Fireplace closure
OwnerLyndell L. Tuckerinventor
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
Closure of the opening for a fireplace or the like is effected by a plurality of plates or panels which are stored in stacked relation in a housing above the fireplace opening when not in use. The housing includes a biasing arrangement for maintaining pressure against the top of the panel stack so as to urge the panels towards a downwardly opening slot in the rear of the housing. A pair of channel members communicate with the housing slot and are affixed on either side of the opening. The bottom panel of the stack includes an externally accessible handle or the like for sliding this panel into the channels. A series of edge hooks cooperate to serially withdraw the panels from the housing and likewise cooperate to urge the panels serially back into the housing.
Claims3
In apparatus adapted for providing a temporary enclosure for an opening through a fireplace and the like wherein a pair of U-shaped guides are positioned in upright, facing, parallel relation to one another on opposite sides of the fireplace opening, and a panel-receiving housing having front, rear and bottom walls disposed horizontally above the channel guides and adapted for receiving panels in stacked relation and for dispensing the same through a slot in the bottom wall which is aligned in communication with the channel guides, the improvement comprising:
- a plurality of substantially flat, rectangular, fire-resistant panels, each said panel having an upper and a lower horizontal edge, each said upper horizontal edge formed to cooperatively engage the lower horizontal edge of an adjacent panel wherein one edge includes an acutely angled, flat return lip projecting over the surface of its associated panel and wherein the horizontal edge of the adjacent panel is formed as a hooked portion of the associated said panel and projecting first obtusely away from the associated said panel and terminating in a reverse curved portion, the end of said reverse curved portion substantially returning to the plane of the associated said panel for releasably engaging said flat return lip;
- force applying means for yieldingly urging said panels within said housing successively into alignment with said slot;
- means for serially advancing said panels successively from the stack along said guide means, said panel edges being arranged such that said one edge of each said panel in succession receives said other edge of each next said panel in the stack as said panels are serially advanced through said housing slot into said guide means whereby said panels are urged into coplanar relation to one another to form a common closure across the opening between said guide means, allowing coplanar orientation of said panels within the channel guides;
- and
- vertical channel-engaging edges on said flat panels including slide bearing means projecting in a lateral direction from said vertical channel-engaging edges for a distance sufficient to prevent said reverse curved portions and said hooked portions from contacting said channel guides as they are serially advanced along said channel guides.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.