IMPROVE- MENTS IN LADIES' DRESS HOLDERS OR DRESS SUSPENDERS, WHICH IMPROVEMENTS MAY ALSO BE APPLIED TO THE HOLDING OR SUSPENDING OF. CURTAINS AND OTHER ARTICLES
Year: 1879

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by William Benjamin Robathan and
Samuel Cranmore at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents on the 15th
February 1879.
WILLIAM BENJAMIN ROBATHAN and SAMUEL CRANMORE, both of Birmingham, in
the County of Warwick, Manufacturing Jewellers and Silversmiths.
"IMPROVE-
MENTS IN LADIES' DRESS HOLDERS OR DRESS SUSPENDERS, WHICH IMPROVEMENTS
MAY ALSO BE APPLIED TO THE HOLDING OR SUSPENDING OF. CURTAINS AND
OTHER ARTICLES."
Our Invention consists in constructing ladies' dress holders or dress suspenders
as hereinafter described. Our said Invention may also be applied to the holding or
suspending of other articles, such as curtains, hangings, and the like.
We will describe our Invention as applied to a lady's dress holder or dress
suspender.
We make the body of the dress holder of a closed case or box, by preference of
an elliptical figure, and having nearly flat sides. We make the said closed case or
box of two or more pieces of sheet metal soldered together or closed upon one
another by pressure, or otherwise connected. In the said closed case or box are
two curved tubes, opening at the edge of the case or box, the said tubes being
symmetrically situated on either side of the middle or longest direction of the case.
The said tubes constitute curved passages, through which the cord of the dress
holder is passed, one end of the cord being passed through one of the said passages,
and the other end of the cord through the other passage, a loop being formed at
the bottom of the holder or at that part which is lowest when the holder is in use.
The cord fits so tightly in the curved passages that considerable resistance is offered
to the motion of the cord therein. The ends of the cord pass out at the upper
part of the holder, and are connected to the waist of the person using the dress
holder. Through the pendent loop of the cord below the dress holder the end of
the dress to be suspended passed. By sliding the holder upon the cord, so as to
contract the loop into which the end of the dress has been placed, the said loop
closes upon and grips the dress, the holder itself being retained on the cord in the
position to which it has been adjusted by the resistance offered to its motion by
the curved passages through which the cord passes, combined with the binding
action of the cord upon the said passages.
To release the dress the holder is raised upon the cord, and the loop of the cord
no longer binding the dress the latter falls from it by its own weight,

page_text: The curved tubes or passages described in the holder may be dispensed with, the
cord being threaded through holes in the edge of the holder having the positions
described with respect to the open ends of the curved tubes.
The curved tubos may be used without the case described. In this modification
the tubes are connected together near their middles.
When the curved tubes are dispensed with we prefer to combine with the holder
a spring lever for gripping and releasing the cord.
In this modification the gripping lever is situated in the direction of the longer
diameter of the holder, and its gripping end is expanded and made to cross the two
parts of the cord passing through the holder. By means of a spring acting upon
the end of the lever most distant from the gripping end the said gripping end is
pressed downwards, and made to grip the two parts of the cord between itself and
the inside of the case or body of the holder. A stem on the end of the lever on
which the spring acts passes through a slot in the case, and on the end of the said
stem and external to the case is a knob or thumb plate. By pressing inwards the
said knob or thumb plate the gripping end of the lever is raised from the cord, and
the said cord released. After the loop has been closed upon the dress by the sliding
of the holder upon the cord in the manner before described, the head or thumb plate
is released. The lever again grips the cord within the holder, and thereby retains
the holder in its adjusted position on the cord. Instead of the gripping lever
described, the two parts of the cord in the holder may be gripped between two bolts
crossing the holder in its shorter direction, and pressed together by a spring or
springs, the said bolts being separated for releasing the cord by pushers situated on
opposite sides of the holder.