IMPROVEMENTS IN CASES FOR HOLDING NEEDLES, PINS, PORTABLE MIRRORS, AND OTHER ARTICLES
Year: 1871

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by Joseph Welch and Charles
Laight at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with their
Petition, on the 2nd February 1871.
We, JOSEPH WELCH, of Redditch, in the County of Worcester,
Watch Maker, and CHARLES LAIGHT, of Redditch, aforesaid, Needle
Manufacturer, do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for
"IMPROVEMENTS IN CASES FOR HOLDING NEEDLES, PINS, PORTABLE MIRRORS, AND
OTHER ARTICLES," to be as follows:-
Our Invention consists in constructing and combining in the manner
herein-after described the parts of cases for holding needles, pins, portable
mirrors, and other articles.
In making a needle case according to our Invention, we form the
body of the case of two rectangular metallic plates or flaps jointed
together at their inner longer edges by a hinge joint, the said plates or
flaps opening from and closing upon one another after the
manner of
the cover of a book, the jointed plates or flaps being held together when
closed by a jointed or other catch. The edges of the three unjointed
sides of each metallic plate or flap are serrated or made into teeth, the

page_text: '
said teeth being situated in the same plane as the said plates or flaps.
We place on the inside of the plates or flaps a piece or pieces of leather
or fabric or other tissue, and by turning over the serrated edges of the
plates or flaps upon the edges of the piece or pieces of leather fabric
or tissue, we fix it or them to the inside of the case. The metallic
case is thus lined internally with leather fabric or other tissue. In the
said leather or fabric we make pockets to receive a series of packets of
needles, or we make incisions in the said leather or fabric to receive a
pair of scissors or crotchet needles or other articles. Or the leather or
other lining of the case may serve to attach a hussif or flap of soft
fabric to, in which hussif or flap loose pins or needles may be stuck.
An album or frame to contain miniatures or ornaments may be attached
to the non-metallic lining. A mirror may be combined with the needle
and pin case described, the said mirror being fixed in the case by turning
over the serrated edges of one of the plates or flaps of the case upon the
said mirror.
Instead of using jointed flaps or plates of continuous metal the central
portions may be pierced out so as to form frames, the flaps being com-
pleted by the insertion in the frames of paper, gelatine, or other
non-metallic substance, the said substance being held as well as the inner
lining between the two turned over edges of the frame. The outer edge
of the frame may either be serrated, plain, or ornamental.
The improvements described in fixing the non-metallic lining to the
metal case or body may also be applied to the making of folding or
pocket mirrors, that is to say, we make the body of the two jointed plates
with serrated edges, and fix the mirrors in the inside of the said
plates by turning over the said serrated edges and folding them upon the
mirrors.
Although we prefer to make the edges of the jointed plates or flaps
serrated yet the edges of the plates to be turned upon the leather or
fabric may be plain instead of serrated.