IMPROVEMENTS IN PURSES, POCKET BOOKS, PORTMONNAIES, LETTER CASES, AND OTHER SIMILAR CASES AND ARTICLES
Year: 1873

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by Frederick Charles Hathaway at
the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on
the 26th September 1873.
I, FREDERICK CHARLES HATHAWAY, of Walsall, in the County of
Stafford, Manufacturer, do hereby declare the nature of the said Inven-
tion for "IMPROVEMENTS IN PURSES, POCKET BOOKS, PORTMONNAIES, LETTER CASES,
AND OTHER SIMILAR CASES AND ARTICLES," to be as follows:-
My Invention consists of the improvements herein-after described in
constructing purses, pocket books, portmonnaies, letter cases, and other
similar cases and-articles.
My Invention has for its object to provide the purse, pocket book,
letter case, or other similar case or article with an additional pocket, or
additional pockets, so arranged that the article shall have a much
greater capacity than when constructed in the ordinary way, and further

page_text: possess the convenience or separating the papers or articles contained in
it into two classes or divisions.
In making purses, pocket books, letter cases, and similar cases and
articles according to my Invention I construct and arrange the parts in
the following manner:-I will describe my Invention as applied to a
purse or pocket book. In ordinary purses or pocket books a series of
partitions or divisions hinged or connected together at their bottom edges
and unconnected at their top edges are furnished with folding ends or
gussets, the opening and closing of the pockets or compartments formed
by the partitions being effected by the partitions turning upon their
connected edges after the manner of the leaves of a book.
According to my Invention I divide the purse or pocket book into two
series of pockets, access being gained to one series of pockets at one of
the edges, and to the other series of pockets at the opposite edge of the
purse or pocket book, the divisions or partitions between the pockets
being hollow, the divisions of one series constituting the pockets of the
other series. The divisions or partitions are not connected together at
their bottom edges as in ordinary purses or pocket books, the mouths of
one series of pockets alternating with the bottoms of the other series of
pockets.
I make the two series of pockets by preference by doubling or folding
the leather or material in parallel folds, the folding being made in a
backward and forward direction, that is, after the first fold has been
made the material is folded back upon the first fold, and so on. There
are thus formed two series of pockets from the folded material, the
openings or mouths to one series being at one edge or top, and the
openings or mouths to the other series being at the opposite edge or
bottom, the hollow divisions or partitions constituting the pockets
respectively of the two series of pockets. The double pockets are pro-
vided with folding end gussets, and are secured to the sides of the purse
or pocket book in the ordinary way. The mouth or opening to each
series of pocket's is closed by a flap fastened by a snap or lock, or other-
wise fastened; or the mouth or opening to each series of pockets may
be provided with a snap or lock frame.
The number of pockets in each part of the article may be equal or

page_text: unequal, and instead of a series of pockets each part may have only a
single pocket.
may be
Besides the articles herein-before enumerated my Invention
applied among others to the following articles, namely, to note cases,
bill cases, wallets, portfolios, and cigar, cigarette, and fusee cases.