Espagnolette

Espagnolettes , also known as rowing bars in German , are fittings that are used to drive the rotary bolt locks on windows, and more rarely on doors.

The fittings, which are mainly made of brass , wrought iron or malleable cast iron , pull the window sash towards the window frame when it is closed, so that deformed and warped window sashes can also be tightly closed.

This lock system is mainly on the vertical wing profile of the wing and Stulpfenstern mounted. The so-called rudder button, in some cases also a pawl, is usually located in the middle of the wing and is connected to the rudder rod or loop on a vertical metal rod. The vertical rod is rotated by 90 degrees using the rudder, whereby the hooks of the rotary latch at the ends of the rod move into the receptacles attached to the window frame (in the form of an eyelet or a pin).

After completing the rotation of the vertical rod, the rudder button is hooked into a hook on the window frame or on the second sash. The locking thus takes place at one or both ends of the rod and also at the rudder button itself. Insofar as the operation of the espagnolette locking system corresponds to the espagnolette lock (in the English- and French-speaking Crémone called) with Basculegetriebe , the latter instead of the round bars mostly flat, semi-circular or square drive bolt has, which do not rotate, but up and down in the shots provided for this purpose are pushed.
Both locks were made in the late baroque and were used well into the 20th century.

If a second window sash is available, it is kept closed by the cover strip attached to the first sash . Quarter- turns were usually used to prevent the French sash from opening when the first sash was opened.

This locking system is often found in a similar form on the double doors of the loading area of semitrailers and sea ​​containers .

gallery

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  Oar pole at the window of the library of a pavilion belonging to the Palace of Versailles

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  Rowing loop on the window of the library of the Hôtel de Bourvallais on Place Vendôme in Paris

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  Espagnolettes on a window gallery of the Palace of Versailles

Web links

• A patent registered in 1998 entitled Espagnolette-lock for a door, french window or the like (English)

Footnotes

1. ↑ Dorothee Heinzelmann: "Significance, value and datability of historical windows", p. 20, in the brochure Windows in the Monument: Value - Care - Repair , documentation for the 25th Cologne discussion on architecture and monument preservation in Brauweiler (Pulheim) , November 13th 2017; Messages from the LVR Office for Monument Preservation in the Rhineland, issue 31; A publication by the Rhineland Regional Council in cooperation with the Technical University of Cologne / Faculty of Architecture, Institute for Building History and Monument Preservation, edited by the state curator Dr. Andrea Pufke; accessed in July 2019