Improvement in Safety Pins.
Year: 1897

page_text: Date of Application, 23rd Feb., 1897-Accepted, 3rd Apr., 1897
COMPLETE SPECIFICATION.
Improvement in Safety Pins.
We, ROBERT KELSO, and MORRIS ROSENBAUM, of Philadelphia, in the
County of Philadelphia, and State of Pennsylvania, United States of America,
and residing at 252 South 2nd Street and 609 South 3rd Street respectively, in
said city, Gentlemen, do hereby declare the nature of this 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 accompanying
drawing, and to letters of reference marked thereon, which form a part of this
specification :-
This invention relates to a new and useful improvement in safety pins, and has
for its object to provide a device of this description in which the operation of
disengaging the point of the pin from the guard will be facilitated, and a further
object is to improve the manner of fastening the guard to the back section of the
pin and provide a division wall formed integral with the back section.
With these ends in view, our invention consists in the details of construction and
combination of elements hereinafter set forth and specifically designated by the
claims.
In order that those skilled in the art to which this invention appertains, may
understand how to make and use the same, we will describe its construction and
operation in detail, referring to the accompanying drawing forming a part of this
specification, in which-
Fig. 1, is a perspective of a safety pin made in accordance with our
improvement;
Fig. 2. a side elevation thereof the guard being in section illustrating the
method of securing it in place;
Fig. 3, an end view, showing the guard forced to one side out of live with the
point of the pin.
Fig. 4, a similar view, the guard being forced to the opposite side.
In carrying out our invention, we employ a single piece of wire which is so bent
as to form the pin section A, a coil B and a back section C, the latter being bent
to produce the coils D and E at right-angles to its length, and these last named
coils are wound in opposite directions so that when the back section is twisted
upon its axis, these coils will serve to impart resiliency to this movement either in
the one direction or the other, one giving the greatest efficiency in one direction,
and the other in the opposite direction.
The free end of the section C after passing from the coil E is bent to form a
loop F, the inner end of which is flattened to serve as a partition G for guiding
the point of the pin to the guard. H is the guard made of sheet metal and bent
around a portion of the loop F and section C, where it is firmly held against side
movement by the ears I projecting therefrom and bearing upon either side of the
partition G.
From the above description, the operation of our improvement will be obviously
as follows:
When the prong or section A has been inserted within the fabric for the well
known purposes, its point is guided to the guard by being forced against the
partition G and permitting it to spring outward by the action of the coil B, and
this is greatly facilitated by the fact that the guard may be sprung to one side or

page_text: the other by exerting sufficient force thereon to overcome the action of one or
the other of the springs D or E, and when it becomes necessary to disengage the
point of the section A from the guard, this is accomplished by a reverse movement
of said section and again springing the guard to one side or the other in the same
manner as when securing the pin.
For some purposes this is of great advantage in that it is difficult to spring the
section A to either side, when engaging or disengaging its point from the guard,
and another advantage of the capacity of the guard to be sprung sidewise is that
the pin is not thrown out of shape as is often the case by the wire of which it is
composed being bent, since the resiliency of the coils D and E is sufficient to
prevent the setting of the wire.
Another advantage of the coils D and E is that they form a support to the
fingers when forcing the pin C into the fabric, and the coil E in withdrawing it
therefrom. This is a great advantage over the old form of safety pin in which
the back section usually clung fast to the fabric and was very difficult of
manipulation.
It is obvious that instead of forming the two coils D and E upon the back
section, the result may be accomplished by the use of a single coil, or a large
number of such coils may be used.
We are also aware that other slight modifications might be made in the exact
construction here shown and described, without departing from the spirit of our
invention, which rests in the broad idea of so constructing a safety pin as to permit
the springing sidewise of the guard out of alignment with the point of the pin to
facilitate the engaging or disengaging of said pin from the guard, and we therefore
do not wish to be limited to the exact construction, but reserve the right to make
such modifications as fall within the scope of ordinary mechanical skill.
Having now particularly described and ascertained the nature of our said inven-
tion, and in what manner the same is to be performed, we declare that what we
claim is :-
1. As a new article of manufacture, a safety pin composed of a pin section, a
back section lying substantially parallel with the pin section, a guard upon the
back section, and one or more coils formed upon the back section whereby the
guard is adapted to be forced sidewise out of line with the pin section.
2. A safety pin composed of the pin section A, back section C, coils D and E,
and a suitable guard for the reception of the point of the section A, as shown and
described.
3. In a safety pin having a pin section and a guard, the coils D and E formed
with the back section, whereby said guard may be sprung sidewise, substantially as
and for the purpose set forth.
4. In combination with a safety pin of the character described, a partition
formed upon the free end of the back section by bending the end thereof into loop
shape and flattening the same, as shown and described.
5. The herein described combination of the sections A and C, coil B, coils D
and E formed with the last named section, the partition G formed by looping the
end of the section C and flattening the same, and a guard secured to the back
section, as shown and described.
Dated this 23rd day of February 1897.
J. P. BAYLY,
18 Fulham Place, London, W., Agent for Applicants.