IMPROVE- MENTS IN THE CONSTRUCTION AND ORNAMENTATION OF BELT OR BAND FASTENINGS
Year: 1856

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to John Skirrow Wright, of Birmingham, in the
County of Warwick, Manufacturer, for the Invention of "IMPROVE-
MENTS IN THE CONSTRUCTION AND ORNAMENTATION OF BELT OR BAND
FASTENINGS."
Sealed the 30th September 1856, and dated the 17th April 1856.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said John Skirrow Wright at
the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on
the 17th April 1856.
I, JOHN SKIRROW WRIGHT, of Birmingham, in the County of Warwick,
Manufacturer, do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for "Iм-
PROVEMENTS IN THE CONSTRUCTION AND ORNAMENTATION OF BELT OR BAND FASTEN-
INGS," to be as follows:-
My improvements in manufacturing belt or band fastenings consist, firstly,
in making the same reversible; that is to say, I finish botli sides of the fasten-
ing in such a manner that either side may be turned outwards, instead of
making the said fastening with a front and back, as is commonly practised.
My improvements consist, secondly, in the following addition to the ordinary.
band fastening, namely, on that part of the fastening called the hook, 1 forin
a tongue, the said tongue being attached to, the edge of the head of the hook,

page_text: and parallel or nearly so to the neck of the hook. When the hook is inserted
into the eye it is passed so far through the said eye that the said tongue
passes the inner edge of the eye; on bringing the hook and eye into the
same plane for the purpose of fastening them together, the tongue passes over
the edge of the eye, and preserves the eye from rising up or "gaping," as
in the ordinary fastening.
My improvements in the ornamentation of belt or band fastenings consist
in the application of papier mâché, leather, textile fabrics, coloured or
enamelled, tin plate, zinc, or tinned zinc, and galvanic deposits, to the said
fastenings. I ornament the said fastenings by applying the materials and.
articles enumerated to form the outer surface of the said fastenings. I some-
times apply the said materials and articles by enclosing them in a rim or
between the back, and a fancy border on the belt or band fastening.
FSHERY
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said John Skirrow Wright in the Great Seal Patent Office on
the 13th October 1856.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, JOHN
SKIRROW WRIGHT, of Birmingham, in the County of Warwick, Manufacturer,
send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Seventeenth day of April, in the year of our
Lord One thousand eight hundred and fifty-six, in the nineteenth year of Her
reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto me, the
said John Skirrow Wright, Her special licence that I, the said John Skirrow
Wright, my executors, administrators, and assigns, or such others as I, the said
John Skirrow Wright, my 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 makė,
use, exercise, and vend, within the United Kingdom of Great Britain and
Ireland, the Channel Islands, and Isle of Man; an Invention for "IMPROVE-
MENTS IN THE CONSTRUCTION 'AND' ORNAMENTATION OF BELT OR BAND FASTENINGS,"
upon the condition (amongst others) that I, the said John Skirrow Wright,
my executors or administrators, by an instrument in writing under my,
or their, or one of their hands and seals, should particularly describe and
ascertain the nature of the said Invention, and in what manner the same was

page_text: to be performed, and cause the same to be filed in the Great Seal Patent
Office within six calendar months next and immediately after the date of
the said Letters Patent.
NOW KNOW YE, that I, the said John Skirrow Wright, do hereby declare.
the nature of the said Invention, and in what manner the same is to be
performed, to be particularly described and ascertained in and by the follow-
ing statement thereof, that is to say :-
My Invention consists, firstly, in making belt or band fastenings reversible..
This part of my Invention is illustrated in Figures 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 8, and 9 of
the accompanying Drawing.
Figure 1 represents, in elevation, the middle part of a belt fastening made.
reversible, according to my Invention. The annular part a is made of two
stamped shells, one of which is represented separately in Figure 2, the said
Figure 2 representing the inner side of the shell. The two shells may bo
fastened together by rivets at 6, or otherwise. The central piece or ornament
c, Figure 1, is connected with the ring a by means of pins situated at opposite
points on its edge engaging in the collars or bearings d, d, Figure 2. The
piece c may be turned so as to present either of its faces outwards; the two
faces of the piece c may be differently ornamented.
Figure 3 represents separately, in front and edge view, the piece c, Figure 1.
The middle part of the fastening may be connected with the sides e, f, in the-
following manner :-One of the sides e is provided with a button and
neck h; the said neck is dropped into the collar i, and constitutes a swivel
joint. The side f, besides turning in the ring a, is made to engage therewith
and disengage therefrom, according to their relative positions, and so as to
effect the fastening and unfastening of the belt or band; this is effected by.
the cross piece k, which enters a slit in the edge of the ring, as will be under-
stood by reference to Figure 4, which represents the ring a in edge views,
taken from the sides i and 7, Figure 2, respectively. The slit in which the
cross piece k enters is marked in Figure 4. So long as the side f is in the
same plane as the ring a, the said side f is engaged with the ring, but when
the said side f is brought into a plane at right angles to the plane of the ring a
the said side may be disengaged from the said ring. By the method of con-
struction I have described each of the several parts of the fastening may be
reversed independently of the others, that is to say, either the ring a, centre c,
or sides e, f, may be reversed without reversing the other parts. But I do
not limit myself to this method of construction, as my Invention may be
carried into effect in various other ways; for example, the centre c may be
reversible in the ring a, the said ring not being reversible, or the ring a having

page_text: a fixed centre may be reversible. This part of my Invention, that is to say,
making the fastening reversible, may be applied to the ordinary belt fastening,
and to belt fastenings in general. In making the ring a, I sonietimes use
solid metal instead of two shells, as described. In this case I stamp the ring a
from solid metal in a pair of dies, so as: to raise an ornament on both sides,
and thus permit of either side being presented outwards.; I.also apply the same
method of manufacture to the sides e, f, Figure 2, as well as to the sides of
other belt or band fastenings, such, for example, as that represented in Figure 5,
that is to say, I make the sides e, f, Figure 2, and the sides m, n, Figure 5;
of solid metal stamped in a pair of dies, or of two shells joined together, so as
to have a raised ornamental surface on both sides.
My Invention consists,-secondly, of the improvement in or addition to belt
or band fastenings, illustrated in Figures 6 and 7, the object of the said
improvement or addition being the prevention of the "gaping" which the
ordinary belt fastening exhibits.
.
Figure 6 represents separately the two parts of a fastening constructed:
according to my Invention, and Figure 7 represents the two parts connected.,
The fastening, Figures 6. and 7, differs from the ordinary fasteninga only.in
having the tongues o, p, on the edge of the ring q, as represented. When
the part is engaged with the part 2 the disc't engages under the tongues o, p,
and has less tendency to rise out of the plane of the ring 9 or "gape" than
when the tongues o, p, are not used. Instead of two tongues o, p, one tongue.
only may be employed, as represented at p', Figure 11.
Figure 8 represents another method of constructing a belt fastening, accord
ing to my Invention, the said fastening having no tendency to "gape." The
part or hook u is introduced into the eyev by inclining the said eye v to
the hook u. When the sides u, w; are brought parallel after the introduction:
of the hook into the eye, the said hook lies upon the centre part x,
in the:
position indicated by dotted lines.. The hook u is made in the manner illus-.
trated in Figure 9, which represents a section of the said hook through the
line y, Figure 8. The cross piece z and the neck 1 are made in two pieces,
the said cross' piece being connected with the neck 1 by the end of the latter
being turned round the contracted part of the former, as represented at 2.
The neck cross piece and junction are indicated by the same letter and figures
in Figure 8 as in Figure 9.. The cross piece z may be made ornamental on:
both sides either by being stamped in a pair of dies or otherwise, and is rever-
sible; the mobility of the said cross piece z causes it to lie flat on the
centre when the parts a, u, are not in the same plane. The cross piece

page_text: may be made of one piece. with the, hook, or be made separately and rivetted
or fixed thereto.
- C
:
Figure 12 represents another method of preventing the "gaping." of the
parts of a belt fastening... A bar 7 is fixed, as represented, across the eye, and
a staple 8 is attached to the under side of the book. When the eye, is passed
through the hook the staple 8 is made, to engage with the .bar:7, as will be
understood by an inspection of the. section. The eye is by this: method of
construction prevented from "gaping."
My Invention consists, thirdly, in ornamenting belt or band fastenings by
the use of papier mâché, leather, textile fabrics; coloured.or. enamelled, tin
plate, zinc, or tinned zinc, and galvanic deposits. I apply the materials and
articles enumerated in any convenient manner, but, by preference, by the
method illustrated in the frout view and section of part of a belt fastening,
represented in Figure 10. 4 is a sheet of inlaid papier mâché, or other orna-
mental material or article; 5 is the back of the fastening; and 6, an ornamental
rim, between which and the back 5 the papier mâché or other ornamental
material is held. The parts 5, and 6 may be held together by rivetting or
otherwise. The piece 4 may consist of a galvanic deposit, that is, of a copy of
a medallion, or sculptured gem, or other work of art made by electro-deposition.
Ornaments stamped or raised in tin plate, or tinned zinc, or plain or orna-
mental leather or textile fabrics, may be inserted in similar manner to that
described with reference to the papier mâché 4. The said papier mâché 4
may be ornamented by inlaid shell, or by any other method applicable to
the ornamenting of papier mâché. Instead of inlaying shell first on papier
mâché and then inserting the inlaid papier mâché, as represented in Fi-
gure 10, I sometimes dispense with the papier mâché, and inlay the shell
or ornamental substance by means of varnish or japan directly upon the metal
of which the fastening is made.
Having now described the nature of my said Invention, and the manner
of carrying the same into effect, I wish it to be understood that I do not
limit myself to the precise details herein described and represented, as the
same may be varied without departing from the nature of my said Invention;
but I claim as my Invention,-
Firstly, making the belt or band fastenings and the parts of belt fastenings
herein described with reference to Figures 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 8, and 9 of the
accompanying Drawing, reversible, that is to say, giving to both sides of the
said fastenings and parts of fastenings an ornamental figure, so that either side
when worn outwards presents an ornamental appearance.
Secondly, the methods of constructing belt or band fastenings, herein

page_text: described, and illustrated in Figures 6, 7, 8, 9, 11, and 12 of the accompanying
Drawing, so as to prevent the "gaping" of the same.
Thirdly, ornamenting belt or band fastenings by the use of papier mâché,
whether inlaid or plain, leather, and textile fabrics, coloured or enamelled, tin
plate, zinc, or tinned zinc, and galvanic deposits; also ornamenting belt or
bánd fastenings by inlaying the same, as herein described, and illustrated in
Figure 10 of the accompanying Drawing..
In witness whereof, I, the said John Skirrow Wright, have hereunto set
my hand and seal, this Ninth day of October, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and fifty-six.
Witness,
GEORGE SHAW.
JOHN SKIRROW WRIGHT. (L.S.)