AN IMPROVED CONSTRUCTION OP HOOK FOR HOOK-AND-EYE FASTENINGS
Year: 1861

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Alfred Vincent Newton, of the Office for Patents,
66, Chancery Lane, in the County of Middlesex, Mechanical Draughts-
man, for the Invention of "AN IMPROVED CONSTRUCTION OP HOOK FOR
HOOK-AND-EYE FASTENINGS." - A communication from abroad by Alvin
Childs Mason, Henry Hubbard Mason, and David McAllister Smith, of
Springfield, Windsor County, in the State of Vermont, United States of
America.
Sealed the 2nd July 1861, and dated the 4th March 1861.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Alfred Vincent Newton
at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the
4th March 1861.
I, ALFRED VINCENT NEWTON, of the Office for Patents, 66, Chancery Lane,
in the County of Middlesex, Mechanical Draughtsman, do hereby declare the
nature of the said Invention for "AN IMPROVED CONSTRUCTION OF HOOK FOR
HOOK-AND-EYE FASTENINGS," to be as follows:-
The object of this Invention is to give greater security than hitherto to
hook-and-eye fastenings by removing the liability of such fastenings getting
accidentally disengaged. To this end the hook is provided with a spring
guard or tongue (made in one piece with the hook), which tongue bears upon
the under side of the bill of the hook, and thereby when the eye is inserted
effectually prevents it from escaping out of the hook until the tongue is

page_text: depressed. For the purpose of facilitating the release of the eye the extremity
of the tongue or spring guard is bent down at right angles, and a recess is
formed in the stem of the hook to receive the end, and prevent the tongue from
being bent laterally and put out of order. This bent end will act as a stop to
the eye when it is attempted to be released from the hook without first
sufficiently depressing the tongue, and it will thus serve to indicate when a
further depression of the tongue is required..
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said Alfred Vincent Newton in the Great Seal Patent Office
on the 3rd September 1861.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, ALFred
VINCENT NEWTON, of the Office for Patents, 66, Chancery Lane, in the County
of Middlesex, Mechanical Draughtsman, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most. Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Fourth, day of March, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and sixty-one, in the twenty-fourth year of Her
reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto me, the
said Alfred Vincent Newton, Her special license that I, the said Alfred
Vincent Newton, my executors, administrators, and assigns, or such others as
I, the said Alfred Vincent Newton, my executors, administrators, and assigns,
should at any time agree with, and no others, from time to time and at
all times thereafter during the term therein expressed, should and lawfully
might make, use, exercise, and vend, within the United Kingdom of Great
Britain and Ireland, the Channel Islands, and Isle of Man, an Invention for
"AN IMPROVED CONSTRUCTION OF HOOK FOR HOOK-AND-EYE FASTENINGS," being a
communication from abroad, upon the condition (amongst others) that I, the
said Alfred Vincent Newton, by an instrument in writing under my hand and
seal, should particularly describe and ascertain the nature of the said Inven-
tion, and in what manner the same was to be performed, and cause the same
to be filed in the Great Seal Patent Office within six calendar months next
and immediately after the date of the said Letters Patent..
NOW KNOW YE, that I, the said Alfred Vincent Newton, do hereby
declare the nature of the said Invention, and in what manner the same is to
be performed, to be particularly described and ascertained in and by the
following statement, reference being had to the Drawing hereunto annexed,
and to the letters and figures marked thereon (that is to say) :-

page_text: This Invention, as communicated to me by my foreign correspondent,
"consists in constructing hooks for hook-and-eye fastenings with a snap or
'spring guard, which will prevent the casual detachment or disconnection of
the hook from the eye, the whole being formed of a single piece of wire.
In the accompanying Drawing, Fig. 1 is a back view of the improved
fastening; Fig. 2 is a perspective view of the same; Figures 3 and 4 are side
views; Fig. 5 is a face view of Fig. 3; and Fig. 6 is a face view of Fig. 4.
Similar letters of reference indicate corresponding parts in the several Figures.
A represents a hook, which has its bent end or bill a and opposite ends b, b,
.constructed in the ordinary way of a single piece of wire. There is this
difference, however, between the ordinary hook and the improved hook, that
the latter has one of its legs or parts c sufficiently long to admit of being bent
and extended forward sufficiently far to pass behind the bill a, and form a snap
or spring guard, the leg or part c having sufficient elasticity to form a spring,
which keeps the end of the leg or part c against the bill a (see Figures 2, 3,
and 4). In Fig. 4 it will be seen that the end of the part or snap c terminates
just beyond the end of the bill a, and will prevent the casual disconnecting of
the hook A from the eye B, but it will also be seen that the part or snap c is
liable to be bent out laterally in the haste of disengaging the hook, and if the
part or snap c is not sufficiently forced back by the operator, the eye B will be
liable to slide behind or under the part or snap cinstead of passing out from
the bill a. This difficulty may be avoided by bending the end of the part or
snap c so as to form a guide d, which extends within an opening e in the hook
at a point back of the bill a, as shown clearly in Figures 1 and 2. The end
or guide d admits of the eye B being readily disengaged, as it prevents the
eye passing back on the hook in the operation of detaching the hook and eye,
and it also prevents the part or snap c being bent out laterally, a contingency
which would frequently occur in the haste of detaching the hook and eye were
the end or guide d not employed.
Snaps or spring guards have been used on hooks and eyes, but they have
been so constructed as to augment considerably the cost of construction. By
this Invention the snap is formed out of the same piece of wire as the hook,
and by simply elongating one leg thereof, and bending it in proper position,
which may be done by proper machinery simultaneously with the construction
of the hook, and, therefore, without adding materially to the expense of con-
struction.
Having now set forth the nature of the Invention of "An Improved
Construction of Hook for Hook-and-Eye Fastenings," and having explained
the manner of carrying the same into effect, I wish it to be understood that

page_text: under the above in part recited Letters Patent I do not claim a hook for
hooks and eyes provided with a snap or spring-guard irrespective of the mode
of forming the same; but I claim .constructing spring-guard hooks above
described, whereby their disengagement may be readily effected, and the
liability of injury to the guard may be effectually prevented.
In witness whereof, I, the said Alfred Vincent Newton, have hereunto
set my hand and seal, the Second day of September, in the year of
our Lord One thousand eight hundred and sixty-one.
Witness,
J. W. MOFFATT,
66, Chancery Lane.
A. V. NEWTON. (L.B.)