IMPROVE- MENTS IN FISHING-FLY BOOKS
Year: 1884

page_text: I ARTHUR JAMES of Clive Street Redditch in the County of Worcester Needle
Manufacturer do hereby declare the nature of the said invention for "IMPROVE-
MENTS IN FISHING-FLY BOOKS to be as follows:-
"
Fishing-fly books as ordinarily made consist of stout leaves on opposite sides of
which rows of small fixed hooks near one edge of the leaf are situated and a series
of springs called retainers are fixed at the opposite edge of the leaf each of the
fixed small hooks having opposite to it a spring retainer. These spring retainers
ordinarily consist of a coiled wire spring or of an india rubber thread. They are
fixed by their outer ends to the leaf and their inner ends terminate in small hooks
the snell gut or hair to which the fish hook is attached being connected by its loop
to the inner end of the retainer the fish hook itself being engaged with one of the
fixed small hooks herein before referred to. The distance between the inner end
of the retainer and the fixed small hook opposite to it being greater than the
length of the snell the said retainer is stretched by the snell and the said snell and
retainer are thereby maintained in the same right line but when the snell is
detached from the retainer for use the said retainer is free to move on its fixed end.
When the snells are taken from off the retainers the said retainers are liable to
become disarranged or entangled. In order to prevent this and to preserve the
retainers parallel to each other and in the same right line as their opposed small
hooks small tubular eye guides are employed. These eye guides are fixed to the
stout leaf of the fly-book and encircle the retainers at or near their middle. By
means of these eye guides the filling of the leaf with fresh snells is greatly
facilitated. Instead of connecting the snell directly to the spring retainer it may
be connected to a light or fine cord passing round a pulley near the edge of the lenf
and connected with the spring retainer. Both the cord and the retainer have eye
D

page_text: guides of the kind herein before referred to. The last described arrangement is
very convenient where short snells are employed as it gives considerable range of
motion in inserting and removing the snells.
As the retainer on one side of the leaf is exactly opposite a retainer on the other
side of the leaf the eye guides for the two retainers on the opposite sides of the
leaf respectively may be made of one piece of sheet metal having in cross section
the figure of a slightly flattened tube and passing through the leaf but single eye
guides at each side of the leaf may be employed for the spring retainers to work
through.

page_text: I ARTHUR JAMES of Clive Street, Redditch in the county of Worcester,
Needle Manufacturer, do hereby declare the nature of the Invention for
"IMPROVEMENTS IN
"3
FISHING-FLY BOOKS A communication from abroad by
Thomas Bate Mills of Brooklyn, New York, United States of America and in
what manner the same is to be performed to be particularly described and
ascertained in and by the following statement:-
Fishing fly books as ordinarily made consist of stout leaves on opposite sides of
which rows of small fixed hooks near one edge of the leaf are situated and a series
of springs called retainers are fixed at the opposite edge of the leaf, each of the
fixed small hooks having opposite to it a spring retainer. These spring retainers
ordinarily consist of a coiled wire spring or of an india rubber thread. They are
fixed by their outer ends to the leaf and their inner ends terminate in small hooks,
the snell gut or hair to which the fish hook is attached being connected by its loop
to the inner end of the retainer, the fish hook itself being engaged with one of the
fixed small hooks herein before referred to. The distance between the inner end
of the retainer and the fixed small hook opposite to it being greater than the
length of the snell, the said retainer is stretched by the snell and the said snell'
and retainer are thereby maintained in the same right line; but when the snell is
detached from the retainer for use the said retainer is free to move on its fixed
end. When the snells are taken from off the retainers the said retainers are liable
to become disarranged or entangled. In order to prevent this and to preserve the
retainers parallel to each other and in the same right line as their opposed small
hooks small tubular eye guides are employed. These eye guides are fixed to the
stout leaf of the fly-book and encircle the retainers at or near their middle. By.
means of these eye guides the filling of the leaf with fresh snells is greatly.
facilitated.
Instead of connecting the snell directly to the spring retainer it may be
connected to a light or fine cord passing round a pulley near the edge of the leaf.
and connected with the spring retainer. Both the cord and the retainer, have eye
guides of the kind herein before referred to.
The last described arrangement is very convenient where short snells are
employed as it gives considerable range of motion in inserting and removing.
the snells.
As the retainer on one side of the leaf is exactly opposite a retainer on the
other side of the leaf the eye guides for the two retainers on the opposite sides of
the leaf respectively may be made of one piece of sheet metal having in cross
section the figure of a slightly flattened tube and passing through the leaf but
single eye guides at each side of the leaf may be employed for the spring retainers
to work through.
Figure 1 of the accompanying Drawing represents in plan a fishing fly book.
containing the said improvements, the cover of the book being open; Figure 2 is.
a longitudinal section of a leaf of the said book and Figure 3 a transverse
section of a portion of the said leaf; Figure 4 is a longitudinal section of a portion!
2

page_text: of the leaf exhibiting another method of attaching the retainer; Figures 5, 6 and 7
represent a modification for attaching knotted gut snells to the fixed hooks or clips
on the leaf of the fly book as herein after explained.
The same letters of reference indicate the same parts in the several Figures of
the drawing.
To one
A is the leaf of the fishing fly book and B is the cover of the same.
end of the leaf A are secured the hooks or clips a on which the fly hooks C are
hooked the opposite end of the leaf A being provided with spring retainers for the
said fly hooks. The connections for the fly hooks and gut snells represented in
Figure 1 are duplicated on opposite sides of the leaf A. The hooks or clips a, a on
opposite sides of the leaf A are secured thereto by the same rivet or eyelet a¹ as
seen in Figure 2; C¹ are the usual gut snells attached to the fly hooks C the ends
of the said gut snells being furnished with loops b which are held by the elastic or
spring retainers D, D¹ so as to keep the said gut snells tight. For the purpose of
illustration, only two kinds of spring retainers are shown on the same leaf A, those
marked D consisting of coiled springs and those marked D' consisting of india
rubber loops. It is preferred however to employ coiled springs. The coiled spring
and elastic cord retainers D, D' are permanently secured at one end to the small
hooks or clips d and at their other ends are hooks c which hold the looped ends of
the gut snells C. In order to hold the retainers D, D' in position and prevent
them from becoming disarranged or entangled when the gut snells C¹ are taken
off them, a guide eye e or el is used with each retainer. Through these eye guides
the retainers are passed and by them guided in elongating and contracting. Two
kinds of eye guides are shown, those marked e consisting each of a short tube
through which the retainer passes and those marked e' consisting each of a ring
through which the retainer passes. The guide eyes e, e¹ may be attached to the
leaf A in any convenient way but it is preferred to form the two eye guides which
are coincident with each other on opposite sides of the leaf A of a single piece or
tube e (see Figures 2 and 3) which tube is flattened slightly and inserted through
a slot e in the leaf A; or a single ring for forming the two eyes may be employed.
The single tube or ring thus applied serves as an eye guide for two retainers one
on each side of the leaf A. and is held in its place by the two retainers passing
through it. At the cover side of the leaf A there is represented retainers each
consisting of a spiral spring D attached at the end_d to-the-leaf-and a cord D
passing around a pulley fand having at its free end a hook c.
When the looped.
'
end of a gut snell C¹ is attached to the hook c of the last described retainer, the
spring retainer D will be elongated towards the bottom of the book while the
cord D will be drawn in the opposite direction as will be understood by an'
examination of the drawing. Eye guides e, e¹ may be applied both to the spiral
spring D of the retainer and the attached cord D2 of the said retainer as
represented. By the use of the spring retainer, attached cord and pulley
represented, a retainer is obtained capable of great elongation without lengthening
the book..
8
The method of attaching the pulleys ff on opposite sides of the leaf A is
represented in Figure 4 which shows a longitudinal section of the lower part of the
leaf. A wire a is passed through the leaf and clamped onto it, those parts of the
wire projecting laterally from the leaf on opposite sides serving as axes for the
two pulleys ff, the ends of the wire being turned down to retain the pulleys in
their places as seen in the said Figure 4.
Instead of employing double eye guides as represented in the drawing, single
eye guides at each side of the leaf may be employed for the spring retainers to
work through.
Figure 5 represents in plan and Figure 6 a part of the same in longitudinal
section, a portion of a fishing fly book suited for holding either knotted gut anells
or looped gut snells; Figure 7 represents one of the hooks or clips drawn to a
larger scale. For the purpose of readily attaching the knotted gut snells to the
brooks or clips a'the said hooks or clips are slotted at a² for the gut to pass through'

page_text: the knot being retained in the bend or bottom of the hook a. By lifting the
knotted end of the gut out of the slot at the said gut can be detached from the
said hook a
Having now particularly described and ascertained the nature of the said
invention, and in what manner the same is to be performed I declare that what
I claim is
First The combination with the leaf of a fishing fly book having fixed hooks
or clips at one end and elastic or spring retainers at the other end, of eye guides
for the several retainers, each eye guide being attached to the said leaf and a
retainer being passed through it substantially as herein before described and
illustrated in the accompanying Drawing.
Secondly-The combination with the leaf of a fishing fly book of elastic or
spring retainers on opposite sides thereof and an eye guide consisting of a tube or
ring inserted through the leaf and receiving the two retainers at the portions of
the eye guide which are presented or situated on opposite sides of the leaf
substantially as herein before described and illustrated in the accompanying
Drawing.
Thirdly The combination with the leaf A of the fishing fly book having fixed
hooks or clips a at one end of retainers each consisting of the spring D and
attached cord D2 and a pulley f around which the said attached cord passes
substantially as herein before described and illustrated in the accompanying
Drawing.