Electrical outlet box

Claim 2

An electrical outlet box including top, bottom and side walls connected together and forming a housing open at the front, a back wall for closing the back of the box, one wall of the box constituting a different piece from the rest of the box, detachable fastening means for securing said one wall to the box, and anchoring means on said one wall of the box and on a side thereof to clamp wires in position for connection with other conductors on the inside of the box whereby electrical cables can be secured to said one wall of the box before said one wall is secured to the box.

Claim 3

The electrical outlet box described in claim 1 characterized by said one wall being the back wall of the box and some one of the top, bottom and side walls of the box having an opening therein for passage of a cable into the box, the opening having a cross-section to receive the cable with which the box is intended to be used, and said opening extending to the back edge of the box and having a width at the back edge of the box substantially equal to the diameter of the cable for bringing wires into the box that are attached to the back wall when the back wall is separated from the rest of the box.

Claim 4

The electrical outlet box described in claim 1 characterized by the back wall being a different piece from the other walls and the anchoring means being on the inside surface of the back wall and the detachable fastening means including sockets and a complementary lug that locks into a socket, part of the fastening means being at the rearward end of one of the walls of the box and another part of the fastening means being near one edge of the back wall, and a connector at another part of the back wall for holding the back wall against relative movement of the lug and socket.

Claim 5

The electrical outlet box described in claim 3 characterized by the fastening means including two sockets that are holes in the bottom wall of the box, and two lugs extending from the bottom edge of the back wall and offset from the plane of the back wall, and a forwardly extending lug at the top of the back wall extending close to and generally parallel to the top wall of the box, and a connector that secures the forwardly extending lug to the top wall.

Claim 6

The electrical outlet box described in claim 1 characterized by the back wall being a different piece from the other walls and the anchoring means being a bracket located in front of the back wall and connected to the back wall, and clamping means that pull the bracket toward the back wall to clamp a cable between the bracket and the back wall.

Claim 7

The electrical outlet box described in claim 5 characterized by the back wall being flat and there being brackets spaced from the front surface of the back wall near the upper and lower ends of the back wall, the clamping means being screws extending through the brackets and threaded into the back wall.

Claim 8

The electrical outlet box described in claim 1 characterized by the back wall being a different piece from the other walls and the detachable fastening means including offset lugs extending forwardly and then downwardly from the bottom edge of the back wall, openings through the bottom wall in a position to receive the lugs of the back wall, the back wall being wide enough to extend across the back edges of both of the side walls, and a forwardly extending lug at the top of the back wall in position to extend parallel to and across the top surface of the top wall, the back wall being high enough to extend across the back edge of the top wall, and a screw that extends through aligned openings in the top lug and the top wall for holding the back on the box.

Claim 9

The electrical outlet box described in claim 7 characterized by the anchoring means being clamps on the inside of the back wall, and pry-outs in one of the walls of the box at the back portion of the wall and extending all the way to the back edge of the wall so that removal of a pry-out leaves a recess in the back edGe of the box which provides clearance for a cable held by the anchoring means, which recess is closed at the back edge of the box when the back wall is connected to the box.

Claim 10

The electrical outlet box described in claim 7 characterized by their being two pry-outs in the bottom wall between the openings in the bottom wall that receive the lugs of the back wall, and there being two pry-outs in the top wall one on each of the opposite sides of the screw opening for fastening the top lug to the back wall, and the anchoring means including as many clamps as there are pry-outs, there being a clamp in line with each pry-out.

Claim 11

The electrical outlet box described in claim 1 characterized by the back wall being a different piece from the other walls and the top, bottom and side walls constituting a single piece of metal and adapted to be formed from a flat blank, front and back edges of the walls extending generally parallel to one another and adapted to be longitudinal edges of the blank, the box having corners where the side walls join the top and bottom walls and all but one of the corners being bends in the continuous extent of the metal of the walls, and the other corner having a tab and a recess that is engaged by the tab in locking relation with the recess to hold the walls secured together at said other corner, the tab being part of said single piece of metal.

Claim 12

The electrical outlet box described in claim 10 characterized by a bracket extending generally normal to one wall of the box and substantially in a plane with the front edges of the box and of one piece with the walls of the box, and sharp projections extending rearwardly from edges of the bracket to serve as nails for securing the box to a stud, and openings in some of the walls having forward edges of substantially 180* extent with a radius of curvature substantially equal to the radius of the armor of the cable with which the box is intended to be used, the center of curvature of said forward edge being ahead of the back edge of the box by a distance substantially equal to the radius of the curvature, and said openings having side edges parallel to one another and generally tangent to the rearward ends of the forward edge and extending to the rear edge of the box whereby said openings have a width at the rearward ends substantially equal to the diameter of said armor.