Dog Kennel Whose Top Tilts Back on Lift-Off Hinges to Air and Clean It (Minion, 1909)

"The upper portion can be tilted back as shown in Fig. 1 so as to permit the cleaning of the lower portion, and also allow sunlight to penetrate therein over its whole surface, which makes a sanitary structure."

Build an open box of pine boards with upright sides and a floor, his portion 10, raised on two strips 12 so air passes under it. Cut the entrance 11 in the front.

Build the top half, his portion 13, with sides that stand on the lower sides, a gabled roof 16, and an opening 15 matching the entrance. Nail strips 14 round its lower edge outside so they overlap the lower portion, shed water and make a tight joint.

Screw a flat-bar plate to the back of each lower side, projecting behind, with a slot cut in its top edge (his plates 32 and slots 33). Screw a plate with a bolt as a stud to each side of the upper portion so the studs drop into the slots when the top is set down (his plates 34 and studs 35). The top now tilts back on the studs or lifts off.

Hang a flat-bar arm from a hinge at the top of the back of the upper portion (his arm 24 and hinge 23). Join its lower part to a bracket on the lower portion with a link (his link 25 and bracket 28), slotted so it can be unhooked. When the top is tilted back, the arm swings down to the ground and props it.

Screw a strip of flat bar round the edge of the entrance, his iron band 31, where a chained dog wears it.

**John S. Minion** of Newark, US 920,975, dated 11 May 1909, filed 21 May 1908. He claimed "a kennel comprising a bottom portion having vertical sides, a top portion with vertical sides resting on the sides of the bottom portion, hinges connecting the sides of the bottom and top portions on one end, an arm swinging from its top end on the hinged end of the top portion, and a link pivoted to the bottom portion and to the arm". He gives no sizes; the pine, all sizes and the flat-bar and bolt fittings are ours.