Improvements in Hooks and Eyes.
Year: 1894

page_text: Date of Application, 15th May, 1894-Accepted, 16th June, 1894
Improvements in Hooks and Eyes.
I, SAMUEL IRA SLADE, of Detroit, Michigan, United States of America,
Attorney-at-law, 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 :-
My invention relates to hooks and eyes.
In the accompanying drawing
Figure 1 is a view showing the hook and eye partially engaged.
Figure 2 is a view showing the hook and eye disengaged.
Figure 3 is a similar view showing the hook portion nearly straight.
Figure 4 is a similar view from a slightly different position, to show the
extension of the tongue outside of and beyond the loop of the eye, and a hook
bent at right angles.
A is the hook and B the eye. The eye is formed from a single wire having the
eye proper inclined or set off as shown at b, and having the spring b¹ formed from
a loop of wire extending out a short distance beyond the point at which the loop is
inclined or set off. The inclined portion is preferably brought to a point or angle
near the end. From this end, it gradually expands beyond and inward until it
reaches the point at where the inclined portion joins the shank. The distance
between the wires at 6 should be sufficient to admit the hook, but at no point
nearer the end or angle. The wires should be near enough together to prevent the
hook from passing in, or out when entered.
The hook is so designated more because it performs the function of the hook in
the ordinary hook-and-eye than because it is a hook proper. I have found that
this portion will hold in the eye if perfectly straight so long as the end is enlarged
as at a. In the form shown in the drawing, this enlarged end is made in the form
of a loop, but the device may be made from sheet metal and the enlarged end of
the hook portion be a solid head. The two portions are locked or held together
by entering the head or loop of the hook portion under the spring tongue until it
reaches a point where it will drop into the eye under the pressure of the tongue,
back of the inclined portion of the eye. As this portion of the eye is brought
together or narrowed at the point, the head of the hook portion cannot draw out
except by raising the spring and passing out above the incline.
The tongue I prefer to provide with a loop at the outer end 63. This loop
I call a sewing-loop, or thread-eye, and the tongue may be sewed to the garment.
This tongue extends a sufficient distance beyond the inclined portion of the eye so
that, when the head of the hook portion is brought against the incline of the eye,
by moving the portions towards one another, it rides up the incline under the
spring tongue until it reaches a point where it will engage.
The great advantage of my device consists in the fact that the engagement of
the parts is made by moving them directly toward one another and without the
necessity of passing the hook portion by the eye and then leaving it to return to
hook. This feature is especially desirable in close-fitting garments and when the
device is used as a glove fastener. This latter use I have found to be one to
which it is especially adapted. The device can also be applied with advantage as
a corset-fastening and both portions of the device can be stamped from corset-
steels, or they can be made separate and attached to the steels. The portions can
be stamped from sheet-metal, in which case the tongue is cut from the centre of the
loop and the loop portion simply inclined or set off from the tongue.

page_text: Having now particularly described and ascertained the nature of my said
invention and in what manner the same is to be performed I declare that what I
claim.is:-
1. An eye having its loop inclined from the shank and tapering towards the end,
substantially as described.
2. An eye having its shank formed of parallel wires connected by an inclined
tapering loop, and having a spring tongue lying between the wires of the shank,
substantially as described.
3. In combination with an eye having an inclined loop tapering towards its end,
a hook consisting of a shank having an enlarged end, substantially as described.
4. In combination with an eye having its shank formed of parallel wires
connected by a tapering loop inclined from the shank, and baving a spring tongue
lying between the wires of the shank, a hook having an enlarged end, substantially
as described.
5. An eye-member having a shank, a spring tongue substantially parallel with
the shank, and a loop inclined downwards from a point near the end of the spring
tongue, substantially as described.
6. In combination with an eye member having a spring tongue and a loop
inclined downwards from a point near the end of said tongue, a hook having. an
enlarged end adapted to enter between the loop and the bottom of the tongue,
substantially as described.
Dated thin 12th 1
y of Maky
D. YOUNG & Co.,
11 & 12, Southampton Buildings, London, W.C.,
Agents for the Applicant.