AN IMPROVED HAMMER-CLOSING' STAPLE FOR SUPPORTING, RETAINING, OR GUIDING WIRES OR WIRE CORDS USED FOR FENCING, BELL HANGING, AND ALL OTHER PURPOSES
Year: 1880

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Thomas John Hovell-Thurlow-Cumming-Bruce, Baron
Thurlow, of Thurlow, in the County of Suffolk, for an Invention of "AN
IMPROVED HAMMER-CLOSING' STAPLE FOR SUPPORTING, RETAINING, OR
GUIDING WIRES OR WIRE CORDS USED FOR FENCING, BELL HANGING, AND
ALL OTHER PURPOSES."
"
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Thomas John Hovell-Thurlow-
Cumming-Bruce at the Office of tho Commissioners of Patonts on the 6th
April 1880.
THOMAS JOHN HOVELL-THURLOW-COMMING-BRUCE, Baron Thurlow, of Thurlow,
in the County of Suffolk. "AN IMPROVED HAMMER-CLOSING' STAPLE FOR
SUPPORTING, RETAINING, OR GUIDING WIRES OR WIRE CORDS USED FOR FENCING,
BELL HANGING, AND ALL OTHER PURPOSES."
My Invention relates to an improved construction of staple for supporting,
retaining, or guiding wires or wire cords used in the erection of wire fencing, for
bell hanging, for garden and other such like purposes.
My improved staple consists of a tapered shank or nail to be driven into the
post or other support, and of an eye formed on the head of the shank in which the
wire or wire cord is to be retained, and the improvement consists mainly in making
the eye somewhat in the form of the letter C, that is to say, with an opening or
slit at one side, through which the wire can be passed into the eye without being
threaded or drawn endwise therethrough, the said opening or slit being closed so as
to securely retain the wire in the eye by the blows of the hammer in driving the
staple into the post or other support.
The advantages of my improved staple arc,―
1°. That it does not split the post as the ordinary double pronged staple
generally does to a greater or less extent.
2º. That smaller posts may consequently be used with great economy in the
erection of wire fencing, especially where the transport of the posts presents
difficulties. It also allows thinnings of young woods to be earlier cut and used for
fencing purposes, to the great benefit of the plantations themselves, thinning a
plantation being often delayed to its detriment until the trees are of a size to be
used for fencing or other estate purposes.
3°. That it takes as firm a hold in the post as a common nail, and is not liable
to become loose and to fall out, as so very frequently happens with the double
pronged staple, leaving the holes and splits in the post exposed to the decaying
influences of the weather.
My improved staple is especially applicable to wire fencing erected on the
Corimony" principle, in which slender "droppers" are used.

page_text: SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent filed
by the said Thomas John Hovell-Thurlow-Cumming-Bruce in the Great Seal
Patent Office on the 4th October 1880.
-
THOMAS JOHN HOVELL-THURLOW-CUMMING-BRUCE, Baron Thurlow, of Thurlow,
in the County-of-Suffolk. "AN IMPROVED "HAMMER-CLOSING STAPLE FOR
SUPPORTING, RETAINING, OR GUIDING WIRES OR WIRE CORDS USED FOR FENCING,
BELL HANGING, AND ALL OTHER PURPOSES."
My Invention relates to an improved staple for supporting, retaining, or guiding
the wires or wire cords used for fencing, for bell-hanging, for garden and other such
like purposes.
My Invention consists in a "hammer-closing" staple, being an eye formed upon
the end of a single tapered or pointed shank or prong, the improvement consisting
in making the eye with an opening or slit, through which the wire can be passed
into the eye without being threaded or drawn end wise therethrough, the said
opening or slit being in such a position as to be closed by the bending of the cyc
under the blows of the hammer in driving the staple into tho post, thereby securely
retaining the wire.
The advantages of my improved staple are,-(1). That having but a single prong
it is not liable to split the post as the ordinary double pronged staple generally
does to a greater or less extent. (2). That smaller posts may consequently be used
with great economy in the erection of wire foncing, especially where the transport
of the posts presents difficulties. It thus allows thinnings of young woods to be cut
earlier, and used for fencing purposes, to the great benefit of the plantations themselves.
(3). That it takes as firm a hold in the post as a common nail, and is not liable to
become loose and to fall out, as so very frequently happens with the double
pronged staple, leaving the holes and splits in the post exposed to the decaying
influences of the weather.
My improved staple is especially applicable to wire fencing erected on the
DESCRIPTION OF DRAWINGS.
Figure 1 is a side view, and Figure 2 an edge view of one form of improved staple
before it has been driven into the post; Figuro 3 is a side view of the same as
driven into a post and closed upon the wire; Figures 4 and 5 show a slightly
modified form of staple. The staples shown in the Drawings are given by way of
example, and I do not limit myself to the precise forms or dimensions shown. The
staple may either be punched of the form shown in Figures 1 and 2 out of sheets
of the proper thickness, or otherwise made of wrought iron or other metal sufficiently
malleable to permit of the eye bending under the blows of the hammer. Tho
staple illustrated in Figures 4 and 5 is made of staple iron wire bent to the form
shown.
a is the shank, and b the eye formed with a slit or opening c for the introduction
of the fence wire. In use the shank a is first driven lightly a short distance into
the post without bending the eye, and the wire d is then slipped through the slit
or opening c; the staple is then driven quite home, the blows of the hammer at
same time bending the eye sufficiently to close up the opening c, as shown in full
lines in Figures 3 and 5, in which Figures the dotted lines indicate the original
form of the eyc.
Having described the nature of my Invention, and the manner of performing the

page_text: same, I declare that what I claim as my Invention to be protected by the hereinbefore
in part recited Letters Patent is,-
A single pronged staple having an eyo formed with a slit or opening capable of
being closed in the act of driving the staple, substantially as and for the purposo
specifiod.
In witness whereof, I, the said Thomas John Hovell-Thurlow-Cumming-Bruco,
Baron Thurlow, have hereunto set my hand and seal, this First day of
October, in the year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and eighty.
THURLOW. (L.S.) ·