Improvement in Belt Fasteners.
Year: 1890

page_text: COMPLETE SPECIFICATION.
Improvement in Belt Fasteners.
I, CHARLES SITGREAVES LOCKWOOD, of No. 289 Market Street, Newark, Essex
County, New Jersey, U.S.A., Machinist, do hereby declare the nature of my invention
for IMPROVEMENT IN BELT FASTENERS and in what manner the same is to be performed,
to be particularly described and ascertained in and by the following statement
The object of the invention is to provide a belt fastener easily inserted in the belt, of
sufficient strength to perform its function without liability to break or permit the belt
ends to become unfastened, and of such form as to avoid contact with the surface of
the pulley when the joint of the belt passes over the latter.
The invention consists in a flat strip of metal adapted to receive the strain of the
belt edgewise, one of its edges being formed with points or hooks at the ends
and the other with seats intermediate to its ends; and in a special form for the same.
The invention will be more fully understood by reference to the annexed drawing,.
in which Fig. 1 is a side view and Fig. 2 an edge view of the preferred construction
of my fastener; Figs. 3 and 4 are similar views of a simpler form of the invention;
Fig. 5 is a side view of a portion of a pulley with a belt having my improved fasteners
applied thereto, the belt being in section through the center of one of the fasteners;
Fig. 6 is a plan of the members shown in Fig. 5, with the portion of the pulley
omitted; Fig. 7 is an edge view of one end of a belt, in section through one of the slots s,
with one of the fasteners partly inserted therein; and Fig. 8 is a plan of one end of
a belt showing slots to receive the fasteners.
The fastener, as shown in Figs. 1 to 4 inclusive, is formed of a strip of sheet metal a
having one of its edges notched near the ends to form at its extremities points or
hooks a projecting outwardly in the same plane with its body portion, and with
inclined seats a² on its opposite edge intermediate to the ends.
In the construction shown in Figs. 1 and 2, shoulders a³ are formed at the outer
ends of the seats a² to prevent the displacement of the belt ends which bear upon
such seats.
The belt ends 6 to be united are each provided with a row of narrow slots s of
suitable length to receive the ends of the fasteners and of a width equal to the thickness
of one of the fasteners; the number of slots in each belt end corresponding with the
number of fasteners required to give the requisite strength to the joint.
To insert the fastener, one end is inclined nearly at right angles to the surface of
the belt and introduced into the slots from the inner side of the belt, as shown in
Fig. 7; it is then turned around nearly parallel to the adjacent portion of the belt,
thus bringing the outer end of the slots to bear upon the seat a³, as shown in Fig. 5,
the point or hook a¹ becoming imbedded in the upper surface of the belt to take a part
of the strain upon the fastener when the belt is in operation and to prevent any
tendency of the belt end to slide off the seat a². The other. end of the fastener is
inserted in the opposed belt end in a similar manner.
By reference to Fig. 5 it will be noticed that the hooks a¹ project, even with one
edge of the fastener and are therefore considerably in front of the other edge; the
straightening of the joint by the application of the belt to a pulley thus causes the
bending of the belt ends outward beyond the hooks, throwing the nearer edge of
the fastener outward from the inner face of the belt a distance nearly equal to the
thickness of the belt, and thereby preventing its contact with the face of the pulley in
the passage of the joint over the latter.
As the metal of which the fasteners are formed is quite thin and the fasteners
perfectly flat and, when in position, are perpendicular to the faces of the belt ends, a
sufficient number of them may be applied side by side to make the joint as strong as
may be required; while the position of the fasteners wholly outside of the inner

page_text: face of the belt obviates the twitching produced by the fasteners commonly in use
when passing over the pulley.
In practice, the tendency of the belt end to slip off the seat a² is slight, and the
shoulder a³ is not therefore essential to the construction although it may be found
desirable in certain cases. Instead of being inclined as shown in the drawing, the
seats a² may be made parallel with the opposite edge of the fastener if shoulders.a³ are
employed, or they may be formed at any angle thereto that may be found
desirable.
It.is obvious that the function of the hooks a¹ is to hold the belt ends at right angles,
or nearly so, to the seats a² to prevent their slipping thereon; and that, consequently,
the exact relation of their ends to the inner edge of the fastener is immaterial so long
as their operation is not effected by a change from that shown herein. It is also
evident that the extremities of the hooks need not be sharpened to pierce the belt end,
as their primary object is to merely form an abutment about which the belt end may
be bent as set forth above.
"
Having now particularly described. and ascertained the nature, of my invention,
and in what manner the same is to be performed, I declare. that what I
claim.is:-
:-
First. A belt fastener consisting in a flat strip of metal adapted to receive the
strain of the belt edgewise, one of its edges being formed with points or hooks at
the ends and the other with seats intermediate to its ends, substantially as shown and
described.
Second. A belt fastener consisting in a flat strip of metal adapted to receive the
strain of the belt edgewise, one of its edges being formed with points or hooks at
the ends and the other with inclined seats intermediate to its ends and with shoulders
at the outer ends of the seats, substantially as shown and described.
Dated this 14th day of January 1800
FELL & WILDING.
1, Queen Victoria Street, London, E.C., Agents for the Applicant.