Manacle

Aug. 21, 1945.

W. M. POWELL

MANACLE

Filed Dec. 6, 1941

2,383,077

<img file="US2383077A_D0001.tif" />

<img file="US2383077A_D0002.tif" />

<img file="US2383077A_D0003.tif" />

Patented Aug. 21, 1945 2,383,077

UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE

2,383,077

MANACLE .William M. Powell, Milwaukee, Wis.

Application December 6, 1941, Serial No, 421,881

Claims. (Cl. 70—17)

My invention relates to improvements in manacles. The object of my invention is to provide a manacle having a pair of jaws closable upon rotation of a conveniently gripped handle and instantly automatically openable upon release of a >5? ratchet conveniently located for manipulation by the fingers of the hand holding, the manacle. ' ^:

Another object of my invention is to provide for ready automatic opening of a manacle wherein the means for accomplishing automatic open- in ing are housed within the ordinary operating mechanism of a manacle such as that shown in Patent No. 1,570,458 issued January 19, 1926, to Cederlof and in his Norwegian Patent 44,023 issued May 16,1927. W

In the drawing:

Fig. 1 is a side flew of my manacle with portions of the frame and operating mechanism shown in median longitudinal section.

Fig. 2 is a perspective of the frame and control 20 housing for my automatic opening mechanism.

Fig. 3 shows my manacle in the hand of a user with the jaws of my manacle closed and the fingers of the user about to release the automatic mechanism for a jaw opening operation.

Like parts are designated by the same reference characters throughout the several views.

My manacle includes a yoke-like frame 10 which provides a channel 11 to receive the pivoted ends 12 and 13 of the two curved wrist-engaging ³⁽¹claw-like arms 14— 15. Each of the pivoted ends 12 and 13 is bored to receive a pivot pin 16 extending across the channel and supported in the frame at either end of the pin. The structure remaining to be described is concerned with the ³³opening and closing of the claw-like arms 14— 15, this invention being primarily concerned with the means for automatically opening the arms.

A hub extension 17 of the frame 10 is bored axially of the frame to receive a shaft 18. The 40 shaft 18 extends from its working end 19 between the ends of the arms 14—15 to handle 20 which is shaped to be received in the palm of the hand of the user, as shown in Fig. 3. The handle 20 is fixed upon the end of the shaft i 8 by pin 21, ⁴⁵and the relative rotation of the handle 20 with respect to the frame i 0 causes the helical threaded working end f 9 of the shaft 18 to adjust the arms 14 and 15 about their pivot pin 16, for the threaded working end 19 of the shaft is mated with short ³⁰“threads” 22 formed on the ends 12 and 13 of the arms.

Axial thrusts upon shaft 18 are resisted by a key pin 25 receivable through an offset bore in the frame 10, so that the key pin may be dis- ³³ posed in an annular groove 26 extending about the shaft 18. In accord with conventional practice-, I provide a locking hub 30 between the frame 10 and the hub-like shaft 31 of handle 20. The locking hub 30 floats within certain short limits axially on the shaft 18 but is provided with a bifurcated hub 32 to receive locking pin 33 between the bifurcations and prevent rotation of the locking hub 30 with respect to the shaft 18. The hub is provided at 34 with ratchet teeth mated with ratchet teeth 35 on the end of the frame 10, the shape of the ratchet teeth being such as to provide for free rotation of the frame 10 with respect to the shaft so as to accomplish a closing movement of the arms 14—15 but to prevent such relative rotation of the shaft arid frame to prohibit movement of the arms 14—15 so long as the ratchet teeth are in engagement.

When the locking hub 30 is pulled toward the handle 20 so as to disengage the ratchet teeth 34—35, relative rotation of the frame 10 and shaft 18 is permitted in a direction to permit jaw opening. A compression ratchet spring 36 housed within shank 31 of handle 20 bears upon the end of the bifurcated hub 32 to urge the ratchet teeth into engagement.

In a relatively confined annular space 37 formed by under-cutting the shaft 18 arid by channeling the inside surfaces of the hub 30, I provide torsion spring 38 to bias the shaft 18 and the frame 10 for relative rotation in jaw-arm opening direction, the ends of the torsion spring 38 being directed into anchor holes 39 arid 40 in the shaft and in the main frame 10 respectively for this purpose. The spring is so installed as to be under stress torsionally in all positions of the claw arms 14—15 so as to urge the shaft and frame to jaw arm opened position.

It will be noted that the tips 45 and 46 of arms 14 and 15, respectively, are flattened so as to pass one another as they assume the position shown in Fig. 3. It is, therefore, important that the arms 14—15 open widely to permit ready ingress of the wrist of a person to be manacled. This is accomplished in my manacle by providing threads on the working end 19 of the shaft 18 having a lead such that with the handle 20 held against rotation, the spinning of the frame 10 about the shaft 18 through 180 degrees of rotation will move the arms 14 and 15 from completely closed to completely opened positions. Conversely, if the arms 14—15 and the frame 10 are held against rotation, 180 degrees of rotation of the handle 20 Will accomplish an opening or closing operation, this being well within the facile movement of the

2,383,077 hand of the user, and the same degree of rotation is well within the safe limits of torsion spring operation in the space 37.

In operation, my manacle is subject to the following cycle of relative movements:

Assuming the manacle is in closed position in the hand of a user, as indicated in Fig. 3, the spring 36 has pressed the hub 30 .toward the frame 10 and the ratchet teeth 34—35 in engagement to hold the arms 14—15 in the closed position indicated in that figure. The fingers of the user may be used to pull the hub 30 toward the handle 20 to disengage the ratchet teeth as the spring 36 is compressed. As soon as the ratchet teeth are disengaged, the torsion spring 38 causes the frame 10 to spin about the shaft 18 thus causing interaction of the threads 22 upotn the thread of the working end 19 of the shaft, and the jaws or arms 14—(5 will move to open position. The manacle having engaged the wrist of the person to be manacled, the arms 14—15 will be held against rotation, and the frame 10 will be likewise held against rotation so that the operator may rotate the handle 20 of the shaft 18 to accomplish a jaw closing operation.

The natural position of the hand of the user in a manacle closing operation will naturally be a strong grasp of the handle 20 with the locking hub 30 free to reciprocate upon the shaft 18 as the ratchet teeth pass one another freely in the jaw closing direction of rotation. The compression spring 36 will constantly urge the ratchet teeth into engagement so that at any portion of the relative rotation of the parts, the ratchet teeth are in position to resist opening movement of the arms 14—15. As the jaw or arm closing operation progresses, the torsion spring 38 is overcome and. is “wound up” to increase the bias toward an opening rotation. Thus, the arms are locked in any final position to which they are moved in a closing direction, and release of the manacled person is dependent upon withdrawal of the locking hub 30 against compression of the spring 36 under control of the operator.