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The Champion 3a Door Check and Closer.

9/23/2016

Today I traveled to Chesterfield to inspect some door closers that were not functioning as they should. they were fixed to two toughened glass doors in the entry way to the Church of St Mary and All Saints, known to many as the church with the twisted spire.

More information on the wonderful and very popular Grade 1 listed 14th century church can be found here:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Church_of_St_Mary_and_All_Saints,_Chesterfield

The Champions had lost their ability to hold the glass doors closed in windy conditions. We re-tensioned and adjusted the closing speed of them which means the church can now keep its existing period door closers.

The Champion 3A's were manufactured by the Forson Design and Engineering Company Ltd around the mid 1950's.

On completion of the works to the Champions I noted there was an even earlier surface mounted door check on one of the two main outer doors. It is in a bad state of repair but is not beyond saving, I hope to be able to work on this beauty in the future after informing the Church of its existence (Just in case they were not already aware).

Some readers may recognise this early patent model door check from an earlier blog post of mine, but can anyone see what aids the door spring/check in its goal or possibly put better how the door spring/check is aided?

Finally here are some shots of the gravity defying, fantastically crooked spire that is known and loved so much, locally, nationally and quite possibly even further afield.

As always please feel free to comment.

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A. Smith & Co 69 Princes St Leicester So London

9/17/2016

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In this post I will introduce you to the finest Smiths I have yet come across, Carmen and Michael are the lucky owners of this 'original' Smith's.

As can be seen this Smiths has some major improvements over some I have shown, including a strengthend turret, an in box lateral adjuster (for centering the door), strengthend claws and the two part lid that incorporates the bronze collar.

The Smiths had some wear that needed to be taken care of and was missing it springs when it was first presented to me.

The wear was taken care of by manufacturing a collar and a new wheel for the pin, that I had hardened and the bespoke springs were from my stock.

Above are the shots of the brass cover plate, showing address, serial number and the Janus trademark.

Interestingly for those that do not know Janus is the Roman God of beginnings and transitions, doorways and passageways etc and is depicted as having two faces, one looking forward and one looking backward, a fitting trade name for a double door spring.

Even the screws that hold the brass top plate down are individually marked as can be seen (I presume a sign of its hand made heritage).

The story behind the 'Smiths' door spring and the surrounding Smith family is a fascinating one that I hope to tell in the future, involving wire rope, the screw propellor, Royalty, Admiralty, the Gold Rush, suspension bridges and the invention of the San Francisco tram to name just some of this ingenious families contributions to the world.

I also believe it was Smith who invented the first true door spring beating the officially recognised August 13th,1790 patent of Henry Downer for his "spring for shutting doors" by possibly as much as 30 years.

https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=XSFHAQAAMAAJ&pg=PA128&dq=henry+downer+1790+door+spring+patent&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwi-nK2fgZfRAhUF6CwKHYuhDncQuwUIHzAA#v=onepage&q=henry%20downer%201790%20door%20spring%20patent&f=false

As always if anyone would care to acknowledge this blog post or any other it would be gratefully received and replied to.

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Parker, Winder & Achurch Limited Birmingham

9/4/2016

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Early last week before attending The Star & Garter I went to
view some 'Parwinac's' at Rutland Court in Hove after being contacted by Andy Payne from work-right.co.uk.

I was informed that the flats were built in 1934 by The Norwich Union for rental purposes but are now all privately owned.

On arrival I was surprised to find the 'Parwinacs' were not floor springs, they are an in heel door spring/spring pivot, similar to what I know as a Bommer, possibly supplied by Parker, Winder & Achurch.

There were floor springs (not working correctly) at the main entrance branded as Parwinac's (Parker, Winder & Achurch) however as can be seen from the pictures these are in fact Singlo's and Duplo's, a floor spring I have covered previously.

The problem with the 'Bommer's' were that the Fire Officer had identified a problem with them as they were not closing the corridor doors, were not centering and if opened far enough were holding the doors open at 90 plus degrees.

I have been asked to provide a quote to remove the doors, take apart the press fitted in shoe door springs, source and replace the tired springs, make them not hold open, possibly weld back together the housing, refit the spring to the door and then rehang the doors, without removing them from site.

I have included the the top centre picture as again this is one I have not come across before, it does not retract in the usual manner by turning a slotted screw, but is controlled by some sort of spring mechanism I have yet to investigate.

It should also be noticed that the springs in the 'Bommer' are of an unusual flat surface design, possibly for getting more spring per inch, so to speak. I have only seen flat coil springs in Robert Adams designed floor springs previous to this.

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The Champion 3a Door Check and Closer.

A. Smith & Co 69 Princes St Leicester So London

Parker, Winder & Achurch Limited Birmingham

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