NEW-INVENTED SPRING SHOE BUCKLES, MORE USEFUL AND CONVENIENT THAN THE BUCKLES NOW IN USE
Year: 1789

page_text: LAND
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, SAMUEL
HANDS, of Wirksworth, in the County of Derby, send greeting.
WHEREAS His most Excellent Majesty King George the Third, by His
Letters Patent under the Great Seal of Great Britain, bearing date at West-
minster, the Second day of May, in the twenty-ninth year of His reign, 'did
give and grant unto me, the said Samuel' Hands, my executors, adminis-
trators, and assigns, His especial licence that I, the said Samuel Hands, my:
executors, administrators, and assigns, during the term of years therein:
expressed, should and lawfully might make, use, exèrcise, and vend, within
England, Wales, and the Town of Berwick-upon-Tweed, my "NEW-INVENTED
SPRING SHOE BUCKLES, MORE USEFUL AND CONVENIENT THAN THE BUCKLES NOW IN
USE;" in which said Letters Patent there is contained a proviso obliging me, the
said Samuel Hands, under my hand and seal, to cause a particular description.
of the nature of my said Invention, and in what manner the same is to be
performed, 'to be inrolled in His Majestie's High Court of Chancery within
one calendar month next and immediately after the date of the said recited
Letters Patent, as in and by the same, relation being thereunto had, may.
more fully and at large appear."

page_text: NOW KNOW YE, that in compliance with the said proviso, I, the said
Samuel Hands, do hereby declare that my said Invention is described in the
manner following, that is to say:-
I cause some steel, iron, brass, or any elastic substance, to be cast,
pierced, forged, or drawn a suitable thickness to make a spring, which spring
may be made in a variety of forms, with few or many returns or doubles,
as Figures 1, 2, and 3. The single spring is made as described in Figure 1,
and the double spring is made with a joint at the bottom and a lock or catch
near the top, as described in Figures-2-and 3, so that the wearer may open
the spring at pleasure by unhooking the catch or touching the bolt a of the
said lock, which immediately releases the spring from its power of fastening,
and the shoe is instantly loose, and by pressing the spring together again
the wearer may fasten it at pleasure; and the ornamental part of the buckle,
which is fixed to the spring at the wearer's pleasure, may be made in any
form and shape whatever, of gold, silver, and all other metals, paper, glass,
horn, leather, or of any other substance, with or without a buckle rim, and
with or without straps, as the middle part may be japanned; but under each
buckle, roset, or ornament is fixed a slider, made of any metal, &c., just
wide enough to receive into it the middle part of the aforesaid elastic spring,
as described in Figure 4, which spring is fixed to the shoe either by having
the shoe straps turned in and sewed for the spring to be put in at pleasure,
or fastened in by tugs or spikes. The said spring may be worn with or
without the ornamental part of the buckle, and also with a slider only, to which
may be sewed or fastened bows, ribbands, or any other ornament, at the option
of the wearer. The buckles or ornaments may be made solid or pierced.
The slider also may be made solid, or by two or more cross barrs fastened
to the lower and upper part of the buckle or ornament. The springs also
may have the ornament or buckle fixed to them by a joint at one outside
of the spring, and a catch to close down on the other extreme side, but in
that case the spring cannot be worn without the ornament, but the springs
which are described in the margin may be worn with or without the ornament;
and to those springs that have neither tugs or spikes I cause the upper end
of the outside of the spring to be turned down a little to hook over the straps
of the shoe. The catch is turned with a joint at one end, fastened to one
side of the spring, and a hook at the other, see A, Figure 2, therefore is
fastened or loosed at pleasure. The lock is made as simple as possible, only
having a bolt and a spring to make it act, which lock is rivetted or fastened
to one side of the springs, see B, Figure 3, and a hook catch on the other

page_text: side, see C, Figure 3, which catch, when the spring is closed, enters into the
lock, the bolt springs back, and holds it fast till released by the wearer.
In witness whereof, I, the said Samuel Hands, have hereunto set my
hand and seal, this Thirtieth day of May, One thousand seven hundred
and eighty-nine.
AND BE IT REMEMBERED, that on the Thirtieth day of May, in the
year of our Lord 1789, the aforesaid Samuel Hands came before our said
Lord the King in His Chancery, and acknowledged the Specification aforesaid,
and all and every thing therein contained and specified, in form above written.
And also the Specification aforesaid was stampt according to the tenor of
the Statutes made for that purpose.
Tavelled the Th
1
Inselled the Thirtieth day of May, in the year of our Lord One thousand
seven hundred and eighty-nine.