Improvement
Year: 1894

page_text: Date of Application, 1st Dec., 1894
Complete Specification Left, 30th July, 1895-Accepted, 14th Sept., 1895
Improvement LL
1 JOHN RICHARD GREEN, trading as Plant and Green, of Warstone Button
Works, Warstone Lane, Birmingham in the County of Warwick Button Manu-
facturer do hereby declare the nature of this invention to be as follows :-
:-
My invention has reference to such bodkins as consist of two spring blades or
jaws and a slide or pusher working in longitudinal slots in the said blades or jaws,
the movement of the slide towards the unconnected ends of the spring blades or
jaws closing the said jaws and causing then to grip the tape, ribbon or the like
between them.
My invention has for its object so to construct the bodkin that its jaws when
closed for gripping the tape or ribbon are practically flat and that its slide or pusher
projects but little from the jaws whereby the bodkin is capable of being readily
passed through a smaller hole than bodkins of this class as ordinarily made.
This object I effect by making the bodkin in the following manner.
I take a blank or strip of sheet brass steel or other elastic metal or alloy made
preferably slightly narrower at its middle than at its ends. In the wider parts of
the blank or strip, longitudinal slots or piercings are made for the slide or pusher
to work in, and those faces of the extreme ends of the strip, which in the finished
bodkin are presented to each other, are preferably jagged or toothed for the better
gripping of the tape or ribbon held by the bodkin. The slotted and jagged or
toothed strip is folded at its middle and those parts below the slots are compressed
closely together. The body of the bodkin, consisting of two flat spring blades or
jaws, jagged or toothed on their inner faces at their extreme gripping ends, is thus
made and is ready to receive the slide or pusher by the motion of which the jaws
are opened and closed.
The blank from which I make the slide or pusher consists of two connected discs
made from sheet metal and provided with a middle rib on one face, the rib passing
under the connecting crossing web of the two connected discs. By means of the
rib the slide is so strenghened that it can be inade from very thin sheet metal. The
slide or pusher blank, while in the flat, is passed through the coincident slots in
the spring jaws of the bodkin and after one of the discs has been passed through
the slots, both discs are turned down upon the outer faces of the spring jaws of the
bodkin so as to form the slide or pusher. When the slide has been thus secured
to the bodkin the connecting web and the strengthening rib occupy the slots in the
spring jaws, and the discs of the slide consequently only project from the faces of
the jaws to the extent of their thinnest parts, thereby making the slide or pusher
practically of the same thickness as the Hat spring jaws when in their closed or
gripping position.
In order to assist in preventing the ribbed slide turning in the slots, its ends may
be provided with bent or turned in projections, which enter and cross the slots and
thus act both as guides to the slide and prevent the latter turning in the slots.
When the slide is moved towards the jagged or toothed ends of the spring jaws,
they close upon one another and grip the end of the tape or ribbon between them,
the flat closed or gripping ends of the jaws having a thickness little exceeding that
of the two iaws.

page_text: Although I prefer to jag or serrate the inner gripping faces of the spring jaws,
yet the gripping faces may be left plain or without jags or teeth.
Dated this First day of December 1894.
W. T. WHITEMAN,
Agent for the Applicant.
Improvements in Bodkins.
I, JOHN RICHARD GREEN, trading as Plant and Green, of Warstone Button
Works, Warstone Lane, Birmingham, in the County of Warwick, Button Manu-
facturer, do hereby declare the nature of my invention and in what manner the
same is to be performed to be particularly described and ascertained in and by
the following statement :-
My invention has reference to such bodkins as consist of two spring blades or
jaws and a slide or pusher working in longitudinal slots in the said blades or jaws,
the movement of the slide towards the unconnected ends of the spring blades or
jaws closing the said jaws and causing them to grip the tape, ribbon or the like
between them.
My invention has for its object so to construct the bodkin that its jaws when
closed for gripping the tape or ribbon are practically flat and that its slide or pusher
projects but little from the jaws, whereby the bodkin is capable of being readily
passed through a smaller hole than bodkins of this class as ordinarily made.
This object 1 effect by making the bodkin in the following manner.
I take a blank or strip of sheet brass, steel or other elastic metal or alloy made
preferably slightly narrower at its middle than at its ends. In the wider parts of
the blank or strip, longitudinal slots or piercings are made for the slide or pusher
to work in, and those faces of the extreme ends of the strip, which in the finished
bodkin are presented to each other, are jagged or toothed for the better gripping
of the tape or ribbon held by the bodkin. The slotted and jagged or toothed strip
is folded at its middle and those parts below the slots are compressed closely
together. The body of the bodkin, consisting of two. Hat spring blades or jaws,
jagged or toothed on their inner faces at their extreme gripping ends, is thus made
and is ready to receive the slide or pusher by the motion of which the jaws are
opened and closed.
The blank from which I n.ake the slide or pusher consists of two connected
discs made from sheet metal or drawn from wire and provided with a middle rib on
one face, the rib passing under the connecting crossing web of the two connected
discs. By means of the rib the slide is so strengthened that it can be made very
thin on the flat parts of the discs. The slide or pusher blank is passed through
the coincident slots in the spring jaws of the bodkin and after one of the discs has
been passed through the slots, both discs are turned down upon the outer faces of
the spring jaws of the bodkin so as to form the slide or pusher. When the slide
has been thus secured to the bodkin, the connecting web and the strengthening rib
occupy the slots in the spring jaws, and the discs of the slide consequently only
project from the faces of the jaws to the extent of their thinnest parts, thereby
making the slide or pusher practically of the same thickness as the flat spring jaws
when in their closed or gripping position.
When the slide is moved towards the jagged or toothed ends of the spring jaws
they close upon one another and grip the end of the tape or ribbon between them,
the flat closed or gripping ends of the jaws having a thickness little exceeding that
of the two jaws.
Figure 1 of the accompanying drawing represents in side elevation and plan a
bodkin made according to my invention and Figure 2 represents the same after the
slide or pusher has been applied to it.

page_text: a, b are the two nearly parallel spring blades or jaws of the bodkin connected at
one end, and c, c is the disc like ribbed slide or pusher working in the coincident
longitudinal slots d, d in the said blades or jaws, the movement of the slide towards
the unconnected or gripping ends of the spring blades or jaws a, b as represented
in Figure 2, closing the said jaws and causing them to grip the tape, ribbon or the
like between them. The inner faces of the extreme ends of the spring blades or
jaws a,
bare jagged or toothed at e as represented for the better gripping of the
tape or ribbon held between them. The bodkin thus constructed when its jaws are
closed for gripping the tape or ribbon, is practically flat and its slide or pusher,
constructed as hereinafter described, projects but little from the jaws so that the
bodkin is capable of being readily passed through a smaller hole than ordinary
bodkins of this class.
In making the flat spring blades or jaws of the bodkin Figure 1 I proceed as
follows; I take a strip or blank of sheet brass, steel or other elastic metal or alloy
of the kind represented in Figure 3 and pierce in its wider parts, the longitudin al
slots or piercings d, d as represented in Figure 4, for the slide or pusher to work in.
The pierced or slotted blank Figure 4 is next jagged or toothed near its extreme
ends at e and on those faces which are presented to each other in the finished
bodkin as represented in Figure 5. The slotted and jagged or toothed strip or
blank Figure 5 is next, first, bent or folded at its middle into the form represented
in Figure 6 and the folded parts afterwards brought parallel to one another so as to
form them into flat spring blades or jaws as represented in Figure 1, which spring
blades or jaws are now ready to receive the ribbed slide or pusher c.
In making and applying the ribbed slide or pusher c 1 proceed as follows;-
I form by a drawing operation from wire or by rolling from sheet metal, a strip
of the kind represented in the enlarged view Figure 7, the said strip having at the
middle of one of its faces a longitudinal rib f. From the ribbed strip Figure 7,
I cut out at a press, slide or pusher blanks of the kind represented in Figure 8, the
said blank consisting of two discs c, c with a middle rib, (having either straight
or tapering sides) on their underfaces. By providing the pusher blank with a rib f
as represented, the slide or pusher is so strengthened that it can be made very thin
on the flat parts of the discs or those parts situated external to the faces of the
spring blades or jaws. By a pressing process the slide or pusher blank is bent into
the arched form represented in Figure 9. The slide Figure 9 is now ready to be
applied to the spring jaws of the bodkin in the manner represented in edge view
and cross section, drawn to a large scale, in Figure 10. The partly made slide
Figure 9 is passed edgewise through the coincident slots d, d in the spring jaws a, b
of the bodkin, and after the connecting web of the discs has crossed the slots, the
slide is turned through a quadraut as indicated in dotted lines in Figure 1, and
both discs are then closed upon the outer faces of the spring jaws, the connecting
web and strengthening rib under the discs passing into and occupying the slots d, d
in the spring jaws as best seen in the section Figure 10. The discs of the slide
consequently only project from the faces of the jaws to the extent of their thinnest
parts thereby making the slide or pusher practically of the same thickness as the
flat spring jaws of the bodkin when the said jaws are in their closed or gripping
position.
Having now particularly described and ascertained the nature of my invention
and in what manner the same is to be performed 1 declare that I claim as my
invention of "Improvements in bodkins";-
First. Forming the budkin of two flat or practically flat spring blades or jaws
by bending and fashioning a metallic strip of the kind described and illustrated,
that is, a strip having a slot near each end and jagged or toothed at each end, so that
the closed or gripping ends of the flat blades or jaws of the bodkin have a thick-
ness little exceeding that of the other parts of the said blades or jaws for the
purpose and substantially as herein before described and illustrated in the
accompanying drawing.

page_text: Secondly. Forming the opening and closing slides or pushers of spring jawed
bodkins of two connected discs provided with a middle strengthening rib on one
face, the connecting web of the discs and their strengthening rib occupying in the
finished bodkin the slots in the spring jaws for the purpose and substantially as
hereinbefore described and illustrated in the accompanying drawing.
Dated this Twenty-fourth day of July 1895.
JOHN RICHARD GREEN.