AN IMPROVED LOCK OR FASTENING FOR PORTEMONNAIES, DESKS, CASES, AND OTHER LIKE ARTICLES
Year: 1864

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Charles John Sharp, of Clerkenwell, in the County
of Middlesex, Mechanic, for the Invention of "AN IMPROVED LOCK OR
FASTENING FOR PORTEMONNAIES, DESKS, CASES, AND OTHER LIKE ARTICLES."
Sealed the 8th September 1864, and dated the 11th March 1864.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Charles John Sharp at
the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the
11th March 1864.
I, CHARLES JOHN SHARP, of Clerkenwell, in the County of Middlesex,
Mechanic, do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for "AN
IMPROVED LOCK OF FASTENING FOR PORTEMONNAIES, DESKS, CASES, AND OTHER LIKE
ARTICLES," to be as follows:-
My Invention consists in the combination of parts herein-after set forth,
whereby an expanding lock is obtained; I mean by the term expanding lock,
one having two or more apertures, into one or other of which the hasp may be
inserted according to the contents of the portemonnaie or other article to which
it is applied. The lock plate has, say, two slots or apertures made in it; on
this plate are flanges, between which a piston with two catches is free to slide,
a spiral or other spring is fitted to act against the piston, and drives it back
when pressure is removed from the knob or projection by which it is moved.
A hasp with a notch in it is affixed to the flap of the portemonnaie or other
like article, and the lock itself to the body of the article, or vice versa. On the
hasp being pressed into one of the holes in the back plate, one of the catches

page_text: of the piston is forced by the spiral spring into that notch, and the parts are
locked or fastened until the piston is pushed back, when the hasp being freed
the parts become unfastened.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said Charles John Sharp in the Great Seal Patent Office on
the 10th September 1864.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, CHARLES
JOHN SHARP, of Clerkenwell, in the County of Middlesex, Mechanic, send
greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Eleventh day of March, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and sixty-four, in the twenty-seventh year of Her
reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto me, the
said Charles John Sharp, Her special licence that I, the said Charles John
Sharp, my executors, administrators, and assigns, or such others as I, the said
Charles John Sharp, my executors, administrators, and assigns, should at any
time agree with, and no others, from time to time and at all times there-
after 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 "A
IMPROVED LOCK OR FASTENING FOR PORTEMONNAIES, DESKS, CASES, AND OTHER LIKE
ARTICLES," upon the condition (amongst others) that I, the said Charles
John Sharp, 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 Charles John Sharp, do hereby declare
the nature of my said Invention, and in what manner the same is to be per-
formed, to be particularly described and ascertained in and by the following
statement thereof, reference being had to the Drawings hereunto annexed, that
is to say:-
My Invention consists in the combination of parts herein-after set forth.
The lock plate has a slot or aperture made in it; on this plate are flanges,
between which a piston with a catch is free to slide, a spiral or other spring
is fitted to act against the piston, and drives it back when pressure is removed

page_text: from the knob or projection by which it is moved. A hasp with a notch in it
is affixed to the flap of the portemonnaie or other like article, and the lock
itself to the body of the article, or vice versa.
Figure 1 of the accompanying Drawings is a back view on an enlarged
scale, and Figure 2 a section through the line x, x, of Figure 1, of a lock or
fastening constructed according to my Invention.
a is the lock plate shewn detached in Figure 8; it is soldered or otherwise
fixed to the front plate 6 of the lock; a slot or aperture c is made therein and
in the back plate k; d, d, are flanges formed on the plate a, between which
a piston e with a catch f, shewn detached in Figure 4, is free to slide; ġ is
a spiral spring fitted to act against the piston e, which it drives back when
pressure is removed from the knob or projection h, by which it is moved.
Figure 5 represents a hasp with a notch i; this hasp is affixed to the body of
the portemonnaie or other article, and. the lock, Figures 1 and 2, to the flap
of the article. On the hasp being pressed into the aperture c in the lock
plate it forces up the piston e, and compresses the spring g¹ until the notch i
in the hasp comes immediately below the catch f in the piston, when the
spring g will force down the piston, and the catch f will take into the notch i,
and the lock will be secured. To unfasten the lock, push up the piston by
means of the knob or projection h, and the flap will be free; k is the back
plate of the lock, between which and the lock the leather or other material
of which the body of the portemonnaie or other article is formed, is secured
by pins in the ordinary manner.
And having now described the nature of my said Invention, and in what
manner the same is to be performed, I declare that I claim, the combination
of parts, substantially as herein-before described and illustrated in the accom-
panying Drawings, whereby an improved lock or fastening for portemonnaies,
desks, cases, and other articles is obtained.
In witness whereof, I, the said Charles John Sharp, have hereunto set
my hand and seal, this Ninth day of September, One thousand eight
hundred and sixty-four.
Witness,
F. HOLLINGSWORTH.
C. J. SHARP. (L.B.)