Venetian Blinds with Single Spring Loaded Lift

A Venetian blinds assembly for hanging at a window opening, comprising:

• an upper rail for mounting above a window opening,
• a lower rail positioned below the upper rail,
• a plurality of elongated parallel slats positioned between the upper rail and the lower rail and extending parallel to the upper rail, the parallel slats each including a pair of slat openings extending there through, with the pairs of slat openings of adjacent slats positioned in alignment with one another,
• a pair of concave slat lift and guide tapes each including a distal end portion and a proximal end portion, the distal end portion of the concave slat lift and guide tapes being supported by the upper rail, and the proximal end portion of the concave slat lift and guide tapes being suspended downwardly from the upper rail and through the slat openings to the lower rail,
• a pair of tape collectors mounted in the lower rail, each tape collector of the pair of tape collectors positioned in vertical alignment with the slat openings of the slats and in vertical alignment with the slat lift and guide tapes,
• each tape collector including a spool configured for collecting and flattening the proximal ends of the lift and guide tapes and forming the lower portions of the lift and guide tapes in coils of the tape or for releasing the proximal ends of one of the slat lift and guide tapes in response to raising and lowering the lower rail,
• a control rod connected to the spools of the pair of tape collectors for rotating the spools of the tape collectors in unison,
• a sprocket mounted to, surrounding and rotatable in unison with the control rod,
• a pawl supported in the lower rail and movable into engagement with the sprocket to terminate the rotation of the control rod and the tape collectors, and
• the lift and guide tapes being formed of a material that allows sliding of the length of the tape coiled about the spools in the tape collectors without rotating the spools to change the lengths of the lift and guide tapes extending from the lower rail to adjust the level of the lower rail.

Venetian blinds for hanging at a window opening, comprising:

• an upper rail,
• a lower rail positioned below the upper rail,
• a plurality of parallel slats extending horizontally between the upper rail and the lower rail, and a pair of slat openings in each slat, the slat openings including opposed edges,
• tape collector spools supported in the lower rail,
• a pair of lift and guide tapes extending vertically from the upper rail, through the slat openings of the parallel slats and wound in layers about the tape collector spools in the lower rail,
• the portions of the lift and guide tapes extending from the upper rail to the lower rail being concave in cross section and engage opposed edges of the slat openings, and
• the layers of the lift and guide tapes wrapped about the collector spools are flat in cross section and are slidable with respect to each other to change the length of the lift and guide tapes extending from the lower rail to the upper rail.