IMPROVEMENTS IN LACE OR CORD FASTENERS
Year: 1875

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Herbert John Haddan, of the Firm of Herbert
and Company, Patent Agents, of 67, Strand, in the City of West-
minster, for the Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN LACE OR CORD
FASTENERS." A communication from abroad by George Phipen
Reeves and Edgar Horace Train, both of Helena, Montana
Territory. United States of America.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Herbert Jolin Haddan
at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with their Petition,
on the 17th December 1875.
I, HERBERT JOHN HADDAN, of the Firm of Herbert and Company,
Patent Agents, of 67, Strand, in the City of Westminster, do hereby
declare the nature of the said Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN LACE OR
CORD FASTENERS," a communication to me from abroad by George Phipen
Reeves and Edgar Horace Train, both of Helena, Montana Territory,
United States of America, to be as follows:-
Jason for shoes and other

page_text: tightened, and it consists of a lacer applied by prongs to the leather or
other material, and provided with a central concavity and surrounding
ridge open toward a hook-shaped part which is turned back far enough
to prevent the catching of the dress or other objects thereon.
The Invention may be performed by stamping the lacer by suitable
machinery out of sheet metal, with a raised circumferential ridge, having
a central concavity or depression. The ridge is open at one side, so that
a hook-shaped part may be turned back and bent down far enough to
admit readily the lacing cords, but without catching the dress or other.
objects coming in contact therewith. The cords or laces are readily
passed around the hooks of the lacer and applied tightly thereon, forming
a neat and convenient open lacing for various purposes, which admit the
quick application of the cords with greater facility and with greater
comfort than the eyelet or other lacers hitherto in use.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent,
filed by the said Herbert John Haddan in the Great Seal Patent
Office on the 25th May 1876.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, HERBERT
JOHN HADDAN, of the Firm of Herbert and Company, Patent Agents,
of 67, Strand, in the City of Westminster, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by. Her
Letters Patent, bearing date the Seventeenth day of December, in the
year of our Lord. One thousand eight hundred and seventy-five, in
the thirty-ninth year of Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and
successors, give and grant unto me, the said Herbert John Haddan,
Her special licence that I, the said Herbert John Haddan, my exe-
cutors, administrators, and assigns, or such others as I, the said Herbert.
John Haddan, 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 law-
fully 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 LACE OR CORD FASTENERS," a commu-
cation to me from abroad by George Phipen Reeves and Edgar Horace

page_text: Train, both of Helena, Montana Territory, United States of America,
upon the condition (amongst others) that I, the said Herbert John
Haddan, 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 Herbert John Haddan, do hereby
declare the nature of the said Invention, and in what manner the same
is to be performed, to be particularly described and ascertained in and
by the following statement thereof, that is to say :-
My Invention realates to an improved open lacer for shoes and other
purposes, by which the lacing strings may be easily applied and securely
tightened, and it consists of a lacer applied by prongs to the leather or
other material, and provided with a central concavity and surrounding
ridge, open toward a hook-shaped part, which is turned back far enough
to prevent the catching of the dress or other objects thereon.
In the annexed enlarged Drawings Fig. 1 represents a top view of my
improved open. lacer, shown as applied; Fig. 2 is a detailed top view;
and Fig. 3 is a vertical longitudinal section of the same.
Similar letters of reference indicate corresponding parts.
A represents my improved lacer, a suitable number of which is
attached firmly by the pointed prongs to the leather or other material to
be laced. Each lacer A is stamped by suitable machinery out of sheet
metal, with a raised circumferential ridge a, having a central concavity
or depression. The ridge a is open at one side, so that a hook-shaped
part d may be turned back and bent down far enough to admit readily
the lacing strings, but without catching the dress or other objects
coming in contact therewith. The strings are readily passed around
the hooks of the lacer and applied tightly thereon, forming a neat and
convenient open lacing for various purposes, which admit the quick
application of the strings with greater facility and with greater comfort
than the eyelet or other lacers hitherto in use.
I am aware that it is not new to make a shoe lacer with a curved
spring shank and convex head, but the former is liable to straighten

page_text: and become useless, while the latter is liable to be caught by some part
of the dress, hence,--
What I claim is, the shoe fastening A provided with suitable prongs
for securing it to the shoe, and having the central concavity b, the sur-
rounding ridge or projection a, and the hook d, bent to fall within
the ends of the curved portion, substantially as and for the purpose
specified.
4
In witness whereof, I, the said Herbert John Haddan, have here-
unto set my hand and seal, this Twenty-fourth day of May, in
the year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and seventy-
six.