IMPROVED FASTENINGS ADAPTED FOR ARTICLES OF LADIES' AND GENTLEMEN'S DRESS, AND ALSO OTHER ARTICLES WHICH ARE NOT ARTICLES OF DRESS
Year: 1871

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Henry Royall Minns, of Stapleton Road, in
'
the City and County of Bristol, for the Invention of "IMPROVED
FASTENINGS ADAPTED FOR ARTICLES OF LADIES' AND GENTLEMEN'S DRESS, AND
ALSO OTHER ARTICLES WHICH ARE NOT ARTICLES OF DRESS."
Sealed the 4th July 1871, and dated the 18th February 1871.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Henry Royall Minns
at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on
the 18th February 1871.
I, HENRY ROYALL MINNS, of Stapleton Road, in the City and County
of Bristol, do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for
"IMPROVED FASTENINGS ADAPTED FOR ARTICLES OF LADIES' AND GENTLEMEN'S
DRESS, AND ALSO OTHER ARTICLES WHICH ARE NOT ARTICLES OF DRESS,” to be
as follows:
This Invention relates to improved fastenings adapted for articles of
ladies' and gentlemen's dress, and also other articles which are not articles
of dress, such as travelling bags, portmanteaus, knapsacks, satchels,
portemonnaies, traces for horses, and various other articles in which

page_text: buttons, hooks and eyes, and buckles are now employed as the means
of fastening them in their required position, and as an improvement
upon the other modes of fastening articles together or one article to
another.
The following are intended to serve as examples of the manner of 5
constructing and operating with fastenings made according to this
Invention. Take, for example, glove fastenings for fastening gloves
around the wrists of the hands. I propose to make a spring fastening
in the following manner:-One form of fastening consists of a stud,
the neck, shank, or under part whereof I form smaller than the head or 1
upper part thereof.
This stud I fix near one edge of the slit or open
part of the wrist portion of the glove, and near the other edge of the
said slit and opposite to the aforesaid stud I fix a piece of thin flat metal
doubled over, with a hole made through the doubled metal, or the two
thicknesses when doubled, and between the doubled parts of the said 1
piece of metal I so fix a small spring as that it projects inside the afore-
said hole, so that when the said hole is passed over the aforesaid stud in
the act of fastening the glove around the wrist the head of the stud will
force back the said spring until the head of the stud has passed through
the aforesaid hole, after which the spring by its clasticity will return 2
into its normal position and embrace the neck or shank of the stud, and
thus securely fasten the glove around the wrist of the wearer. To detach
or unfasten the above fastening it is simply necessary to press or lift up
the aforesaid flat piece of metal, when the head of the stud will press
back the spring that previously held the stud by its neck or shank, and 2
thus allow the stud to pass through and unfasten the wrist part of the
glove.
Another form of construction of fastening for gloves consists in bend-
ing a piece of wire into the form of the figure 8 as a link piece, its
two ends crossing or covering each other so as to form as it were curved a
spring hooks at one or both ends, or the top and bottom parts of the
said figure, so that suppose a stud to be fixed at cach side of the slit of
a glove instead of only one stud, as before described, and the hooked
parts of the said link picce to be passed over the said studs the hooked
parts will expand to allow the studs to pass through, and contract after 3
wards so as to embrace and securely hold the neck or shank of the stud,
as before described; or instead of employing one link picce of the above
construction two short links may be used and be connected together by

page_text: a piece of clastic material; or in the place of studs, as above described,
I fix a bent piece of wire in the form of a loop with the ends bent in
opposite directions, so as to cross each other and serve as a hinge by
bending one end of a small piece of thin flat metal around thicse ends,
and fastening the other end of the aforesaid flat piece of metal to the
glove. I then take a short piece of round clastic, by preference, and
fix a knob of metal or other material on each end thereof, thus
forming a link piece, the knob parts whereof I pass through each of
the aforesaid metal loops which spring open or give way at the hinge
part, and close or spring back after the knob has been passed through
the loop.
I do not intend to limit this Invention to any particular way of
shaping or bending wire so as to form a spring fastening, as oflier forms
than those above described would answer equally well; moreover, the
shape will also depend in a great measure upon the purpose for which
the fastening is to be employed. .
And I would here remark that for ladies' corsets or dresses the flat
spring pieces described in the first part of this Specification may be
fixed to flat pieces of spring steel as a busk, also the studs after the
manner now practised with these kinds of fastenings.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent,
filed by the said Henry Royall Minns in the Great Scal Patent
Office on the 18th August 1871.
"
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, HENRY
Royall MINNS, of Stapleton Road, in the City and County of Bristol,
send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Letters Patent, bearing date the Eighteenth day of February, in the year
of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and seventy-one, in the thirty-
fourth year of Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors,
give and grant unto me, the said Henry Royall Minns, Her special
licence that I, the said Henry Royall Minns, my executors, adminis-
trators, and assigns, or such others as I, the said Henry Royall
Minns, my executors, administrators, and assigns, should at any time

page_text: 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 "IMPROVED FASTENINGS ADAPTED FOR ARTICLES OF LADIES' AND GENTLEMEN'S
DRESS AND ALSO OTHER ARTICLES WHICH ARE NOT ARTICLES OF DRESS,” upon
the condition (amongst others) that I, the said Henry Royall Minns,
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 Henry Royall Minns, do hereby
declare the nature of my said Invention, and in what manner the same
is to be performed, to be particularly described and ascertained in and by
the following statement, that is to say :—
This Invention relates to improved fastenings adapted for articles of
ladies' and gentlemen's dress and also other articles which are not
articles of dress, such as travelling bags, portmanteaus, knapsacks,
satchels, portemonnaies, traces for horses, and various other articles in
which buttons, hooks and cycs, and buckles are now employed as the
means of fastening them in their required position and as an improve-
ment upon the other modes of fastening articles together, or one article
to another.
The following are intended to serve as examples of the manner of con-
structing and operating with fastenings made according to this Invention.
Take, for example, glove fastenings for fastening gloves around the wrists
of the hands. I propose to make a spring fastening in the following
manner-Oue form of fastening shown at Fig. 1, 2, 3, 4, of the accom-
panying Drawing consists of a stud a, the neck, shank, or under part
whereof I form smaller than the head or upper part thereof. This stud
I fix near one edge of the slit or open part of the wrist portion of a glove,
and near the other edge of the said slit and opposite to the aforesaid stud
I fix a piece of thin flat metal A doubled over with a hole 1 made through
the doubled metal or the two thicknesses when doubled, and between
the doubled parts of the said piece of metal I so fix a small spring 6 as
that it projects inside the aforesaid hole, so that when the said hole is

page_text: passed over the stud a in the act of fastening the glove around the wrist
the head of the stud will force back the spring b until the head of the
stud a has passed through through the hole 1, after which the spring 6 by
its elasticity will return into its original position and embrace the neck or
shank of the stud a, and thus securely fasten the glove around the wrist
of the wearer. To detach or unfasten the above fastening it is simply
necessary to press or lift up the flat piece of metal A, when the head of
the stud a will press back the spring 6 that previously held the stud by
its neck or shank, and thus allow the stud a to pass through and unfasten
the wrist part of the glove.
Another form of construction of fastening for gloves shown at
Figures 5, 6, consists in bending a piece of wire B into the form of the
figure 8 as a link piece, its two ends crossing or covering each other so
as to form as it were curved spring hooks C, C, at one or both ends, or
the top and bottom parts of the piece B, as at Figures 7 and 8, so that
suppose a stud to be fixed at each side of the slit of a glove instead of
only one stud, as before described, and the hooked parts of the said link
picce to be passed over the said studs, the hooked parts will expand to
allow the studs to pass through and contract afterwards so as to embrace
and securely hold the neck or shank of the studs as before described.
Or instead of employing one link piece of the above construction two
short links may be used and be connected together by a piece of elastic
material as at Figs. 7, 8, 9, 10; or in the place of studs as above
described I fix to the glove a bent piece of wire O in the form of a
loop with the ends 2 bent in opposite directions so as to cross each other,
as at Figs. 11 & 12, and serve as a hinge by bending one end of a
small piece of thin flat metal around the bent ends, and fastening the
other end of the aforesaid flat piece of metal to the glove. I then take
a short piece of clastic d and fix a knob e of metal or other material on
each end thereof, thus forming a link piece, the knob parts e whereof I
pass through each of the metal loops C which spring open or give way
at the hinge parts and close or spring back after the knob has been
passed through the loop.
I do not intend to limit this Invention to any particular way of
shaping or bending wire so as to form a spring fastening, as other forms
than those above described and represented would answer equally well,
moreover the shape and size will also depend in a great measure upon

page_text: the purposU FOR WHICH
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here remark that for ladies' corsets or dresses the flat spring pieces
shewn at Fig. 1, 2, 3, 4, may be fixed to flat pieces of spring steel as a
busk, also the studs after the manner now practised with these kinds
of fastenings.
Fig. 13 shows a button the hole
whereof is intended to pass over
a stud held by the springs g, as before described.
Figs. 14 and 15 show modifications of Figs. 1 and 2.
Figs. 16 and 17 shew the fastening adapted for traces for horses for
connecting them to the splinter bar or other part of a vehicle. G marks
a portion of a trace rivetted at to the plate X.
I would here remark that the fastenings for gloves and other articles
of dress above described are represented by the Drawing very much
larger than they would be in reality for the sake of explaining their
construction more perfectly. The fastening for traces shown at Figs.
16 and 17 must be made in proportion to the part to which it is to be
applied.
The
Fig. 18 shews the fastenings described and referred to at Figs. 5, 11,
14, 15, applied to a steel busk for ladies' corsets and dresses.
above fastenings may be all of one kind of any of the varictics shown
and not be all different, as represented by the Drawing. a marks the
studs over which the spring hook fastenings B are to be passed as before
described, the flat pieces of metal A being fixed around the piece of
steel Y.
Figures 19, 20, and 21 shew an improved hook and cyc fastening. The
part X of the hook Z is bowed out as at Fig. 19, so that when this part
of the hook is inserted into the opening Y of the cyo S shown at Fig. 21
the hooked parts c, o, will be forced back and close after the part X of
the hook has passed through the eye. The part T of the cyc S is
flattened as shown for sewing this part to a ladies' dress or other garment.
Fig. 20 shows an edge view of Fig. 19.
Having now described my Invention for " Improved Fastenings
adapted for Articles of Ladies' and Gentlemen's Dress, and also other
Articles which are not Articles of Dress," and their construction and
adaptation, I would remark in conclusion that I hereby declare my
Invention to consist in and I claim, constructing spring fastenings
i

page_text: substantially in the manner above described and represented by the
accompanying Drawing.
In witness whercof, I, the said Henry Royall Minns, have here-
unto set my hand and seal, this Sixteenth day of August, in
the year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and seventy-
one.
HENRY ROYALL MINNS. (L.S.)