The Historic District

One of the ladies in one of our forums for the Sanitary Commission was wondering about window shade mechanics. Spring roller shades like we still have today?? I doubt they were balloon style I see no wrinkles in the fabric... the photo she is referring to is attached.

I believe our spring mechanism of today was a C19th invention, but that size I am thinking it was manually wound up and down.

the only one I have just has a continuous plastic chain, no springs, so you can get them.
I like the idea of printing on the shade to add a little nostalgia.

Here is a patent for a guide for roller blinds that was granted in 1896 (later than your period but...) - look at the picture of the blind itself, very similar to modern roller blinds but not obvious if it is locking or not, though it does describe it thus " the curtain mounted on a spring actuated roll B in the usual manner."

https://www.google.com/patents/US564682 ... R4KHamwDmo

I tried but could not find any earlier patents that covered such spring actuated blinds via google

Thanks to all as they are still pulling up information on the Civil War Civilian Closet on FB.

One second sourced article claimed 1855 a patent was taken out but no copy of it no number, not cited source.

Phil they did put scenes on house hold ones in the 1850's and earlier. The lettering was done on businesses and offices.. also pretty clever.

The spring roller shade goes back to at least 1864. Stewart Hartshorn- He was the 'godfather of the shade roller' if there was one.



Another from 1884:





The Scotch Holland fabric company was popular for blinds before that. Here's a description of how those worked from their own website:

Actual records of the manufacturer of Scotch Holland fabric go back to Glasgow in 1725 to a weaver of white linen cloth for blinds. James Louis Robertson. Apparently in 1773 he updated his production of the cloth by installing two new looms which were powered by a large Newfoundland dog performing the role of a gin horse within a large tread wheel. In 1775, a few miles down the road, John King opened a weaving factory to produce similar cloth. The original wooden roller blind had no spring and was developed from the old ‘bookfold’ system, where the cloth lay in folds like a concertina on the window sill and was raised to cover the window by a cord dropping back. This system prevailed for several years until someone invented a roller with a flange end, but this still had to be secured to a cleat. It is not known exactly when the modern day spring was invented, except that it was well into the 19th century. It is known, however, that it was very slow to become popular as people did not trust the new fangled spring.Before that, it was just a roller with a rope usually called a Scotch Holland Blind based on the name of the company that made the material. They go back to the 1700s and are still in existence today.

I tried to talk the wife into roller shades, as they have been around for a long time and would be more time correct. She didn't want them, preferred the faux wood blinds instead. If you look at that avatar to the left, with the slight window tint and dark blinds, looks like nothing there at all. They do look nice inside though.

I guess I used up my house collateral with the infamous "aqua green tub", so.....wife wins.

We have both wood venetian blinds & roller shades in our home. Both are correct as far as I can tell. I do like the modern roller shades that operate on a continuous chain. They don't fly up out of your hand due to the spring & they are infinitely adjustable.