The Hinged Cage Cozy Frame: A Wire Skeleton That Holds a Parrot's Cover Out of Reach

"According to the drawing a is a circular frame of galvanized wire of a diameter sufficiently large to project slightly beyond or over the circumferential edge of the cage to which it is to be applied. This frame a is hinged together in two equal parts at b, b, and is provided at its center with an aperture or opening c, which is adapted in use to fit over the ordinary bell or hook fitted to the top of parrot cages and the like, for purposes of suspension or carriage." "g, g, are supports or feet attached at the underside of one of the concentrically arranged wires e', and by means of which the frame a is supported upon the top of a parrot cage"

**Frame.** Measure the cage across. From 3 mm galvanised steel wire bend two half-rings 8 cm wider across than the cage, two half-rings of middle size, two small ones, and two half-circles that together ring the cage's top hook. Bend the ends of each outer half-ring into eyes, and link the eyes of the two halves on each side so they fold on each other as hinges. **Spokes and feet.** Cut three spokes for each half and lay them across the rings from the centre ring to the outer ring. Bind every crossing tightly with thin wire. Bend four U-shaped feet and bind them under the middle ring so the frame rests level on the cage's top. **Cozy.** Cut a round of fabric and a skirt from the notebook's size, sew the skirt to the round's edge and hem it, and cut a slit in each half along the hinge line so the cozy goes on over the hook. **Test.** Set the frame on the cage and the cozy over it. Put one thermometer in the cage and one beside it, blow a fan across both, and read them every 15 minutes for an hour; then fold the frame on its hinges.

**Gerald Montgomery Porter** of 112 Upper Grosvenor Road, Tunbridge Wells, Kent, England, filed US 936,032 on 21 September 1908; it was patented 5 October 1909. The frame a carries roughly radial stiffening wires d and concentric wires e and e', bound together by wire straps f or brazed or soldered; the feet g are of bent wire, and may instead be loops notched to fit over a wire. For square or rectangular cages the frame takes their shape. He wrote that being hinged in two parts, or more, makes it compact to pack away. His claims cover the two hinged semicircular parts with supports on their underside, and the screen of that frame with its central aperture, wires, straps, supports and covering. **Honest limits.** Hand-bent wire and hand-sewn fabric stand in for his; the number of spokes and rings follows his drawing only roughly. The notebook ignores hems and seams; its sizes are examples. Your temperature readings are the result.