Improvements in Hooks and Eyes.
Year: 1897

page_text: Improvements in Hooks and Eyes.
We, WILLIAM S. SEYMOUR, of No. 2005 Boston Avenue, in the City of
Philadelphia, Designer of Special Machinery, and JOSEPH STEDHAM KELLER, of
No. 3515 Hamilton Street, in the City of Philadelphia (West), Capitalist, both in the
County of Philadelphia, State of. Pennsylvania, United States of America, do
hereby declare the nature of this invention and in what manner the same is to be
performed, to be particularly described and ascertained in and by the following
statement:
The invention relates more particularly to the construction of the hook, and has
for its object to dispense with the loose spring tongues commonly employed in certain
types of books, to economize in the amount of material employed in making the
books, to strengthen and simplify the construction, and to provide a hook that will
hold the eye without danger of accidental displacement and yet permit a quick and
easy unhooking when desired.
To these ends the invention consists in the construction of hook shown in the
accompanying drawing, wherein
Figure 1 is a plan view, showing also an eye;
Figure 2 a side or edge view; and
Figure 3 a rear or outer end view.
We prefer to make hooks constructed in accordance with the invention out of a
single piece of metal, for example, a continuous strand of wire.
This wire we bend by hand or any appropriate devices or machine into the form
best shown in Figure 1 of the drawings, where a denotes the bill, b, b, the side-
pieces, c, e, the curves or angles where the eye engages, and d, d, the anchorage
loops whereby the hook is attached to the fabric.
As best shown in Fig. 2, the bill a has preferably a slight upward inclination
extending from its base at the front end of the hook rearward to the point of
It is also
nearest approach of certain guards to be hereinafter described.
preferably widened out and flattened at its end, as clearly indicated in
Figures 1 and 2.
The side-pieces b, b, instead of lying practically in the plane of the bill, as usually
heretofore, are widely separated as shown in Figure 1 so as to lie on opposite sides of
the plane of the bill and afford a wide, flat, base for the hook to rest upon the fabric
and be fastened thereto.
The bill extends rearward midway between these side-pieces with considerable space
between them, so that the eye will readily pass under the book though the latter lie
down flatter, or more nearly in the horizontal plane of the side pieces than is
commonly the case.
At the rear ends of the side-pieces the anchorage loops d, d, are formed, and a
further advantage of spraddling the side-pieces apart, as above described, is that it
enables these loops to be formed by bending or turning the metal inwardly instead of
outwardly, whereby the appearance of the hook is much improved and lateral
projections of the side-pieces are entirely done away with.
The most important advantage of this arrangement is, however, that it enables
us to utilize these anchorage loops for spring guards to hold the eye within the
grasp of the bill, thereby dispensing with all loose tongues, humps, and other
contrivances for this purpose.

page_text: This we accomplish by bending the meeting edges of the loops d, d, slightly upward
above the plane of the side-pieces, as indicated most clearly in Figures 2 and 3, and
bringing them into such proximity to the overhanging end of the hook a that the eve
cannot pass between them into or out of the space enclosed by the hook without
causing the sides of the loops to yield downwardly. And we prefer to leave a small
space between the edges of the loops to permit freedom of action.
The bending of the side-pieces to form the anchorage loops, of course, stiffens the
metal at the rear ends of these pieces, and the size of the loops is too small to permit
of much yielding in the loops proper; consequently in the practical operation of
the hook it will be found that there is a torsional yield in the side-pieces themselves-
that is to say, the spring of the guards formed by the loops comprises a torsional
one, that is due to the twisting of the side-pieces, it being apparent upon
examination of Figure 1 of the drawings that the loops act as levers on the side-
pieces and give them a torsional strain when depressed by the passage of the eye
between them and the bill.
The turning inwardly of the anchorage loops also provides two guards for the bill,
one on each side of the center which has the advantage of more effectually resisting
any tendency of the eye to pass out of the bill in a straight line rearwardly, but
permits its easy disengagement by a slight rolling motion so that the guards yield
consecutively rather than simultaneously.
Having now particularly described and ascertained the nature of our said inven-
tion, and in what manner the same is to be performed, we declare that what we
claim is :
In a hook and eye, a hook having the rearwardly extending bill a, the side-
pieces b, b, on either side of said bill and separated therefrom by an intervening space,.
and the anchorage loops d, d, formed by turning or bending the side pieces
inwardly at the rear ends, the adjacent edges of said loops being inclined upwardly
toward the overhanging end of the bill a so as to act as spring guards to prevent the
disengagement of the eye.
WILLIAM S. SEYMOUR.
JOSEPH STEDHAM KELLER.
Haseltine, Lake & Co.,
45 Southampton Buildings, London, W.C., Agents for the Applicants..