IM- PROVEMENTS IN FASTENINGS FOR SOLITAIRES, SLEEVE LINKS, STUDS, AND OTHER ARTICLES OF JEWELLERY AND DRESS
Year: 1874

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by John Richards at the Office of
the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the 13th
August 1874.
I, JOHN RICHARDS, of Birmingham, in the County of Warwick,
Jeweller, do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for "IM-
PROVEMENTS IN FASTENINGS FOR SOLITAIRES, SLEEVE LINKS, STUDS, AND OTHER
ARTICLES OF JEWELLERY AND DRESS," to be as follows:-
:-
My Invention has reference to such solitaires, sleeve links, studs, and
other fastenings for articles of jewellery and dress as consist principally
of two detachable studs, buttons, or heads, and my said Invention
consists of the construction and combination of parts, herein-after
described, for connecting together and disconnecting the said two
detachable studs, buttons, or heads of the solitaire or other like article
or fastening.
I will describe my Invention as applied to a solitaire. To the inner
face or back of the stud, button, or head constituting the front part of
the solitaire I fix a shank having at its end a cross bar or key, and to
the inner face of the back part of the solitaire a hollow or tube-like

page_text: stem is affixed; the said stem having such a figure that the shank on
the front part of the solitaire can only slide in it. That is, the said
tubular stem consists of a nearly cylindrical central part, with side
channels opening into it. In these side channels the arms of the cross
bar on the shank work, and thereby prevent the rotation of the said
shank so long as the said cross bar is situated in the said channels. The
inner end of the stem, or that end fixed on the back stud or button of
the solitaire, is recessed or cut away at opposite points, the said recessed
parts being situated at right angles to the channels in the said stem in
which the arms of the cross bar of the shank work. Or similar recesses
may be made in the inner face of the shell of the back stud or button.
In the interior of the back stud or button is a spring consisting either
of a cruciform piece of sheet steel, bowed or bent into a convex figure,
or of a strip of sheet steel bent into a like figure. Or instead of a spring
of the kinds described a conical wire spring may be employed.
In fastening or connecting together the two parts of the solitaire the
shank on the front part of the solitaire is introduced into the tubular
stem on the back part, and advanced therein sufficiently far for its cross
bar or key to pass out of the channels in the said stem into the interior.
of the back part of the solitaire, the said cross bar compressing the
spring. The shank of the front part is now capable of rotating in the
back part. By giving a twisting motion or a motion through a quad-
rant to the front part the arms of its cross bar are brought opposite the
recesses described in the back part of the solitaire, and by the action of
the compressed spring the said cross bar is pressed into the said recesses,
and the two parts of the solitaire are thereby connected securely.
togther.
To release or disconnect the two parts of the solitaire the front part
is first pressed inwards, so as to remove the cross bar of its shank from
the recesses described. It is then turned through a quadrant so as to
bring the arms of the cross bar opposite the channels in the stem of the
back part, when the said shank may be withdrawn from the tubular
stem and the two parts of the solitaire disconnected.