the operati on, the keeper-key is driven down into the channel a with its wedge-shaped end lowermostand toward the wires 11, which will cause the wires to be successively embedded in the channel a, they taking the form of the angular bottom az, which will kink the wires so that they will be held from lateral movement on the posts.

The corner post 14 for a fence -line is mainly similar to the post 10, with the exception that as the post 14 must have two outer faces to permit fence wires to be held stretched at a right angle one with the other at said corner. The construction for a corner-post, that is plainly shown in Figs. 3 and 4, comprises the following details: The body 14 is quadrangular and may have equal length with the line-posts 10, so that when planted the fence-posts may all have the same height from the ground as is shown for a corner-post and a line-post in Fig. 2. In each of two adjacent sides of the corner-post 14 that are disposed outermost in service and at aright angle one with the other a longitudi- -nal channel e is formed at the transverse center thereof, these channels having a width and depth preferably the same as that given to the channel (L in a line-post 10. The chancut, as at e', and thus are widened below the shoulders produced by the undercut forma- The bottom surface 62 of each channel e is concaved, preferably in obtuse-angular form, similar to the channel-bottoms (12,

and, as shown in Fig. 3 at the left, each channel e is adapted for the free insertion downwardly therein of keeper-keys 12,that are duplicates of those provided for the lineposts 10 In the three corners of the corner-post 14 that are outermost grooves or notches g are formed that-are equally spaced apart, leaving a' series of ears g/ remaining intact with the body of the post, these notchesl and ears being similar' to those formed on the posts 10.

The posts 10 and 14 are each preferably crete, wherein the lower portion of the post is -closely fitted, and these casings may be molded around the posts before the latter ane erected, or in some soils that are of stiff clay or loam that will permit the formation of suitable excavations the posts may be erected in the post-holes and the casings formed of plastic material that is introduced around the post-bodies while the latter are in erected positions. The casings 15 may have projecting flanges 15a formed at their lower ends to serve as anchors for holding the posts upright, and the posts may have lugs h'formed on their lower ends, which, by'embedment in the plastic material of the casings, will unite the post-body and casing in an obvious manner.

When a line of spaced posts 10 are erected together With one or more corner-posts 14, the wires 11 may be strung around the outer Forner of each post 14, and thence extended awayV therefrom for a seated engagement in appropriate notches b in the outer faces of the line-posts 10. temporarily Secured on the corner-post by bending the end portion of the wire around the hoop-like ears g', thus forming a loop on the wire, from which the latter may be eX- tended in an appropriate notch g toward and into engagement with similar notches b in successive line-posts 10, and at any one of said posts the fence-wire may be held temporarily the ears b', the same as has been explained 4with regard to the ear g' on the corner-post.

The fence-wires 11 may be all strung on the posts before the introduction of the keeperkeys 12, or they may be placed upon the posts and Secured by the keys successively, as may be preferred in either case. The wires, if first drawn in the notches so as to be measurably taut, will be rendered quite taut and at the same time firmly Secured in place by the complete insertion of the keeper-keys, as hereinbefore explained.

v Each post 10 14 may have a cap-piece i secured on its upper end by a screw or other means, these caps overlapping the upper ends of the keeper-keys 12, thus aifording an ornamental iinish to the posts and preventing an upward movement of said keys until the caps are taken off of. the posts.

In the corner-post 14, near the upper end, two rectangular grooves m are formed in each remaining side thereof, these adjacent grooves extending across the post, preferably in the ears g', as shown in Figs. 2, 3, and 4, and in the bottom ofeach groove m a plurality of serrations are formed, as shown by dotted lines in Fig. 3. Two similar brace-rods 16 are employed for stifiening the fence at a corfurnished with a casing 15 of cement or con- The wires 11 may each be Iooy by kinkingthe wire around one of ner thereof, each brace-rod having sufiicient length to extend diagonally from the upper end of the corner-post 14 to the top of the casing 15, that is about level With the surface of the ground and supports the line-post 10 that is nearest to the corner-post and opposite a side of the post having one of the crossgrooves m therein. On the end of the bracerod 16 that is to engage within one of the cross-grooves m a flattened limb n is formed, having such thickness as will permit it to fit loosely within the upper transverse groove m in the side of the post 14 that is to be supported by the brace-rod. The limb n is bent at an obtuse angle on the body of the bracerod, thus adapting the limb for insertion within the groove m when the rod is inclined downward and toward an opposite post 10. The transverse edge that defines the end of the limb n is serrated to correspond With the serrations in the bottom of the transverse groove mit is to occupy, so that when the serrations on the limb are bedded between those in the bottom of the groove the limb will be held from sliding laterally in said groove.

The lower end of the diagonally-disposed brace-rod 16 is furnished with a foot-fiange g, that is extended therefrom at an obtuse angle, so as to render the flange level when the brace-rod is in position for service, and, as is shown in Fig. 3 at the right, a flat-bottomed notch is formed in the flange g, leaving an ear stand at each side edge thereof, and the space between said ears o' is so proportioned to the thickness of the lower portion of the linepost 10 that the fiange 0 may be pressed downward into engagement with the post, while the ears o'loosely embrace the front and rear sides thereof at their edges, the flange o then resting up on the top end of the casing 15. It will be noticed that when the brace-rod 1 6 has been placed in position to stiffen the front line of fence shown in Fig. 1 the post 14 at the left corner of the fence where two lines join at a right angle will be effectively braced against yielding toward the post 10, which would slacken the fence-wires between the corneri post and the line-post.

If from any cause the brace-rod 16 becomes loose while the limb n thereon is engaged within the upper transverse groove m, the brace-rod may be laterally displaced from said upper groove and the limb n be placed in the groove m next below the upper one. The brace-rod is now forced down at its lower end into engagement with the nearest front post 10, and as the distance between the engaged lower groove is less than that between the upper groove and the base of the line-post it will be obvious that the brace-rod will now hold the corner-post upright, this engagement of parts being shown in Fig. 2.

The description of the construction and application of the brace-rod 16 for stifening the front line of fence applies also to the other line that extends at a right angle from the front line, and, as indicated at the left in Fig. 1, the brace-rod 16, that is the duplicate of the one already described, may in a like manner be placed in position between the corner-post 14, and the nearest post 10 on the side line of fence, effectively bracing the post 14 against lateral strain.

Having described my invention, I claim as new and desire to secure by Letters Patent- 1. A metal fence-post, having a longitudinal channel therein said channel having parallel undercut side walls and an angular bottom wall, and. also formed with a series of notches in corresponding corners of the post, a series of hook members sp aced by the notches in said corners, and a keeper-key shaped to fit into the channel and insertible therein through one end thereof, the key when inserted bearing upon the fence-wire material that occupies the notches and is seated upon the bottom of the channel by the introduction of said key.

2. A fence post having a quadrangular body, a longitudinal channel therein, and notched at intervals in corresponding corners, said notches intersecting the channel, said channel having its side walls undercut so as to widen it near the bottom thereof, said bottom having obtuse-angular form, a series of angular hook members at each corner that is adjacent to the channel, free ends of said hook members constituting the side walls of the channel, a fence-wire stretched in eachl pair of opposite notches across the bottom of the channel, and a keeper-key fitting in the channel and laterally below the hook members, the key being insertible only through one end of the channel, and adapted for bearing upon the fence-wires and kinking them into contact with the angular bottom of the channel.

3. A corner-post to a fence, having a channel eXtended longitudinally in two sides that together form a right angle, each channel having parallel sides that are undercut, and the bottom of each channel rendered obtuse-angular in form, each of the three corners of the post nearest to the channels therein having spaced transverse notches therein which intersect respective channels, hook-like angular members on corners of the post spaced apart in series by the notches, and keeperkeys fitted loosely in respective channels so as to bear upon the fence-wire material that occupies the notches.

4. A keeper-key for a fence-post, rabbeted on side edges at opposite corners giving it T shape in cross-section, and thus adapted to slide endwise into an undercut channel in the side of said fence-post, whereby to secure fence-wire material embedded in the channel.

5. A fence -post having a transverse groove in the upper-portion of its body having serrations in its bottom surface, and a TOO IIO

braoe-rod having a fiat limb serrated on the transverse end Wall thereof, said lirnb being adapted for entering the transverse groove and engagingthe serrations on its end With those in the bottom of the groove.

6. A prop-braee for a eorner fence-post, oomprising a metal rod flattened near each end, and bent Where fiattened at an obtuse angle on the body of the braoe-rod, thus produoing a fiat limb on one end that enters a transverse reotangular notoh in a side of the corner-post near its upper end, and a notohed or open slotted fiange at the norm'allyV lower end of the brace rod, said fiange having straddling engagernent With the lower por- 15 tion of a line-fenoe post, Whereby to hold the oorner-post ereot.

In testimony Whereof I have signed my name to this speoification in the presenee of two subscrbing Witnesses.

GEORGE RUSSELL WYATT.

Witnesses:

GEORGE HOLDEN, O. F. STATLER.

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