IMPROVE- MENTS IN CLIPS OR HOLDERS FOR SUSPENDING RAILWAY TICKETS AND OTHER SMALL ARTICLES
Year: 1855

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Vincent Scully, Esquire, and Bennett Johns Heywood,
Gentleman, both of the City of Dublin, for the Invention of "IMPROVE-
MENTS IN CLIPS OR HOLDERS FOR SUSPENDING RAILWAY TICKETS AND OTHER
SMALL ARTICLES."
Sealed the 25th March 1856, and dated the 22nd October 1855.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Vincent Scully and Bennett
Johns Heywood at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with
their Petition, on the 22nd October 1855.
We, VINCENT SCULLY, Esquire, and BENNETT JOHNS HEYWOOD, Gentleman,
both of the City of Dublin, do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention
for "IMPROVEMENTS IN CLIPS OR HOLDERS FOR SUSPENDING. RAILWAY TICKETS AND
OTHER. SMALL ARTICLES" to be as follows:-
.
The chief object of this Invention is to provide travellers with a ready means
of carrying railway and other tickets, so that the tickets will be always at hand
when required, either for inspection or delivery. In carrying out this object
we construct clips or holders, which, by means of a cord, ring, or other ana
logous contrivance, may be readily attached to a button, button hole, or other
part of a garment, or to some other appendage of the person. The clip may

page_text: be made to hold the ticket simply by pressure, which is the plan preferred
when the ticket is limp, or by clamping surfaces and a puncturing pin or hook
combined. It will thus be understood that the principle of our Invention
admits of being carried out in various forms. For example, we propose to
construct a simple clip (capable of suspension as explained) formed like a split
acorn, the cup being a threaded nut which will press the halves of the acorn
together, so as to uip the ticket and hold it firmly; or we connect to the cup a
pin or hook, which by turning the cup will pierce the ticket contained in the
clip. By elongating the split nut to a cone, and converting the cup into a
sliding ring, the same clipping effect is produced; when employing this clip
for holding limp tickets, we lap the tickets round the cone and slide the ring
over it; for holding stiff tickets the natural spring in the split or slotted wood,
bone, or other substance of which the clip is composed, will often suffice to
keep the ticket in place; but when that is not the case, a cap fitting the end of
the clip may be used, and such cap may also be secured in its place by a screw
or an elastic string, or by both, if desired.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said Vincent Scully and Bennett Johns Heywood in the Great
Seal Patent Office on the 22nd April 1856.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, we, VINCENT
SCULLY, Esquire, and BENNETT JOHNS HEYWOOD, Gentleman, both of the City
of Dublin, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Twenty-second day of October, in the year of our
Lord One thousand eight hundred and fifty-five, in the nineteenth year of
Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto us,
the said Vincent Scully and Bennett Johns Heywood, Her special license
that we, the said Vincent Scully and Bennett Johns Heywood, our execu-
tors, administrators, and assigns, or such others as we, the said Vincent
Scully and Bennett Johns Heywood, our 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 CLIPS OR HOLDERS FOR SUSPENDING RAILWAY
TICKETS AND OTHER SMALL ARTICLES," upon the condition (amongst others) that

page_text: we, the said Vincent Scully and Bennett Johns Heywood, by an instrument in
writing under our hands and seals, or under the hand and seal of one of
us, 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 Vincent Scully (on behalf of myself and
of the said Bennett Johns Heywood), do hereby declare the nature of our
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) :-
:-
The chief object of this Invention is to provide travellers with a ready and
safe means of carrying railway and other tickets, so that they may be present-
able at the moment they are required, to be offered for inspection or to be
delivered up. In the accompanying Drawing we have shewn our improve-
ments in clips or holders under a variety of forms; it will, however, be seen
that they all possess two principal features in common, viz, first, that of
holding the ticket in such a manner that the ticket collector may see at a
glance the nature of the ticket without removing it from the clip; and, secondly,
that the clip may be readily attached to a button, button hole, or other
appendage of the traveller's garment. In some arrangements we have availed
ourselves of the natural spring of the wood, bone, or metal to keep the ticket
in place, in others we have used pressing rings and caps, and in others again
a puncturing pin.
Fig. 1 shews in side view, Fig. 2 in edge view, and Fig. 3 in partial
section, a simple form of clip for holding a pasteboard ticket.
It is shaped
like an acorn, the nut of which is split down the middle to receive the
ticket. A pointed pin a, with a screw thread cut on its stem, is provided for
piercing the ticket, and retaining it in its place. To the upper end of the
clip a looped string or cord 6 is attached, for the purpose of securing the clip
to any available part of the traveller's outer garment. Instead of the screw.
pin, we propose to fix in one side of the acorn a pin which projects into the
space to receive the ticket, as shewn at Fig. 4. The termination of the pin
we chamfer off so that it shall present comparatively little obstruction to the
insertion of a ticket in the clip, but will act like a barbed hook, and present
a considerable retentive power upon the ticket, and prevent the accidental
removal of the ticket from the clip. Figures 4*, shew, in side and edge views,
á split stud similarly provided, for the purpose of retaining a ticket when

page_text: applied thereto; the stud is of course to be inserted in a button hole of the
traveller's coat, waistcoat, or other garment.
Figures 5 shew, in edge view and in partial section, a slight modification of
the acorn clip. Instead of being formed of one piece of wood or other suitable
material, it is composed of two parts. The part a constituting the nut is
provided with a screw thread, which takes into a thread turned in the cut part
b of the acorn. A continuation c of the part a passes through the part b, and
receives the cord d, for attaching the clip to the traveller's garment. The
ticket being placed in the split of the part a, is held securely there by
screwing down the part b, which pressing on a shoulder on the part a will
force the split portions of the nut into closer proximity, and thereby hold
the ticket firmly in position.
Fig: 6 shews in edge view, and Fig. 7 in longitudinal section, a clip or holder
in which the threaded cup piece is used for projecting a metallic retaining pin
into the ticket, and for instantly releasing it when the ticket is to be delivered
up. Figs: 8 shew detached the several parts which constitute this form of
ticket holder. a is the split nut, recessed in its interior to receive a pin b
which projects downwards from the cup piece c. A screw thread formed on
the piece c takes into a thread formed in the upper end of the split piece a, and
by turning either piece on its axis the bent pointed end of the pin 6 will be
projected across the slit intended to receive the ticket, and when a ticket is in
position the pin will strike through it, and hold it fast. For the purpose of
limiting the amount of axial motion which these pieces shall receive to the
amount requisite for insuring the advance and withdrawal of the pin, a recess
is formed in the edge of the piece a, and a stop pin d is passed through the
pièce c, and caused to project into the recess; it will thus be seen that until
this stop pin is removed, the parts a and c cannot be turned so as to effect their
separation. A hollow screw plug e, which fits into the piece c, is provided to
receive and hold fast the suspension cord f.
Figures 9 and 10 shew a further modification of the clip. It consists of a
split piece of wood or other suitable rigid material a, approximating to the form
of a cone, over which slides a ring b, for the purpose of pressing together the
sides of the clip, and securing the pasteboard ticket in place; a cord of suspen-
sion is threaded through the end of the clip. For holding tickets made of
thin paper or other flexible material which admits of being lapped round the
stem of the clip, we dispense with the split, and use the ring alone for securing
the ticket. This construction of clip or holder is shewn at Figures 11 and 12.
Figures 13 and 14 shew a split clip, with a cap piece a attached thereto by
an elastic cord b. This cap is notched to correspond with the split, and the

page_text: tension of the cord will cause the cap when in its place to press against the
edge of the ticket and hold it in place.
Figures 15 and Figures 16 shew a similar arrangement of clip, with this
difference, that the cap piece a is retained in place by means of a screw
thread.
Fig. 17 shews a split clip, with an elastic band a attached thereto, for the
purpose of pressing the split parts together. Figures 18 shew the like object
effected by bending a strip of metal into a tubular form, and using the abutting
edges as clips; clips of this construction will admit of a very wide application,
Instead of using a cord for attaching metal spring clips to the traveller's
garment, we propose to form them with a disc or other shaped piece, suitable
for taking into a button hole. Figures 19 shew, in front and edge views, a
spring clip so constructed.. The clip is composed of sheet metal stamped out
to the form of Fig. 20. The part a is bent up into a tubular form, as shewn
at a, Figures 19, and the disc b is split up to provide a strap piece c, which
connects the tube a (which is to receive the ticket) with the disc or button b.
Another description of clip stamped out of sheet metal is shewn in edge view
at Fig. 21, it being made by doubling back a piece of metal stamped of the
form of a double lyre, as shewn at Fig. 22. The strings of the lyre form
a tongue a for the clip, and the ticket is inserted between this tongue and
the frame b. The counterpart form c of this lyre, when bent back, forms the
support for the clip or ticket holder by entering the button hole of the
traveller's outer garment, and it may, if required, be also used to hold a second
ticket.
Figures 23 shew, in plan and edge view, a spring clip in which a bent wire
a, jointed to a plate b, rests upon a pin c projecting from the plate. The ticket
to be held is pressed over the pin, and the bent wire a is then strung on to the
pin's point, as shewn in the Drawing. It may be convenient to attach the plate
6 to the traveller's garment by sewing. This arrangement of spring clip we
propose to employ, when made on a somewhat larger scale than the Drawing,
for receiving other articles than railway tickets, such, for example, as receipts,
bankers' cheques, &c.
Figures 24 shew another form of ticket holder, provided with a puncturing
pin; the stem is composed of two parts a, b, which terminate, the one in a
pointed end, and the other in a tube or socket to receive the pointed end, but
when put together they form a stem with a smooth surface, and of uniform
diameter. The secure attachment of the parts a and b is effected by tapping
their ends as shewn. The parts a and b are each provided with a knob or
button, one of which fits the button hole of the traveller's coat, and the other

page_text: forms a stop for the ticket when inserted on the stem; this ticket holder may,
like that last described, be used with advantage (when made on a larger scale)
for containing cheques and other documents, but in that case we propose to
dispense with the screw for connecting the parts a. and b together. The uni-
form diameter of the stem will, by presenting no shoulder or other obstruction
to the sliding of the documents along the stem, greatly facilitate the examina-
tion of the contents of the file or holder.
Having now described the nature of our Invention, and shewn the manner
of carrying the same into effect, we wish it to be understood, that we claim the
means herein described for suspending railway tickets and other small articles,
so that they may he readily accessible when required, and may be examined
without removal from their clips or holders.
In witness whereof, I, the said Vincent Scully, have hereunto set my hand
and seal, the Sixteenth day of April, in the year of our Lord One
thousand eight hundred and fifty-six.
VINCENT SCULLY. (L.S.)