IMPROVEMENTS IN LADIES' DRESS HOLDERS OR SUSPENDERS
Year: 1878

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Alexander Leslie Fyfe, of Aldersgate Street, in the City of
London, for the Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN LADIES' DRESS HOLDERS OR
SUSPENDERS."
Sealed the 29th November 1878, and dated the 27th September 1878.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Alexander Leslie Fyfe at
the Office of the Commissioners of Patents on the 27th September 1878.
ALEXANDER LESLIE FYFE, of Aldersgate Street, in the City of London. “IM-
PROVEMENTS IN LADIES' DRESS HOLDERS OR SUSPENDERS."
My Invention relates to ladies' dress holders or suspenders so constructed as to
firmly grip the dress and avoid the objection common to most other dress holders
heretofore constructed, viz., that the dress is liable to drag out of the holder in use,
and my Invention consists broadly in the employment of screw pressure, which
may be variously applied for the above-mentioned purpose.
My improved holder consists of a stirrup-shaped bow, with the pads by which
the dress is to be gripped mounted opposite one another between the extremities of
the arms of the bow. One of the pads is fixed, while the other is mounted on a
binding screw working through a hole tapped in the arm. A portion of the screw
is left plain, so that it may be speedily closed on the dress during the first portion
of its movement.
Instead of the above arrangement a plain part of the screw might work in a hole
of the arm and the screw be received in a female screw prevented from rotating,
and to which the pad is attached.

page_text: SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent filed by
the said Alexander Leslie Fyfe in the Great Seal Patent Office on the 27th
March 1879.
ALEXANDER LESLIE FYFE, of Aldersgate Street, in the City of London. "IM-
PROVEMENTS IN LADIES' DRESS HOLDERS OR SUSPENDERS."
My Invention relates to ladies' dress holders or suspenders, and consists broadly
in the application and employment of a screw in order to close the pads or jaws
forcibly taken together, so that when applied to hold up a dress the latter will be
so firmly gripped between the jaws that it will not be liable to drag out, which is
an objection common to most other dress holders as heretofore made.
In carrying out my Invention the screw may be applied in various ways to close
the jaws and likewise to open them, and in order that the Invention may be more
readily understood, I have in the annexed Drawings shown by way of example
some of the various ways in which a screw may be applied, and will proceed to
describe the Invention in detail with reference thereto.
Figure 1 shows one form of dress holders (partly in section), consisting of a rigid
frame or bow A of metal provided with a ring b, by which it is attached to the
suspending cord c; d, d', are the gripping discs or jaws mounted opposite one
another between the extremities of the arms of the frame A. One or both of these
discs may be furnished with an india-rubber pad e as usual. If one pad only be
used it would be of the form shown, the other disc & being concaved to obtain a
better grip of the dress, as described in the Specification of Letters Patent granted
to me bearing date the 23rd June 1876, No. 2593. The disc d is fixed by a central
pin or rivet to the extremity of the one arm a of the frame, and the other disc d'
is mounted on the extremity of a binding screw f, which is free to turn in the
disc without rotating it. This screw screws through a screw-tapped hole in
the extremity of the other arm a' of the frame, and is terminated at its outer end
by a milled head h. A portion f' of the screw is left plain and of smaller diameter
than the screw-threaded part, in order that when the latter is unscrewed from the
female screw g the disc d' may be quickly drawn back to the position shown in
dotted lines to enable the dress to be easily inserted between the two discs, and as
quickly pushed inwards, until the screw again engages with the nut g, when by
turning the milled head h the disc d' may be forcibly closed against the disc d, with
the dress firmly gripped between them.
Figure 2 shows a modified arrangement, in which the frame A is in the form of
a stirrup, the extremities of the two ends being united by a rigid horizontal bar A¹;
d is the fixed disc or padded gripping jaw, and d' is the movable one attached as
before to the end of a screwed rod f working through a nut g or hole tapped in
the frame A. In this case the nut g is at the top of the frame A, and the screw f
serves also as the means of attaching the holder to the suspending cord, its head h
being furnished with a screw ring b for the purpose. The screw ƒ may be threaded
throughout its length, or a portion may be left plain, as in Figure 1.
Figure 3 shows a further modification. In this case the arms a, a, of the stirrup-
shaped frame are jointed at a² to a central portion A, through which the screw f
passes, as in Figure 2, and the ends of the arms a, a', are turned inwards until they
nearly meet, and the jaws d, d¹, are attached to their extremities so as to meet face
to face in the centre as shown. The screw ƒ does not act directly on either of the
jaws, but on a cross bar i, the end of the screw passing through a hole in the middle
of said cross bar, in which it is confined by a shoulder above and a collar or head
on the end of the screw beneath the cross bar, so as to be free to turn therein and
compel the cross bar to move up or down as the screw is traversed through
its nut.
The cross bar has loops or eyes k at its extremities, which embrace the arms a, a¹,
and slide up and down thereon when the bar is traversed up or down as above

page_text: mentioned, and these loops are wider apart than the joints a² of the arms a, a',
which gradually spread apart from the joints downwards, so that when the bar i is
raised the arms are caused to assume the dotted position and the jaws d, d¹, are
separated, and when the bar is moved downwards the reverse movement takes place
and the jaws are closed together, as shown in full lines.
Having described the nature of my Invention and the manner of performing the
same, I declare that what I claim as my Invention to be protected by the herein-
before in part recited Letters Patent is,―
The application and employment in a ladies' dress holder or suspender of a screw
for closing the one gripping disc or jaw against the other or for closing the two jaws
together, substantially as herein shown and described.
In witness whereof, I, the said Alexander Leslie Fyfe, have hereunto set my
hand and seal, this Twenty-sixth day of March, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and seventy-nine.