Improved Fastening Devices.
Year: 1897

page_text: Date of Application, 15th June, 1897-Accepted, 17th July,
1897
COMPLETE SPECIFICATION.
Improved Fastening Devices.
I, CHARLES ARTHUR ALLISON, Patent Agent, of 52 Chancery Lane, London, do
hereby declare the nature of my invention for Improved Fastening Devices, (a
communication from abroad by Spencer Cone Cary, Manufacturer of 19 and 21
Rosevelt Street in the City of New York, U.S.A.) to be as follows:-
Box fasteners, pail hooks, clasps, box straps and analogous articles must have
strength without being brittle, the hooks and clasps are largely used to secure lids
to boxes, covers to pails and similar purposes, the straps to secure the parts of boxes
tightly together. Usually the hooks are bent over a corner and the straps are
applied to and bent around articles of various shapes and sizes. Both forms of
device must be capable of bending at various points, the strap at any point, that the
fastening may be brought closely to the form of the article without breaking or
cracking at the points of bending. The ends of the hook are usually driven into
the wood to secure them and the strasured by nails driven through them.
It is important that the ends of the prong or tang of the hook be sharp, that they
be stiff enough to ponetrate the wood without bending, that the part adjacent to
the prongs
be of sufficient body to constitute a good driving surface; the remainder
should be wide enough to constitute a good bearing surface in the hook form and
to provide space for a nail hole in the strap, both must be flexible enough to readily
bend in applying them to the articles to be secured, also capable of rapid manu-
facture and economical as regards the material and labour expended in manufacture.
When finished they should be sightly and lie flat to the article ready for being
rapidly and easily fastened.
I have experimented to a considerable degree in endeavouring to produce a device
satisfactory in the points named.
An ordinary wire sufficiently flexible, lacks stiffness at the prong, if stiff enough
at the prong it is not flexible and unless a size, impracticable for other reasons,
is used, it is not as wide as the trade desires and not wide enough to provide spaces
for nail holes. If a wire be taken and merely flatened at intervals the metal is
hardened and becomes brittle.
I have therefore devised a fastener in which the metal is split and the division
spread apart and when this is properly done I have a fastener without the objec-
tionable features named, but possessed of the necessary requirements, simple,
practical, efficient, economical and readily manufactured. Slitting and spreading
the metal does not harden it as rolling or hammering would and when done as 1
shall describe, the width of the metal at the ends of the slit is the same as the
original width, thus preserving its strength.
Sometimes I make but one tang and turn an eye in the other end, the split
portion being intermediate.
In the strap, and usually the hook too, I slit the material in the direction of its
greatest diameter and spread the parts in lines parallel with the plane of the slit,
but one in one direction and the other in the opposite direction. I have tried
slitting a flat strip in the direction of its short diameter and spreading it as above
described but then the openings are practically at right angles to the line of the

page_text: nail when driven to secure it and when one point is fastened it will not lie flat to
the box but must be twisted to bring the next hole in position for driving a nail
through it into the box and when it is so twisted and the nail driven, that will
spread the parts so that I have substantially a strap split vertically and spread at
right angles to the split instead of spread in lines parallel to the plane of the split,
and only half of the width of metal on each side of the opening with the consequent
weakening in the wrong direction at the junction of the split parts, requiring the
use of heavier material, always a draw back. The device must be as light as
possible and must be ready to use, as with light wires consumers have not the
appliances to slit them and the manufacturer must furnish them all ready to
apply.
In manufacturing my devices I take a wire, usually round, as that has great
strength united with great pliability and its cost is low. I cut it to the required
length, for hooks or for long reels of strapping, as the case may be, but the cutting
for hooks is generally at an angle so as to leave sharp points, then with suitable
dies I slit it horizontally, considering horizontal to mean in a plane parallel to the
face to be applied to the box. At the same time I force the upper part of the slit
wire away from its normal position in one horizontal direction and the lower part
away from its normal position in the opposite horizontal direction. After which,
at a hook, I turn down the tangs or turn one tang and an eye as shown in the
figures. If for a strap, the desired ends may be further or more perfectly attained
by alternating the direction of the bending of the slit parts as shown in Figure 10,
which will provide a series of points of support at even levels and substantially
even distances from the axial line of the metal on, both sides.
In the drawings Figure 1, is a blank from which a hook, may be made and it
also represents a short piece of strap material, s representing the slit; Figure 2,
shows the blank with the slit spread open as for a hook; Figure 3, is a view of the
finished two pronged hook; Figure 4, of the finished hook with one prong and one
eye.
Figure 5, shows the hook applied to a pail; Figure 6, shows it applied to a box,
and the strap as well, b b being the body parts the prongs and the driving parts.
Figure 7, is a side elevation of a short strip of box strapping; Figure 8, a plan
view of the same; Figure 9, a longer piece; Figure 10, one in which the alterna-
tion in spreading is shown, and Figures 11, and 12 perspective views of short pieces
cut respectively from the ends of the straps of Figures 9 and 10 on lines a 3
and y y, o being the nail opening and n the fastening nail.
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. A box fastener composed of a strip of metal slitted horizontally at intervals 4
and having the parts of the material on opposite sides of said slits, spread out-
wardly in the direction of the plane of the slit, both parts substantially parallei,
but one part in one direction and the other part in the other direction from the
axial line of the strip, all substantially as set forth.
2. A box fastener composed of a strip of metal slitted horizontally at intervals 4
in a direction parallel with the greatest diameter of the strip, and having the parts
of the material on opposite sides of said slits spread outwardly in the direction of
the plane of the slit, both parts substantially parallel, but one part in one direction
and the other part in the other direction from the axial line of the strip, all
substantially as set forth.
5
3. A box fastener composed of a strip of metal slitted horizontally at intervals
and having the parts of the material on opposite sides of said slits spread out-
wardly in the direction of the plane of the slit, both parts substantially parallel,
but one part in one direction and the other part in the other direction from the
axial line of the strip, the direction of spreading the respective parts being reversed 5
at some slits from what they are at other slits, all substantially as set forth.

page_text: 4. A box fastener composed of a single metal wire slitted at intervals through
and parallel with its substantially greatest diameter and having the material ou
opposite sides of said slits spread outwardly in the direction of the plane of the slit,
both parts substantially parallel but one part in one direction and the other part
in the other direction, the direction of spreading the respective parts alternating
at successive slits, all substantially as set forth.
5. As a new article of manufacture, a fastener formed of a single piece of metal
with a solid prong pointed at the end, a body portion, the metal of which is split
and spread apart and a driving part substantially at the bend between the split part
and the point, all substantially as set forth.
6. As a new article of manufacture, a fastener formed of a single piece of metal
with a solid pointed prong at each end, a body portion, the metal of which is split
and sprend apart and driving parts substantially at the points where the prongs
are bent from the line of the body portion, all substantially as set forth.
7. As a new article of manufacture, a fastener formed of a single piece of metal
with an eye turned in the end and a body portion the metal of which is split and
spread apart intermediate the eye and the opposite end, all substantially as set
forth.
Dated thin 15th day of T1907