Discussion Groups / English Usage / November 2006

Not precisely further details, but this, from the article "Fifty Years
of Psychical Research" by Harry Price (1939, Longmans, Green & Co.):

"A large window at one end of the room could be screened by an opaque,
black rubberized spring blind, the edges of which were masked by a
felt-lined 'box' which entirely surrounded the window. These spring
roller-blinds are used extensively for X-ray work in large hospitals."

1939, true, but I felt it might provide a clue.

Those assiduous peeps at the OED have saved us some work:

" 1858 Simmonds Dict. Trade, *Spring-blind maker, a maker of window blinds
working on springs."

All together now ...

A capital ship for an ocean trip
Was the "Walloping Window Blind"
No gale that blew dismayed her crew
Or troubled the captain's mind

On a similar quest, I discovered "holland blind" in Charlotte Bronte's
"Jane Eyre". Of course the book didn't say what mechanism was used to
raise the blind, but at least we know that the term is of a respectable age.

Quite.  The spring for a pocket watch works in just the same way as the
spring for a roller blind (unless I'm jumping one conclusion too far).
It's a wrap.

I'm surprised that Mark is surprised that I'm surprised. Most of the
noted inventions of the period were of the practical sort like devices
that removed corn from the cob or devices that cored apples.

I have visited many museums and restored 19th century houses.  I've
never seen - or at least noticed - a re-created 19th century room with
a spring-loaded roller blind.  All I can recall seeing are heavy
drapes in 19th century rooms.

Perhaps historical exhibit designers don't give no respect to
spring-loaded roller blinds.

   

Indeed. The inventor could have faxed details to his friends (but not yet
have phoned them). He could have photographed his invention, and kept the
plans in the refrigerator for safety (having typed them for legibility)

Indeed. How else would coach journeys have been made so comfortable?
Actually, they had springs long, long before that. The great Robert Hooke,
in the 17th Century had even identified a Law governing the behaviour of
springs. To pluck cites from OED:

1428 Acts Privy Council (1834) III. 289 Item for amendyng of the spryng of
the barell [of a clock] vjs viijd.  [1472 in Rogers Agric. & Prices (1882)
IV. 622 A spring to a clock is purchased by King's College, Cambridge, for
2d.]   1598 Florio, Molla, a wheele of a clocke that mooueth all the rest
called the spring.  1599 T. M[oufet] Silkwormes 35 Ingenious Germane, how
didst thou conuey Thy Springs, thy Scrues, thy rowells, and thy flie?  1611
Shakes. Cymb. ii. ii. 47 To th' Truncke againe, and shut the spring of it.
1677 Moxon Mech. Exerc. ii. 28 The Spring h forces the Bolt forwards when it
is shot back with the Key.  1713 Lond. Gaz. No. 5155/4 A Gold Watch,+going
with a Spring, Without Fusey, Chain or String.  1771 Encycl. Brit. III. 936
The quickness or slowness of the vibrations of the balance depend not solely
upon the action of the great spring, but chiefly upon the action of the
spring a, b, c, called the spiral spring.

and

1665 Pepys Diary 5 Sept., After dinner comes Colonel Blunt in his new
chariot made with springs.  1706 Lond. Gaz. No. 4235/3 The sole Benefit of
making and vending certain Steel Springs he hath+invented for ease of
Persons riding in Coaches.  1794 W. Felton Carriages (1801) I. 72 Short
light springs which contain but few plates, have frequently no hoops.  1837
W. B. Adams Carriages 117 What is technically understood in carriages by the
term 'spring' is a plate or plates of tempered steel properly shaped to play
in any required mode.  1876 Encycl. Brit. V. 137/1 The elliptic springs,
upon which nearly all carriages are now mounted.