Mail Box

Abstract

A mail box with mail pick up flag that must be in the up or "pick up" position when there is mail in the letter tray and which will tend to be in the down or "no mail for pick up" position when the letter tray is empty. The letter tray is automatically maintained out of the way when the cover of the box is opened and there is no mail for pick up.

Description

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

This invention relates to mail boxes. It particularly relates to mail boxes which are adapted to have a special compartment therein for mail to be picked up by the carrier and an automatic signal associated therewith.

In rural and even suburban areas, postage deposit boxes are relatively inconveniently or distantly located to the patron. Thus, pick up of mail by the carrier is a very important function served by the patron's mail box. Most mail boxes are equipped with a flag or signal which when raised will indicate to the carrier that the box contains mail to be picked up. The problem with most of these signals is that they must be raised by the patron and can be easily knocked down. The carrier, if there is no mail for the box in question, will not normally check a mail box when the signal down or not showing.

There have been prior apparatus that sought to provide a degree of "fail safe" character to mail box signal flag operation, however, in seeking this desirable result, the prior art apparatus has not resulted in a simple yet substantially fail safe automatic operation of the signal.

For example, in a very early patent to Peterson, U. S. Pat. No. 822,014 granted May 29, 1906, a mail box is equipped with a pivotal letter tray which when not in use hangs down in the box from its pivotal mount. When there is mail for the carrier to pick up, the letter tray is raised and snapped into horizontal position across a portion of the upper area of the box, adjacent to the cover. There is a flag pivotally mounted on the exterior of the cover and rigidly connected with a curved rod which is inside the cover. When the letter tray is in the "up" position, the curved rod strikes the tray and forces the flag up. This arrangement is inadequate for the purpose which it is intended to serve for two principal reasons. First, the signal operates when the tray is up, not withstanding whether there is any mail to be picked up or not, and secondly, the mail carrier is required to determine the manner of operation of the system and to release the tray to let the flag down. Both of these disadvantages are undesirable, but the second disadvantage is particularly undesirable, since the already overburdened carrier is expected to manipulate a relatively complicated device to provide a simple service. This can be a problem in more populous areas where rotating or substitute carriers are not uncommon.

A later U. S. Pat. No. 932,453, issued Aug. 31, 1909 to Easterling provided a simplier mechanical operation than Peterson's device, but required that both the patron and letter carrier set the signal flag in its appropriate position. Basicly Easterling's signal mechanism comprises a flag with two ends, one for carrier and one for patron signaling. The flag is rigidly mounted on a pivotal rod, which is attached on the lid adjacent to the top. One end of the rod, which is adjacent to a wire letter rack, mounted on the internal surface of the lid, is bent such that the bent portion is stopped against the lid in one direction when the carrier signal is up, and stopped against the lid in the other direction when the patron signal is up. The particular signal in the up position is determined completely by hand and the wrong signal can just as easily be up. Letters inserted into the wire letter rack serve to prevent the rod from rotating from the selected position. Although the Easterling apparatus is simple, it is little more than the ordinary signal with a means to hold the signal in position.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

Briefly stated, the present invention provides a mail box with an essentially "fail safe" system for signaling that there is mail in a mail tray. When there is mail in the mail tray, the flag must be in the up position in order for the cover to close entirely. This is achieved by the mail blocking a slot in the tray, which forces a latch, which engages the slot when there is no mail in the tray, to remain against the cover. The latch is rigidly attached to the signal and when the latch is forced against the cover the signal is up. When there is no mail in the letter tray the latch is weighted so that it falls through the slot and engages the letter tray. In this manner the letter tray is retained against the cover when there is no mail in it, out of the way of entry into the mail box proper.

Among the particular advantages and features of the present invention is the provision of a simple arrangement of elements into an apparatus whose use and operation is so very simple that instruction is practically unnecessary for the mail carrier. It is this feature of utilization by the carrier without instruction or analysis of the mechanism by the carrier which makes this mail box particularly beneficial. It is a feature of this invention that the carrier will merely have to open the mail box as he does with conventional mail boxes. It is a particular advantage of the present mail box that the carrier is never required to manipulate levers, releases, catches or the like in order to pick up mail or to deliver mail. It is a further advantage of the present invention that a mail pick up flag is provided which will be in the pick up position when mail is in the letter tray and which will be maintained in that position without the possibility of accidental or inadvertant lowering of the flag prior to pick up of the mail. Another feature of the present mail box is that the letter tray is retained out of the way when there is no mail for pick up. It is a particular feature that the letter tray is automatically retained out of the way and is not presented to carrier when there is no mail for pick up.

These advantages and features of the present invention, as well as others, will become apparant from the following description of the invention and drawings.

Like characters of reference indicate corresponding parts in the figures of the drawings. The present invention will be better understood by reference to the drawings and the detailed description thereof.

DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 is an isometric view of a preferred embodiment of the mail box of the present invention in an opened configuration to show the arrangement of components.

FIG. 2 is a cross sectional elevation taken along line 2--2 of FIG. 1 with particular elements shown in a cooperative arrangement without mail for pick up.

FIG. 3 is a cross sectional elevation taken along line 2--2 of FIG. 1 with the cooperative arrangement of parts shown when there is mail for pick up.

DESCRIPTION OF A PREFERRED EMBODIMENT

Refering to FIG. 1, all of the elements of the present apparatus can be seen. It should be appreciated that FIG. 1 is a display of the opened mail box and does not represent an actual operating configuration. For example, in FIG. 1 signal or flag 5 would fall by gravity until upper flap 6 came to rest against cover or lid 3 and latch 8 would be projecting outwardly from cover 3 by action of gravity. The configuration shown in FIG. 1 could be obtained by manually holding the signal 5 in that position or in some manner otherwise securing it as shown. In any event, the inter relation and cooperation among the elements of the present invention can be easily described from FIG. 1.

The principal element of the mail box is box or receptacle 1, to which are attached letter tray 14 and cover 3 by hinge 13. The hinge 13 is comprised of tube like projections 15, 16 and 17 attached to letter tray 14, cover 3, and box 1 respectively. These are aligned to allow rod 12 to pass therethrough and to be seated at each end in the peripheral flange 4 of cover 3. The cover 3 will rotate about the hinge 13 as will letter tray 14.

The letter tray 14 is comprised of a bottom portion 23, a front 21 and back 22. Located along the edge of front 21 is a lip 19. Referring to FIG. 3, the purpose of the lip 19 can be seen to be to engage the front of box 1 in order to position the tray 14 and prevent it from falling into box 1. Refering back to FIG. 1, the tray 14 is conveniently formed from a single sheet, for example, 16 gauge sheet metal whereby the sheet is bent to drop the bottom 23 down, and thus the front 21 and back 22 will serve to maintain small quantities of mail on the tray 14 even when it is lifted as shown in FIG. 1.

Located in the bottom 23, about midway along tray 14 is slot 18, which is aligned with latch 8, so that the latch 8 will pass through slot 18 when the cover 3 is closed on the box. The latch 8 is rigidly connected to signal 5 by means of rod 7. The rod 7 is rotatably mounted through opening 10 in tab 9, which is mounted on the inner surface of cover 3 and through an opening (not shown) is peripheral flange 4. There is a notch 2 in box 1 which allows the rod 7 to pass through. As noted above, the normal tendency, because of gravity, is for signal 5 to seat down against cover 3 thus causing the latch 8 to project outwardly from cover 3. In this position as the cover 3 is closed the leading edge of latch 8 will strike the front most end of slot 18. The leading edge of latch 8 is beveled so that as the cover 3 is lightly pressed down, the latch 8 will be forced backward slightly until the projection 20 passes by the edge of slot 18 and the latch 8 is forced back toward the front of the box as indicated previously thus engaging projection 20 with bottom 23. This can be seen very clearly in FIG. 2. The letter tray 14 is, thus held up to the cover 3 when the flag 5 is in the down position.

The arrangement shown in FIG. 2 takes the tray 14 out of the way and does not impose any extra operation on the carrier when there is no mail for pick up, for as the cover 3 is lifted the letter tray 14 is also lifted, and will remain engaged with the cover 3 by means of latch 8 unless and until the flag 5 is raised from the position shown in FIG. 2, at which time the tray 14 will disengage from latch 8.

FIG. 3 shows the flag 5 raised so that latch 8 is rotating back and up against cover 3. Several items of mail 11, for pick up by the carrier have been placed letter tray 14 covering slot 18 thus when cover 3 is returned to the closed position shown by the phantom portion of FIG. 3, latch 8 can not pass through slot 18 and tray 14 will not be engaged by the latch. Thus, two things will occur. First the flag 5 will be maintained in the up or "mail to be picked up" position and when the carrier raises the cover 3 the letter tray 8 with the letters for pick up will be in the position shown in FIG. 3.

After the carrier has retrieved the mail from the tray 14, he need only lift tray 14, for example by lip 19 and deposit any incoming mail into box 1. When the cover 3 and letter tray 14 are returned to the closed position the latch projection 20 will engage bottom 23, so that when the patron opens his mail box the letter tray 14 is out of his way. Similarly the down position of the flag 5 will indicate that the carrier has passed by.

The mail box of the present invention can be attached to walls, posts or the like by holes (not shown) in the bottom or sides.

The center of gravity of the signal 5 is such that the signal tends to fall downward in the direction of the arrow in FIG. 1. As noted above, this maintains the latch 8 in an engaging configuration with regard to the tray 14. As a practical matter when cover 3 is raised beyond a line perpendicular to the surface of the earth (lineA-B) the center of gravity shifts and the signal 5 will fall away from cover 3 and latch 8 will be disengaged from tray 14. To prevent this, the box can be wall mounted, thus the cover can rise at most only to the wall which would correspond to line A-B. Otherwise a stop such as block 24, shown in FIG. 2 should be employed. Block 24 will engage the back edge of cover 3 and prevent the cover from opening past the line A-B. Alternatively a chain (not shown) of predetermined length can be attached between box and cover to achieve this purpose.

It can be readily appreciated that the mail box can have other shapes than that shown in the figures and still have the functions described, for example, the box can be rectangular, or square, and the top can be rounded, etc. The mail box can be constructed of any conventional material and by conventional methods, such as sheet metal formed by bending or otherwise deforming, or from rigid polymers such as polyvinyl chloride, polystyrene or the like by extrusion, vacuum forming and the like.

In addition to changes in shape, other obvious variations and modifications such as reversal of parts, can be made, e.g., positioning of the flag 5 from the right side to the left side of the box. These changes are intended to be within the scope of the invention.

Claims

The invention claimed is:

1. A mail box comprising

a box,

a cover for the box, hingedly mounted on said box,

a letter tray hingedly mounted within said box and to said box,

an external signal pivotally mounted on said cover, and

means operationally associated with the signal for engaging said letter tray to said cover when said signal is down and not engaging said tray when said signal is raised.

2. The mail box according to claim 1 wherein said letter tray is commonly hinged to said box and said cover.

3. The mail box according to claim 2 wherein said means comprises a latch for engaging said tray.

4. The mail box according to claim 4 wherein said latch is rigidly connected to said signal by a rotationally mounted rod.

5. The mail box according to claim 4 wherein said tray has an opening therein operationally aligned with said latch.

6. The mail box according to claim 5 wherein said latch passes through said opening and releasably engages said tray.

7. The mail box according to claim 5 wherein said opening is aligned with said latch in such a manner that said latch will contact and engage the periphery of said opening when said signal is down.

8. The mail box according to claim 6 wherein said tray comprises a bottom, a front side, and a back side for forming a compartment to hold mail.

9. The mail box according to claim 8 wherein said opening comprises a slot in the bottom.

10. The mail box according to claim 9 wherein said signal comprises an elongated member having a center of gravity such that said signal tends to remain down.