AN IMPROVED SPRING HOOK, CATCH, OR FASTENING
Year: 1858

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Alfred Nicholls, of Manchester, in the County of
Lancaster, Merchant, and Thomas Walker, of Birmingham, in the
County of Warwick, Clerk, for the Invention of "AN IMPROVED SPRING
HOOK, CATCH, OR FASTENING."
Sealed the 8th April 1859, and dated the 8th October 1858.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Alfred Nicholls and
Thomas Walker at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with
their Petition, on the 8th October 1858.
We, ALFRED NICHOLLS, of Manchester, in the County of Lancaster,
Merchant, and THOMAS WALKER, of Birmingham, in the County of Warwick,
Clerk, do hereby declare the nature of our said Invention for "AN IMPROVED
SPRING HOOK, CATCH, OR FASTENING," to be as follows:-
Our Invention consists in so shaping and arranging one piece of metal
(say, steel) as to act as a spring when doubled or bent about the middle,
and having the one end so formed as to lap slightly over the top or other
end, thereby making or forming a spring hook, catch, or fastening, which
may be applied as a spring hook and eye when employed in securing or
fastening wearing apparel, or for any other purpose. The one end of the
spring only requires to be slightly depressed from under the overlapping
end, when the spring hook will open for the passage of the eye.

page_text: SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent,
filed by the said Alfred Nicholls and Thomas Walker in the Great
Seal Patent Office on the 8th April 1859.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, we, ALFRED
NICHOLLS, of Manchester, in the County of Lancaster, Merchant, and TноMAS
WALKER, of Birmingham, in the County of Warwick, Clerk, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Eighth day of October, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and fifty-eight, in the twenty-second year of
Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto us,
the said Alfred Nicholls and Thomas Waiker, Her special license that we, the
said Alfred Nicholls and Thomas Walker, our executors, administrators, and
assigns, or such others as we, the said Alfied Nicholls and Thomas Walker,
our executors, administrators, and assigns, should at any time agree with,
and no others, from time to time and at all times thereafter during the term
therein expressed, should and lawfully might make, use, exercise, and vend,
within the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, the Channel
Islands, and Isle of Man, an Invention for "AN IMPROVED SPRING HOOK,
CATCH, OR FASTENING," upon the condition, amongst others, that we, the said
Alfred Nicholls and Thomas Walker, or one of us, by an instrument in
writing under our hands and seals, or under the hand and seal of one of us,
should particularly describe and ascertain the nature of the said Inven-
tion, and in what manner the same was to be performed, and cause
the same to be filed in the Great Seal Patent Office within six calender
months next and immediately after the date of the said Letters Patent.
NOW KNOW YE, that I, the said Alfred Nicholls, do hereby declare
the nature of our said Invention, and in what manner the same is to be
performed, to be particularly described and ascertained in and by the
following statement and accompanying Drawings (that is to say):-
Our Invention consists in so shaping and arranging one piece of metal (say,
steel) to act as a spring when doubled or bent about the middle, and having
the one end so formed as to lap slightly over the other end, thereby making or
forming a spring hook, catch, or fastening, which improved fastening is more
particularly applicable as a spring hook and eye when combined and employed
in securing or fastening wearing apparel, such as dresses, gloves, boots, braces,
under clothing, and stays or corsets, or for other similar domestic purposes
requiring a secure fastening, such as hooks and eyes for hanging curtains, &c.
In unfastening the catch or hook the one end of the spring only requires to be

page_text: slightly depressed from under the overlapping end, when the spring hook
will open for the passage of the eye.
In order that the Invention may be better understood and explained in
detail, we have hereunto annexed a Sheet of Drawings illustrative of the same,
Fig. 1 is a perspective view of the hook and eye when fastened, that is, the eye
enclosed or linked in the hook; and Fig. 2 shews the spring portion of the
hook depressed and ready to receive the eye. The improved hook and eye, as
shewn, is made of plate metal stamped or cut to the required form in a flat
blank (as seen in Fig. 3), and afterwards turned or shaped, so that one end
shall overlap the other or spring, and thereby form an endless link or hook,
which cannot become unfastened by accident, but requires the spring to be
depressed into an inclined plane to allow the eye to be unhooked or released.
This is the method we prefer for the manufacture of the said hook and eye,
but it may also be made in other manners, such as of wire bent and arranged
into the required form, or otherwise. In Figs. 1 and 2, a is the spring
hook formed or composed of one piece of metal, 1 being the spring tongue,
which is overlapped by the end 2 to form the joint at the disunion of the
link or hook; and 3 is the back or portion secured upon the article to
which the hook and eye is to be applied; 6 is an eye of the ordinary con-
struction to be used in combination with the spring hook.
Having now described the nature of the said Invention, together with
the method of performing the same, we would remark, in conclusion, that
we are aware that a spring hook of a similar character is at present extant,.
and has been employed for several purposes, we therefore do not claim the
particular form or shape of the spring hook; but we claim the novel and
particular application of the spring hook or catch when combined with an
ordinary eye and employed to fasten or secure articles of wearing apparel
for both sexes, or as applied to certain domestic uses, as in hanging cur-
tains or other "furnitures."
In witness whereof, I, the said Alfred Nicholls, have hereunto set my
hand and seal, this Fifth day of April, in the year of our Lord One
thousand eight hundred and fifty-nine.
ALFRED NICHOLLS. (L.s.)