IMPROVEMENTS IN FASTENINGS FOR PURSES, BOXES, AND OTHER ARTICLES
Year: 1864

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by William Clark at the Office of .the.
Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the 28th September '1864..
- A communication from abroad by Salomon Sturm, Optician, of 29,,
Boulevart St. Martin, Paris. "
I, WILLIAM CLARK, of 53, Chancery Lane, in the County of Middlesex,
Engineer and Patent Agent, do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention
for "IMPROVEMENTS IN FASTENINGS FOR PURSES, BOXES, AND OTHER ARTICLES," to..
be as follows:-
This Invention relates to an improved safety fastening applicable to porte-
monnaies, portfolios, and other articles of leather or morocco, such as boxes,
dressing-cases, bags of all kinds, also to drawers, desks, safes, and generally
in all cases where fastenings are applied.
This Invention is illustrated in the accompanying Drawing as applied to a
portemonnaie.
Fig. 1 shows a plan of a portemonnaie closed; Fig. 2, a plan of same open;
Fig. 3, a transverse section of the fastening; while Fig. 4 shows a section on
an enlarged scale of one of the safety buttons, forming part of this improved
fastening. The same letters represent similar parts in the several Figures.
a, b, rim or frame of the portemonnaie to which the body part is fixed;
c, button head for acting on catch d; d', bolt fixed to part 6 of the frame,
and serving with catch d to keep the portemonnaie closed. These parts being
the same as in ordinary I will now describe the safety fastenings .to be
applied to the purse; e, e, button beads turning in the upper part of frame b,

page_text: their upper surface being marked in divisions f; 9,g, points fixed on part b
in proximity to buttons e; h, h, shanks of buttons, e, turning in the part b
and terminating in a screwed part i (Fig. 4); j, cylindrical caps fixed to
shanks by small nuts k, and having each a lateral opening l; m, m, hooked
catches fixed to part a of the frame.
From the foregoing description it will be seen that the button e, shank h,
and cap j are connected together, and turn in part 6 of the frame, in order
to close the portemonnaie; it is thus necessary that openings I should coincide
with hooks m, for which purpose the buttons e, e, are turned, at same time
noting the division which comes opposite point g. When the portemonnaie
is closed the buttons e are again turned until cylindrical parts j occupy such
position as to prevent the purse being opened, that is to say, the hooks m are
held within the cylinders j, and cannot escape by openings. When it is
desired to open the fastening, the divisions on the button heads observed at
the time of closing it should be brought opposite points 9, 9. To increase the
security these points are dissimilar for each button head, so that a great
number of combinations would be necessary supposing it was attempted to
open the purse surreptitiously. For travelling bags and similar articles the
number of combinations might be still more increased. The cylinders j
being simply fixed to buttons e by means of nuts k, k, with the aid of a small
key, the divisions on the head of the button corresponding to the point g
might be changed from time to time.
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