IMPROVEMENTS IN HAIR PINS
Year: 1879

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by Charles Aubrèy Day at the Office
of the Commissioners of Patents on the 10th March 1879.
CHARLES AUBREY DAY, of Navarino Road, Dalston, in the County of Middlesex.
" IMPROVEMENTS IN HAIR PINS."
The object of my Invention is to manufacture hair pins in such a manner and of
such improved forms as that (when used to hold the human or other hair in any
desired position) they shall not be so liable (as all hair pins as at present manu-
factured are) to get loose and fall out of place to the great inconvenience and
annoyance of the wearer or user.
Hair pins as generally manufactured are made either of a plain piece of wire
simply bent centrally of its length with parallel sides and pointed ends, or with
crimped sides. Now neither of these forms are well adapted to retain their position
in the human or other hair, and they thus have the above referred to attendant
disadvantages and are consequently comparatively useless for their intended purpose.
Hair pins have also been made with spring tops and with other devices for opening
or closing the legs thereof to cause them to retain their position in the hair, but
such hair pins bave proved unsuccessful in use owing to their inability to effect the
required purpose, to their complication and liability to receive injury, and to various
other reasons which effectually prevent their adoption.
According to my Invention I manufacture the hair pins so as to be used in pairs,
as hereinafter described, in lieu of singly, as hitherto.
According to one method, so far as the usual parallelism of the plain or crimped
sides is concerned, I make no alteration, but at the usual bend at the head of the
hair pin I turn or suitably manipulate the wire so as to form a loop, bend, or curl,
turning either inwards or outward, that is, towards or away from the legs or sides,
or I slightly flatten the wire and pierce an eyelet at this part, or I adapt a suitably
formed eyelet thereto.
The hair pins as thus made I connect in pairs by short lengths of a suitable
elastic medium, such as covered india-rubber, formed or made at each end with a
loop or knot, and I utilize the bends, curls, eyelets (or their equivalents) of the hair
pins for the purpose of fastening or securing the elastic medium, the loops or knots
of which may, according to some formations, be simply slipped thereinto; or,
according to other modifications, the elastics may be tied or bound thereto or other-

page_text: wise suitably connected so as to be prevented from shifting its position, whatever
position or inclination the connected pins may be put in.
In using hair-pins as thus manufactured and adapted, one of the pair is first
placed in the desired position (as usually) and then the other crosswise thereof or
at an inclination thereto, the points being towards the apex of the angle thus
formed, the bends being placed at a sufficient distance apart as to stretch or distend
the elastic medium, which thus has a constant tendency to pull the heads of the
pins together, but this tendency is resisted by the crossplacing of the pins in
the hair, into which they are thus drawn further, meeting with such resistance
therefrom as to cause them to retain their position and the hair till one at least of
them is withdrawn by hand, or when desired.
The bends of the hair pins as thus formed may be set or ornamented in any
desired manner, and the pins may be bronzed, gilded, or made of steel in the
manner of the better class of ornamented hair pins, or they may be made of the
usual kind of wire and japanned, as most generally done.
Single hair pins, that is, hair pins with but one leg, may also be formed as above
described to receive and retain a short length of elastic connecting a pair thereof,
but I do not propose to connect ordinary hair pins (that is, hair pins without such
specially formed loops or other equivalent retaining part) thus, as no advantage
would be gained, they not being formed or suitable for retaining the elastic when
used in the manner in which my improved hair pins are most advantageous.
Upon the elastic being in time destroyed by the grease of the hair or long use it
can be cut away and a new length easily applied or fitted by the user, or the hair
pins can then be used as the ordinary hair pins are, that is, singly.