AN IMPROVEMENT IN PINS
Year: 1885

page_text: I, WILLIAM LLOYD WISE, of No 46 Lincoln's Inn Fields, in the County of
Middlesex, Consulting Engineer and Patent Agent, do hereby declare the nature of
said invention for "AN IMPROVEMENT IN PINS" (a communication to me from
abroad by Mary Elizabeth Grow, of 723, 8th Street, Washington, District of
Columbia, United States of America, Gentlewoman,) to be as follows:-
This invention relates to an improvement in hair and scarf pins and in the
ordinary form of pins and similar devices used for attaching one article to another.
The objections to pins of the ordinary form, except safety pins, are that the
bodies of the same being straight and smooth they are liable to easily slip out of
place.
To obviate this objection pins have been corrugated and hair pins have had one
or both legs bent or twisted into different shapes, and what are commonly known
as "safety" pins have been extensively employed; but the objections to many of
these changes are that they render the fastenings difficult of insertion, and in most
cases being straight and nearly inflexible are awkward and inconvenient for use,
and their uses are quite limited.
The object of this invention is to obviate these and many other objections, and
to this end it consists of coils of suitable material with one end of the extreme
coil sharpened for the purpose of insertion through cloth or other fabric and the
opposite extremity left free to receive ornaments of any character.
By inserting the sharpened end in or through hair or any fabric, the coils
work easily forward and the pin is held securely in place by the coils and
cannot be withdrawn without turning the coils in the opposite direction.
The pin may be made of any flexible material so as to enable it to be bent or
inclined to more easily pass through and connect different folds or loops of fabric.
The opposite end is adapted to receive any ornamentation or other object, or
may be used as a finger tip by which to turn the pin when not ornamented.
This invention will be found particularly useful, by reason of the secure
fastening it affords in the employment of valuable dress ornaments in looping the
folds of a dress,-in applying ornaments thereto, or to bonnets and other articles of
dress, and great and additional advantages are obtained over means ordinarily
employed for that purpose.
The coils may be made sufficiently small to adapt the article for use as an
invisible hair pin.

page_text: COMPLETE SPECIFICATION.
"
I, WILLIAM LLOYD WISE, of N° 46 Lincolns Inn Fields in the County of
Middlesex, Consulting Engineer and Patent Agent, do hereby declare the nature of
said invention for "AN IMPROVEMENT IN PINS (a communication to me from
abroad by Mary Elizabeth Grow, of 723 8th Street, Washington, District of
Columbia, United States of America, Gentlewoman,) and in what manner the same
is to be performed, to be particularly described and ascertained in and by the
following statement:―
This invention relates to an improvement in hair and scarf pins and in the
ordinary form of pins and similar devices used for attaching one article to another.
The objections to pins of the ordinary form, except safety pins, are that the
bodies of the same being straight and smooth they are liable to easily slip out of
place.
To obviate this objection pins have been corrugated and hair pins have had one
or both legs bent or twisted into different shapes, and what are commonly known
as "safety" pins, have been extensively employed; but the objections to many of
these changes are that they render the fastenings difficult of insertion, and in most
cases being straight and nearly inflexible, are awkward and inconvenient for use,
and their uses are quite limited.
The object of this invention is to obviate these and many other objections, and
to this end it consists of coils of flexible material with one end of the extreme
coil sharpened for the purpose of insertion through cloth or other fabric, and the
opposite extremity adapted to receive ornaments of any character.
The invention is illustrated in the accompanying drawings, in which Fig. 1, is a
perspective view of the spiral pin which can be used for an ordinary hair pin;
Fig. 2, a similar view of a pin provided with an ornamentation of flowers; Fig. 3,
a scarf pin; Figs. 4 and 5, a form of smaller dimensions which may be used in
connecting lace fabrics, artificial flowers and for holding in place ladies frizzes,
puffs, braids, and coils of the hair, etc.
In the drawings A is the body of the coiled pin, 6 the sharpened end of one of
the coils, d the opposite end and e and f ornaments.
By inserting the sharpened end b in or through hair or any fabric, the coils work
easily forward and the pin is held securely in place by the coils and cannot be
withdrawn without turning the coils in the opposite direction; and for the purpose
of inserting and withdrawing the pin from either end when used as a hair pin it is
necessary that each end should be curved alike.
The pin may be made of any flexible material so as to enable it to be bent or
inclined to more easily pass through and connect different folds or loops of fabric.
The opposite end d, is adapted to receive any ornamentation or other object, or
may be used as a finger tip by which to turn the pin when not ornamented.
This invention will be found particularly useful; by reason of the secure
fastening it affords in the employment of valuable dress ornaments in looping the
folds of a dress, in applying ornaments thereto, or to bonnets and other articles of
dress, and great and additional advantages are obtained over means ordinarily
employed for that purpose.

page_text: In this improvement the coils may be made sufficiently small to adapt the article
for use as an invisible hair pin.
The invention differs from screw, cork screw, and worm fastenings, in the fact
that flexible elastic wire, or equivalent material, such as rubber or celluloid, may
be employed in the form of coils which are of the same dimensions to the
sharpened tip, while the opposite end is left free and adapted to be combined by
reason of its flexibility with any desired article or ornamentation, whereas, in the
class of fastenings mentioned, the metal is stiff, the coils or threads of a certain
pitch, the spiral generally tapering and always permanently attached to a rigid
handle, or other object. No such device could be employed as a substitute for this
invention without essential changes and readaptation.
Having thus described this invention, what I claim is
1. A pin of the character herein described, consisting of coils of suitable material
and of uniform dimensions, with the coil at one extremity of the pin having its
curved end sharpened and the coil at the opposite end left free, substantially as
and for the purpose described.
2. A pin having the coiled and sharpened ends b, substantially as described.