IMPROVEMENTS IN LOCKETS, PENDANTS, BROOCHES, AND OTHER ARTICLES OF JEWELLERY
Year: 1872

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by George Swain at the Office
of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the 2nd
December 1872.
.I, GEORGE SWAIN, of Birmingham, in the County of Warwick,
Manufacturing Jeweller, do hereby declare the nature of the said
Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN LOCKETS, PENDANTS, BROOCHES, AND OTHER
ARTICLES OF JEWELLERY," to be as follows:-
My Invention consists in fastening the jointed halves or parts, and
throwing open the said jointed halves or parts of lockets, brooches, and
other articles of jewellery by the construction and arrangements of parts
herein-after described, whereby the mechanism for throwing open and
fastening the parts of the said articles is much simplified.
I will describe my Invention as applied to a locket the halves or parts
of which are jointed together at their ends. At the upper end of one
half of the locket a push piece or slide is situated, the said push piece or
slide working under the rim or flange on the inner edge of the half of
the locket; the eye through which the suspending ring of the locket is
passed, may be made in one piece with the push piece or slide; in this
case the slide serves both to fasten the locket and to suspend the locket.
In the said push piece or slide is a hole the inner edge of one side of

page_text: which is bevilled or inclined. The back or inner end of the push piece
or slide is expanded, and against the expanded part the free end of a
curved wire spring bears; the said spring is situated under and is
concealed by the inner rim or flange of the locket. On the inner edge
of the other half of the locket is a projecting hook or catch.
When one of the halves of the locket is closed upon the other half, the
hook or catch on one half bears against the inclined edge of the hole of
the push piece or slide on the other half, and on entering the said hole
presses the push piece or slide inwards. When the halves of the locket
have been completely closed the push piece or slide is urged outwards by
its spring and made to snap upon the hooked end of the catch; the
halves of the locket are thereby securely fastened together. To unfasten
the locket the push piece or slide is pressed inwards so as to disengage it
from the hook of the catch, when the said catch can pass through the
hole in the push piece or slide and unfasten the locket. I make that
end of the wire spring of the fastening situated near the joint of the
locket in the form of an arm or lifting piece turned nearly at right
angles to the other part of the spring; the said arm or lifting piece of
the spring works in a recess made in the inner flange of the half of the
locket, the said recess permitting of a slight play of the said arm or.
lifting piece therein. When the locket is closed one of the halves of the
locket near the joint bears against the arm or lifting piece of the spring
and presses it inwards or towards the middle of the locket. When the
locket is released by the action of the slide the said arm or lifting piece
in recovering its normal figure presses or throws back the half of the
locket against which it, bears and thereby completely opens the locket;
thus the locket is unfastened and thrown back when the push piece or
slide is pressed inwards.
The arrangements described for fastening and lifting or throwing open
the locket may be used in combination or separately.
In applying my Invention to pendants, brooches, bracelets, and other
articles of jewellery, I construct and arrange the parts substantially in
the manner described with respect to a locket.