IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MANUFACTURE OF FASTENERS FOR BINDING PAPERS AND FOR OTHER LIKE PURPOSES. AND IN MACHINERY TO BE USED IN THE SAID MANUFACTURE
Year: 1866

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Alfred Henry Hart, of Gresham Street, in the City
of London, Manufacturer, for the Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN THE
MANUFACTURE OF FASTENERS FOR BINDING PAPERS AND FOR OTHER LIKE
PURPOSES. AND IN MACHINERY TO BE USED IN THE SAID MANUFACTURE."
Sealed the 9th July 1866, and dated the 12th January 1866.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Alfred Henry Hart at
the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the
12th January 1866.
I, ALFRED HENRY HART, of Gresham Street, in the City of London,
Manufacturer, do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for "IM-
PROVEMENTS IN THE MANUFACTURE OF FASTENERS FOR BINDING PAPERS. AND FOR
OTHER LIKE PURPOSES, AND IN MACHINERY TO BE USED IN THE SAID MANUFACTURE,"
to be as follows:-
My Invention relates to the manufacture of the blanks from which fasteners
for binding papers and for other like purposes are made, and consists in
making the said blanks in the manner herein-after described, and also in the
machinery to be employed in the manufacture of the said blanks herein-after
described. The said fasteners consist of strips of metal bent into the form of
the letter T. In using the said fasteners the parallel and pointed ends are
passed through the papers and turned out or clenched, and the papers are
thereby secured together. The blanks of the said fasteners are ordinarily
made by cutting them out of sheet metal at a press. By this method of

page_text: manufacture much waste of metal results, and when long blanks are
made the springing of the cutting dies or tools occasions much trouble in
keeping the said dies or tools in repair. The blanks so made have sharp
edges or sides which cut or injure the papers with which the fasteners are
used.
In making the said blanks according to my Invention I take cylindrical
wire and pass it through a pair of ordinary cylindrical rolls. By the pressure
of the said rolls the wire is flattened into thin strips, the sides or edges being
rounded. The said rounded edges when the strips are made into fasteners
do not injure or cut the papers to which the fasteners are applied. Or
instead of flattening cylindrical wire I cut from thin sheet metal by means of
circular cutters or otherwise strips of the proper width for the fasteners to be
made. I cut and point blanks from thin strips made in either of the ways
described by means of machinery constructed as follows:-The said machinery
consists of a press, on the bed or bolster of which I fix a plate or fixed die
having an opening in its middle, the ends of the said opening having V-shaped
cutting edges, the pointed ends of the cutting edges being turned towards
each other. The punch or moveable die of the press has a corresponding
figure. The end of the strip to be made into blanks is placed upon the bed
and the punch is brought down upon it so as to point the said end; the
pointed end of the strip is then fed to a V-shaped stop on the bed, and
the punch again brought down. A blank is thereby cut from the strip
having both its ends pointed, and the end of the strip to form the next blank
is also pointed. By feeding the pointed end to the stop described another
blank may be cut from the strip and the end of the strip pointed and so on.
By increasing the distance of the stop on the bed from the cutting edges
of the bottom plate or die blanks of different lengths may be made from the
strips. Blanks made according to my Invention are bent or fashioned into
fasteners in the ordinary way.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said Alfred Henry Hart in the Great Seal Patent Office on the
12th July 1866.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, ALFRed
HENRY HART, of Gresham Street, in the City of London, Manufacturer,
send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters

page_text: Patent, bearing date the Twelfth day of January, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and sixty-six, in the twenty-ninth year of Her
reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto me, the
said Alfred Henry Hart, Her special licence that I, the said Alfred Henry
Hart, my executors, administrators, and assigns, or such others as I, the
said Alfred Henry Hart, 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
"IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MANUFACTURE OF FASTENERS FOR BINDING PAPERS
AND FOR OTHER LIKE PURPOSES, AND IN MACHINERY TO BE USED IN THE SAID
MANUFACTURE," upon the condition (amongst others) that I, the said Alfred
Henry Hart, my executors or administrators, by an instrument in writing
under my, or their, or one of their hands and seals, should particularly
describe and ascertain the nature of the said Invention, 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 Henry Hart, do hereby declare
the nature of the said Invention, and in what manner the sanie is to be
performed, to be particularly described and ascertained in and by the
following statement thereof, that is to say :-
My Invention relates to the manufacture of the blanks from which fasteners
for binding papers and for other like purposes are niade, and consists in
making the said blanks in the manner herein-after described, and also in the
machinery to be employed in the manufacture of the said blanks herein-after
described. The said fasteners consist of strips of metal bent into the form of
the letter T. In using the said fasteners the parallel and pointed ends are
passed through the papers and turned out or clenched, and the papers are
thereby secured together. The blanks of the said fasteners are ordinarily
made by cutting them out of sheet metal at a press. By this method of
manufacture much waste of metal results, and when long blanks are inade
the springing of the cutting dies or tools occasions much trouble in keeping
the said dies or tools in repair. The blanks so made have sharp edges or
sides, which cut or injure the papers with which the fasteners are used.
In making the said blanks according to my Invention I take cylindrical
wire and pass it through a pair of ordinary cylindrical rolls. By the pressure
of the said rolls the wire is flattened into thin strips, the sides or edges being

page_text: rounded. The said rounded edges, when the strips are made into fasteners
do not injure or cut the papers to which the fasteners are applied. Or instead
of flattening cylindrical wire I cut from thin sheet metal, by. means of
circular cutters or otherwise, strips of the proper width for the fasteners, to be
made. I cut and point blanks from thin strips made in either of the ways
described by means of machinery constructed as follows:-The said machinery
consists of a press, on the bed or bolster of which I fix a plate or fixed die
having an opening in its middle, the ends of the said opening having V-shaped
cutting edges, the pointed ends of the cutting edges being turned towards
each other. The punch or moveable die of the press has a corresponding
figure. The end of the strip to be made into blanks is placed upon the bed,
and the punch is brought down upon it so as to point the said end; the
pointed end of the strip is then fed to a V-shaped stop on the, bed, and the
punch again brought down. A blank is thereby cut from the strip having
both its ends pointed, and the end of the strip to form the next blank is also
pointed. By feeding the pointed end to the stop described another blank may
be cut from the strip and the end of the strip pointed, and so on. By
increasing the distance of the stop on the bed from the cutting edges of the
bottom plate or die blanks of different lengths may be made from the strips.
Blanks made according to my Invention are bent or fashioned into fasteners
in the ordinary way.
Having explained the nature of my Invention, I will proceed to describe,
with reference to the accompanying Drawing, the manner in which the same
is to be performed:
In making the blanks for T-fasteners according to my Invention I, take a
length or piece of cylindrical brass or other wire, as represented in Figure 1,
and pass it through a pair of cylindrical rolls so as to flatten the said wire
into a thin strip, the sides or edges of the said strip being rounded.
A strip
of metal flattened by rolling from the wire, Figure 1, is represented in plan
and edge view in Figure 2 of the Drawing. Any required length of wire
may be flattened at one operation. The ends of the flattened strip, Figure 2,
thus made are afterwards pointed (by preference by means of the machinery
herein-after.described), as illustrated in Figure 3, so as thereby to complete
the blank. The strips having rounded edges according to my.. Invention may
be produced of various widths and thicknesses to suit the different sizes of
fasteners to be made. Figure 4 represents in side and edge view a T-fastener
bent or fashioned in the ordinary way from the blank, Figure 3; and Figure 5
represents a similar fastener made from a blank of less width and thickness
than that represented in Figure 3.

page_text: proper
Instead of flattening cylindrical wire to form the strip, as represented in
Figures 1 and 2, I take a thin sheet of brass or other metal or alloy, and by
means of circular or other cutters I cut the said sheet into strips of the
width for the fasteners to be made.. I afterwards point and cut from these
strips blanks of the kind represented in Figure 3 by means of the machinery
herein-after described.
As the cylindrical rolls which I employ for flattening the cylindrical wire
into strips, as well as the circular or other cutters for cutting the strips from
thin sheet metal are of the ordinary kind, and constitute no part of my
Invention, I do not consider it necessary either to represent or to describe the
said rolls or cutters..
By making blanks according to the first-described method the rounded
edges of the said blanks when made into fasteners do not cut or injure the
papers to which the fasteners are applied, and by making blanks according to
the last-described method much economy in the metal used and facility of
working result.
Figures 6, 7, 8, and 9 represent the machinery or press by which I cut
and point blanks from thin strips made in either of the ways herein-before
described. Figure 6 represents an elevation of the said machinery or press,
and Figure 7 represents a plan of the bed or bolster of the same on a larger
scale; Figure 8 represents an elevation, and Figure 9 a plan of under side of
the punch or moveable die of the press on a larger scale.
a is the punch or moveable die of the press fixed to the bolt 6 in the
ordinary way, and c is the bed or bolster of the press. Upon the said bed or
bolster c I fix a plate or fixed die d, in the middle of which plate or die is an
opening e having cutting edges. The cutting edges of the said opening have
the form represented in Figure 7, that is, are of a V-shape, the pointed ends
being presented to each other. The cutting or acting part of the punch a has
a corresponding figure, as seen in Figures 8 and 9. At the back of the lower
die d is a V-shaped stop f fixed to the bar g. By means of the screw pin h
and holes i in the bar g the distance of the stop f from the cutting edges e of
the lower die d can be regulated at pleasure, so as to cut and point blanks of
different lengths. On the plate or die d is a guide k, against which the side
of the strip bears on being fed to the dies.
In commencing to cut and point blanks from thin strips of metal by means
of the machinery represented the end of the strip is first placed upon the
lower die d, and the punch a is brought down upon it, so as to point the said
end. The pointed end of the strip is then fed to the stop f, the said pointed
end entering the V-shaped opening in the stop, and the punch a is again

page_text: brought down.
A blank is thereby cut from the strip, having both its ends
pointed, and the end of the strip to form the next blank is at the same time
pointed. By feeding the pointed end of the strip to the stopf each fall of the
punch a cuts another blank from the strip, and points the end of the strip, and
so on until the whole of the strip has been used up..
Having now described the nature of my Invention, and the manner in
which the same is to be performed, I wish it 'to be understood that I do not
limit myself to the precise details herein-before described and illustrated in the
accompanying Drawing, as the same may be varied without departing from
the nature of my Invention, but I claim as my Invention, ―
Firstly, the improvement in the manufacture of T-fasteners for binding
papers and for other like purposes, herein-before described and illustrated in
Figures 1, 2, 3, 4, and 5 of the accompanying Drawing, that is to say, making
the blanks from which the said fasteners are to be made from flat strips having
rounded sides or edges, the said flat strips being produced by passing cylindrical
wire through cylindrical rolls.
Secondly, the improvement in the manufacture of T-fasteners herein-before
described, that is to say, making the blanks from which the said fasteners are
to be made from thin strips cut from sheet metal by circular or other cutters,
and afterwards pointed.
Thirdly, the improvements in machinery for cutting and simultaneously
pointing blanks for T-fasteners from thin strips of metal, substantially as
herein-before described and illustrated in Figures 6, 7, 8, and 9 of the
accompanying Drawing.
In witness whereof, I, the said Alfred Henry Hart, have hereunto set my
hand and seal, this Sixth day of July, in the year of our Lord One
thousand eight hundred and sixty-six.
Witness,
GEORGE SHAW.
ALFRED HENRY HART. (L.S.)