AN IMPROVED SAFETY HOOK FOR HARNESS AND OTHER PURPOSES
Year: 1869

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by Henry Starr at the Office of the
Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the 17th March
1869. A communication from abroad by Austin Baldwin, of the
City and State of New York, United States of America.
I, HENRY STARR, of No. 22, Moorgate Street, in the City of London,
do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for "AN IMPROVED
SAFETY HOOK FOR HARNESS AND OTHER PURPOSES," a communication, to be as
follows:-
My Invention relates to a hook provided with a spring guard or
tongue which opens to allow the hook to engage with or take hold
of a link, ring, loop, or other connection and then closes, so as to
prevent the accidental disengagement or release of the same from the
hook.
The said Invention consists chiefly in the novel arrangement of
the spring of the said guard or tongue, and in the peculiar construction
of the portion of the hook wherein the same is placed, by which con-
struction and arrangement I am enabled at a very small cost to provide
the hook with a safe, durable, and efficient guard without impairing its

page_text: strength or facility of connection or rendering it clumsy or otherwise
inconvenient. The guard or tongue is pivotted between jaws in such
a manner that when closed its free end covers the point of the hook.
Between the said jaws is a cavity or chamber wherein is enclosed a
short spiral spring, so arranged that its pressure tends always to close
the guard, the said spring being always completely covered and protected
whether the guard is open or closed. At the back of the joint or
pivot of the guard the hook is formed with a link or loop whereby it
is secured to a strap, cord, or rope.
When my improved hook is intended for use as a harness snap I
provide the same with a broad link or loop to which the trace or strap
is secured. The guard or tongue, which opens inwardly, is fitted to
work freely between the two jaws upon a pin or pivot secured therein.
The neck or upper part of the hook terminates in these jaws, which are
closed at the back, forming between or within them a cavity deep
enough to receive a spiral spring of proper strength. One end of this
spring bears against the back of the cavity while its other end presses
against the tongue between the pivot and the free end of the same,
so that the said spring always tends to keep the tongue closed upon
the point of the hook. The said point is made wedge-shaped and fits
a correspondingly formed recess in the end of the tongue, which is
thus kept firm laterally when closed.
When my improved hooks are used for gaff topsail hooks, and for
other similar purposes, I prefer to construct them with the guard to open
outward, and to form the end of the said guard with a small projection,
which when the guard is closed enters a hole in the end of the hook.
In order that the said projection may enter and leave this hole, the joint
of the guard is formed with a slot to allow the guard to move slightly
endwise in opening and closing, and the spring is arranged in the cavity
in such a manner that it tends to close the guard and to force the end
thereof into the hole.