AN IMPROVED FASTENING FOR SECURING COTTON, AND OTHER BALES OR PACKAGES
Year: 1862

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to James Jennings McComb, of Pump Court, Temple,
in the County of Middlesex, Gentleman, for the Invention of "AN
IMPROVED FASTENING FOR SECURING COTTON, AND OTHER BALES OR PACKAGES."
Sealed the 7th August 1862, and dated the 11th February 1862.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said James Jennings McComb
at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition,
on the 11th February 1862.
I, JAMES JENNINGS MCCOMB, of Pump Court, Temple, in the County of
Middlesex, Gentleman, do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for
"AN IMPROVED FASTENING FOR SECURING COTTON AND OTHER BALES OR PACKAGES,"
to be as follows:-
This Invention relates to a novel means of securing the ends of metallic bands
when lapped around bales of compressed cotton or other compressed material,
the object being to facilitate the application of such bands to bales and to
provide a secure and economical system of fastening.
When applying and securing metallic bands to compressed bales according
to this Invention, instead of lapping one end of the band over the other and
rivetting them together (while the bale is still in the press) which is a tedious
and expensive operation, I form adjacent loops in the ends of the bands by
bending back their ends and lapping them under the bands. Into these loops
I insert a buckle of peculiar construction, which, although sliding freely into its

page_text: place, will, when the bale is released from the pressure of the hydraulic press,
hold the ends of the band firmly together. The buckles employed I form out
of sheet iron by means of any suitable stamping press; they consist of oblong
pieces of sheet iron pierced with a rectangular hole, having one bevilled end.
The parallel side edges of the hole are in length about equal to the width of the
band intended to be used with the buckle. A lateral cut is made through one
side of the buckle to allow of the insertion laterally into the buckle of one loop
of the band, the other loop being previously inserted by the lapped end being
hooked into the central opening of the buckle. By inclining the edges of one
end of the opening in the buckle instead of forming that end like the other at
right angles to the sides of the hole, the band, when inserted in the buckle
and subjected to the strain of the expanding bale will be caused to slide
laterally, and thus the lips of the slit in the buckle will be embraced by one
end of the band, the strain of the band will therefore be fairly distributed over
the buckle.
-
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said James Jennings M°Comb in the Great Seal Patent Office on
the 9th August 1862.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, JAMES
JENNINGS MCCOMB, of Pump Court, Temple, in the County of Middlesex,
Gentleman, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Eleventh day of February, in the year of our
Lord One thousand eight hundred and sixty-two, in the twenty-fifth year of
Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant
unto me, the said James Jennings McComb, Her special license that I,
the said James Jennings McComb, my executors, administrators, and
assigns, or such others as I, the said James Jennings McComb, 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 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 "AN IMPROVED
FASTENING FOR SECURING COTTON AND OTHER BALES OR PACKAGES," upon the
condition (amongst others) that I, the said James Jennings McComb, by an
instrument in writing under my hand and seal, should particularly describe and

page_text: 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 James Jennings McComb, do hereby
declare the nature of my 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):-
This Invention relates to a novel means of securing the ends of metallic
bands when lapped around bales of compressed cotton or other compressed
material, the object being to facilitate the application of such bands to bales,
and to provide a secure and economical system of fastening..
The ordinary: mode of securing metallic bands to compressed bales is to lap
one end of the band over the other and rivet them together (while the bale
is still in the press). This, however, is a tedious and expensive operation,
requiring moreover the employment of skilled labour. In place of employing
rivets I propose to use a metal buckle for coupling the ends of the metal bands
together, which buckle will admit of being readily applied.
In the accompanying Drawing Fig. 1 shews in plan view, and Fig. 2 in
edge view, this novel construction of buckle applied to the ends of a metal
band, and Figs. 3 are detached views of the buckle. The bands which are
passed round the bales are prepared to receive the buckle by bending back
their ends and lapping them under the bands, and the open loops thus formed
are inserted in the buckle while the bale is under compression in a hydraulic
or other suitable press. This buckle I prefer to form out of band or sheet iron
by means of any suitable stamping press. By referring to Figs. 3, the buckle
will be seen to consist of an oblong piece of metal pierced with a rectangular
hole, one end of which has a wedge-shaped termination formed by two inclines
for the purpose to be presently explained. The parallel sides of the hole are
in length about equal to the width of the band intended to be used with the
buckle to allow of the looped iron bearing upon them. A lateral cut is made
through one side of the buckle to provide for the insertion laterally into the
buckle of one loop of the band, the other loop having previously been inserted
by the lapped end being simply hooked into the central opening of the buckle.
By inclining the edges of one end of the opening in the buckle, as shewn at
Fig. 3, instead of forming that end like the other at right angles to the sides of
the hole, the opening of the buckle will be sufficiently elongated to allow of
the insertion laterally of the band loop. And besides this, the band, after the

page_text: 'application of the buckle and while subjected to the strain of the expanding
bale, will receive at one end a lateral motion, that is to say, it will move under
"the act of tension from the dotted position of Fig. 1 to the drawn position, and
thus that end of the band will be caused to embrace and bear against the lips
of the slit in the buckle; the strain of the band will therefore be fairly distri-
buted over the buckle. Instead of cutting one end of the opening of the
buckle wedge shaped (to ensure the self-adjustment of the looped ends of the
bands within the buckle) I may use a buckle with a rectangular central
opening, having parallel sides and ends, as shewn at Fig. 4, relying upon an
extra breadth of opening for affording, when the buckle is canted on one side,
an inclined plane for the looped ends to slide laterally over to ensure the
parallelism of the coupled ends of the band. I would also remark that instead
of slitting one side of the buckle and bending the edges of the slit apart, as
shewn at Figs. 3, to facilitate the entrance of the looped end of the band, a
portion of the metal may be cut away from the side of the buckle, as at Fig. 4,
to admit the looped end; in that case no bending of the edges of the slit will
: be required.
Having now set forth the nature of my Invention of an improved
fastening for securing cotton and other bales or packages, and explained
the manner of carrying the same into effect, I wish it to be understood that
under the above in part recited Letters Patent I claim connecting together
the looped ends of metal bands surrounding cotton and other elastic bales or
packages by means of a metal buckle constructed as above set forth.
In witness whereof, I, the said James Jennings McComb, have hereunto
set my hand and seal, the Fifth day of August, in the year of our
Lord One thousand eight hundred and sixty-two.
Witness,
GEORGE MASON,
of Birkenhead.
J. J. MCCOMB. (L.S.)