NEW OR IMPROVED FASTENINGS FOR FASTENING BANDS AND BELTS AND ARTICLES OF DRESS, AND FOR SUCH OTHER PURPOSES AS THE SAME ARE OR MAY BE APPLICABLE TO
Year: 1861

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by Thomas Aldridge Weston at the
Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the 10th
April 1861.
I, THOMAS ALDRIDGE WESTON, of Birmingham, in the County of Warwick,
Engineer, do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for "NEW OR
IMPROVED FASTENINGS FOR FASTENING BANDS AND BELTS AND ARTICLES OF DRESS,
AND FOR SUCH OTHER PURPOSES AS THE SAME ARE OR MAY BE APPLICABLE TO," to be
as follows:-
My Invention consists of the improvements in fastenings for bands and
belts and articles of dress, and for other purposes herein-after described, which
said fastenings are made from sheet metal, and being flat, or nearly flat, are
little liable to injury in use, or when used as dress fastenings, are not injured
by the washing and mangling of the clothes to which they are attached.
The simplest of my new or improved fastenings consists of two pieces of sheet
metal, one of the said pieces being doubled or folded upon itself so that its
two halves lie flat or nearly flat upon one another, and the other piece is a
flat plate perforated, as herein-after explained. The first or doubled piece is
cut or pierced in the following manner :-One of the sides or flaps has a piece
cut out of it so as to make a clear opening therein; the other side or flap has
a semicircular or horseshoe-shaped slit cut in it, the said slit being exactly
opposite the hole in the other side or flap. The metal within the said semi-
circular slit is bent or raised out of the plane of the side or flap from which it

page_text: is cut, and constitutes a tongue which projects into or protrudes through the
circular opening in the other side or flap. The said tongue is so cut from the
flap or side in which it is made, that its raised or free end is turned towards
the fold or double in the metal; the other or flat piece of the fastening has
a circular or semicircular opening cut in it. In securing the two parts of the
fastening together, the single piece is inserted between the flaps of the double
piece at the point most distant from the fold or double; on being pressed
forward, the said single piece passing over the inclined tongue raises its end
from the hole in the opposite flap. The hole in the single flap coming over
the end of the tongue, the said tongue is sprung through the said hole and into
or through the hole in the opposite flap by its own elasticity or by that of the
doubled flap, and the two parts can no longer be pulled asunder. In order to
separate the two parts, the single flap is pushed still further between the sides
of the doubled flap and moved laterally, when it passes from between the sides
of the doubled flap. Instead of making a tongue on only one of the sides of
the doubled piece entering or protruding through a hole in the other, a
tongue may be made on each side of the said piece, each of the said
tongues being made to enter or protrude through a hole in the side opposite
to that in which the tongue is formed. The single piece is the same in this
modification as in the improvement previously described, excepting that the
hole is somewhat larger. The action of this fastening is the same as that of
the fastening first described. Where the ends of the band or article to be
fastened are broad, several of the fastenings described may be formed side by
side so as to form a broad fastening, in which several tongues in one piece
engage in a series of holes in the other piece. The shape of the holes and
tongues, as well as that of the sides or flaps, may be varied without departing
from the nature of my Invention.