US2178055A - Jewelry - Google Patents

Description

JEWELRY Filed April 28, 1938 fa HHHHIIII- I 35 l I IIIIIIIHI HII INVENTOR 9 23 k Zlj ATTORNEY Oct. 31, 1939. L. K. STUPELL JEWELRY Filed April 28, 1938 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 INVENTOR. Zea l1. lizgveZZ 115,3" ATTORNEY.

Patented Get. 31, 1939 UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE Claims.

The subject of this invention is ornamental jewelry, and the invention deals, more particularly, with that type of jewlery in which an ornamental or significatory component is de- 5 tachably carried by a suitable mount. This mount is usually one equipped with prongs for attaching the complete article to a lady's handbag, a piece of luggage or the like, or having eyes or hooks for chain-suspension as in a mans tieclasp, or provided with a hinged-pin and keeper as in a lady's brooch.

The method of attachment of the ornamentmount to any desired support is immaterial so far as the present invention is concerned.

The special utility toward which the present invention is directed, that is, the field of usefulness for the invention now deemed to be a special one, is that of providing a novel and valuable combination including a mount, a plurality of selectively and interchangeably assemblable ornamental or significatory elements, and means for mounting these elements on said mount in such manner that any desired combination of said elements can be thus interengaged, and practically instantaneously and without the use of heat or special or indeed any tools, and if need be easily demounted when intended, yet normally maintained on the mount without any chance of casual or accidental disengagement -from nicely prevised locations thereon.

The paramount utility of the invention, as the same is now appraised, and this in a special field, is when the ornamental elements are letters of the alphabet, and so arranged on and combined with the mount as to display a persons initials, either non-overlappingly adjacent each other, or somewhat lapped over each other as in so-called monograms. In order to adopt inclusive language, and for purposes of brevity, any and all ornamental or significatory elements which are or could be used with advantage according to the principle of the present invention, whether initials or not, will hereinafter be called initials.

I The initials of the present invention can be of any suitable material or materials; sheet metal being preferably used, so that they can be readily one or more bars or slot-framing members which are resilient.

Essential'features of the present invention include amount characterized by one or more slot-frames so constructed that a bar-like member constituting a frame-side, or an equivalent beam-member, is resilient, that is, elastically deformable, by a bowing or arching of such beammember along its length and between its opposite ends or roots and induced by a camor wedge-action. This wedge-action is efiectuated by one or more suitable projections (hereinafter for convenience called a lug) offset from the back of the initial. The described resiliency of the one or more beam-members of the mount, and a cooperant shaping of the one or more lugs carried by the initial for contributing said wedgeaction, combine to form the sole mounting means of the invention as between any initial and the mount to carry the same or to carry the same and a plurality of its fellows.

In carrying out the invention, the preferably elongate and relatively narrow width frame opening either can be of rather considerable length, for the accommodation of the one or more lugs of more than one initial, or it can be relatively short; in which latter case there desirably would be as many'of. these openings, or slots, that is, as many integrated or joined frames, as the number of initials intended to be attached to the mount.

An important object of the present invention is to provide a, mount as a carrier for a plurality of separately made initials, for example a plurality ofinitials which are variously to overlap each other in order to obtain a monogram effect, and yeta mount so small and slenderized along the length of such monogram and located in a plane in rear of the monogram-plane, as to make the mount not only the most inconspicuous part of the entire article but apparently merely a slight and substantially invisible bar secured to the rear of the monogram and added solely for the purpose of carrying at its own rear pronglike or hinged-pin or other devices having to be present to allow securement of the complete article to any base or support desired. Otherwise stated, .a prime object of the present invention is to provide a means for selectively assembling and securely mounting various initials, practically instantaneously upon order of a customer, without having to use riveting or soldering, or such distortion of any part as to deform the same permanently (or other than negligibly when temporarily distorted, and at the same time to avoid the necessity, as to the particular collection of initials to be secured as a group on a single mount, of enclosing the terminal points of the initials or the perimetral bounds of the group of initials in a frame according to the teachings of U. S. patent to me No. 1,921,437.

Another particular object of the present invention is to provide a useful auxiliary, as a part of the mounting means between an initial (that is, more specifically, between that portion of an initial comprised of the one or more lugs carried thereby), and the slot-frame or frames of the mount. This auxiliary is a positioning means, partially carried by the slot or opening in the frame, and partially carried by the one or more lugs of the initial; and its function is to predetermine the exact location which the mounted initial will take when attached to the mount, where, as is desirable, the length of the frameopening or slot is greater than the length of the lug-equipment of the initial.

The invention, and the above and other of its various objects and advantages will be more clearly understood from the following description of certain of the now preferred embodiments of the invention, as these are shown (but merely by way of illustration and not by way of limitation) in the accompanying drawings.

In the drawings:

Fig. 1 is a front elevation of one embodiment.

Fig. 2 is a top plan view thereof.

Fig. 3 is an enlarged vertical section, taken on the line 3-3 of Fig. 1.

Fig. 4 is a rear elevation of one of the initials of Fig. 1.

Fig. 5 is, on what would ordinarily be a much enlarged scale, a front elevation of a mount differing from that of Fig. l inthat the former is composed of a plurality of slot-frames each having a fairly short slot, and the latter is a single frame having a long slot.

Fig. 6 is a view similar to Fig. 5, but showing the mount of Fig. 1, as the same would appear were the beam-members constituting the longer or top and bottom si es of the several slots doubly beveled as in Fig. 7, or singly beveled as in Fig. 13. v

Fig. 7 is an enlarged vertical section, taken on the line 1-! of Fig. 6.

Fig. 8 is in full lines a similar section through the lug of the initial; the frame of Fig. 7 being shown in dot-and-dash lines to indicate that the same and a lug of an initial can be dimensioned in such manner that the slot-frame is under tension during its mounting engagement with said lug.

Fig. 9 is a similar view, showing these parts in the engagement last referred to.

Fig. 1G is a view similar to Fig. '7, but showing said beam-members beveled from front to back of the mount.

Fig, 11 is a View similar to Fig. 8, showing in dot-and-dash lines beam-members of the slotframe bevelled as last described, and in full lines an initial-lug for coaction therewith to place the frame under tension during its mounting engagement with said lug.

12 is a view similar to Fig. 9, but with the parts of Figs. and 11 in engagement.

Fig. 13, also, is a view similar to Fig. 7, but showing said beam-members beveled from back to front of the mount.

Fig. 14 is a view similar to Fig. 8, showing in dot-and-dash lines beam-members of the slotframe beveled as in Fig. 13, and in full lines an initial-lug for coaction therewith to place the frame under tension during its mounting engagement with said lug.

Fig 15 is a view similar to Fig. 9, but with the parts of Figs. 13 and 14, in engagement.

Fig. 16 is a view similar to Fig. 1, but showing another embodiment, and one which varies, among other ways, from the embodiment of Fig. l, in that an initial-lug, and a cooperant slotframe of the mount, are so constituted that while a beam-member is momentarily placed under tension during mounting of the initial, such ten sion is relieved following conclusion of the mounting operation.

Fig. 17 is a top plan view of the embodiment of Fig. 16.

Fig. 18 is an enlarged vertical section, taken fragmentarily along the line hil8 of Fig. 16, showing the initial-lug and a slot-frame in the relation last described, that is, with the initial secured or coupled to the mount but with the beam-members of the latter relieved of tension.

Fig, 19 is a top plan view, on what would ordinarily be a much enlarged scale, of the mount of Fig. 16.

Fig. 20 is a front elevation of said mount.

21 is a View similar to Fig. 20, but showing the mount modified to include the aforesaid auxiliary, that is, the means for positioning an initial previsedly along the length of the mount incidental to attaching the initial to the mount.

Fig. 22 is an enlarged vertical section, taken on the line 2222 of Fig. 21.

Fig. 23 is a similar view, but showing an initial engaged with the mount.

Fig, 24 is a view similar to Fig. l, but one wherein the mount is slotted as in Fig. 5, and illustrating a modification wherein the lug-equipment of an initial is comprised of a plurality of lugs.

Fig. 25 is a rear elevation of one of the initials of Fig. 24.

Fig. 26 is a view similar to Fig. 19, but illustrating a variation of mount whereby various initials selected for securement thereto can be overlapped, so as to make a monogram, but differently overlapped than as in Fig. 17 yet so as to lie in planes parallel to the plane of the mount instead of inclined thereto as in Fig. 2.

Fig. 27 is a View similar to Figs. 5 and 20, but showing another variation of mount wherein a pluralityv of initials, overlapped or not, can be placed at different levels across the mount.

Fig. 28 is a view similar to Fig. 7, but showing another modification.

Fig. 29 is also a view similar to Fig. '7, but showing still another modification.

In all the exemplifying forms of the invention selected for illustration in these drawings, it will be noted that each initial, shown here as of script style, is provided on its rear with a diminutive lug-equipment. In Figs. 1, 4, l6, 17, these lugs, marked 30, are shown single lugs. In Figs. 24 and 25, they are shown as plurally carried by the initials; in these illustrated cases each initial being shown as equipped with two lugs 31.

In all the said illustrative forms of the invention, the mount is shown as including one or more slots for taking the initial lugs.

In Figs. 1, 2, 3, and 6, and in Figs. 16, 1'7, 19 and 20, and also in Fig. 21, in- Fig. 26 and in Fig. 2'7, the mount marked is shown as provided with separate slots for the lug of each initial. On the other hand, in.Figs..5 and 24, forms of the invention are shown wherein the mount, marked 32, is provided with a single long slot for taking the lugs of all the initials to be assembled on the mount. At its rear the mount can be provided with any suitable attaching means, .this means in every case being illustrated as comprising a hinged-pin 33 and a keeper 34.

Referring to said slots, those of the form of the invention shown in Figs. 1, 2, 3 and 6 are marked 35; those of the form of the invention shown in Figs. 16, 19, 20 are marked 35a; those of the form of the invention shownin Fig. 21 are marked 35b; and those of the form of the invention shown in Fig. 27 are marked 35c.

Referring to the single-slot embodiments, the slot of Fig. is marked 35m; and the slot of Fig. 24 is marked 3511,.

The mount is most satisfactorily made of a strip of metal which is inherently elastic or resilient; such as spring brass (to be later usually silver, gold or chromium plated), or of a suitably resilient precious-metal alloy.

It will be noted that all the slots are subtended by top and bottom frame members, which are really beam-members, in that their opposite ends are roots since said ends mark the termini of two opposite sides of a unitary substantially rectangular frame structure enclosing a slot. Such a beam-member is shown, for instance, in Fig. 5

at 36m or 31m, in Fig. 6 at 36 or 31, in Fig. 20 at 360: or 37a, in Fig. 24 at 3% or 3171, and in Fig. 27 at 360 or 310.

Throughout the views,'an initial is marked N. Some of the various possible formations for the gripping edges of the beam-members parallelling the slots, as well also as some of the various possible coacting shapes for the lugs, both cross-sectionally thereof and heightwise thereof, are shown in the different views. Referring first to Figs. 3 and '7 through 9, these beam-member edges are shown as V-shaped or doubly beveled. They are shown as similarly so beveled also in Figs. 22 and 23. In Figs. through 12, they are shown as beveled in one direction relative to the front face of the mount; and in Figs. 13 through 15, they are shown also as singly beveled, but in the opposite direction. 1

The lugs, it will be noted, can be made so as to have their free ends substantially flush with "the rear face of the mount, or projected to any extent beyond such face, when an initial is in finally inserted position on the mount. In Figs. 9, 12, 23 and 28, the lugs do not project beyond the back of the mount; in Figs. 3, 15, 18 and 29, they do thus project.

Referring now to the aforesaid auxiliary, that is, to the means for automatically positioning an initial very accurately longitudinally of a slot, this is shown in Figs. 21 through 23, and in Fig.

27, and also in Figs. 28 and 29, as comprising a pair of recesses 38 or 39 in the beveled edges of the beam-members parallelling a slot. Desirably, these recesses are formed when the stock is punched to form the slot and shape of the mount;

. and, also desirably, these recesses are of the same length, and are substantially as long as the lugs in its dimension transverse to the initial, and they are vertically aligned, and formed in the front face of the mount. Thus what may be called a step or shoulder is formed at the top and bottom of the slot. As will be noted, particularly from Figs. 22 and 23, the lug is accommodatingly stepped or shouldered.

Although various forms of beveling for the beam-member edges are shown and have been described, such beveling is not necessarily em recommended that one or both of the faces of the slot be indented, and that the lug be provided with appropriate teats as indicated at 42.

Furthermore, according to the invention, and as has already been pointed out in the short descriptions of the views of the drawings, the invention can be carried out when the slot-enclosing frame is so constructed that, although it is momentarily placed under tension during mounting of an initial, such tension is relieved on completion of the mounting operation. An arrangement of this kind is illustrated in Fig. 18, and also in Fig. 29. In such case, it is desirable to have the free end of the lug so shaped as to constitute a special terminal cam or wedge for spreading the frame during entrance of the lug. As shown, this terminal lug formation is a rounded head marked 43 in Fig. 18 and 44 in Fig. 29. The initial is attached to the mount merely by forcing this head of the lug through the slot of the frame. Said head, acting as a wedge or cam, spreads the frame and holds it spread during passing of the head through the slot, and then, as the head passes beyond the slot, the frame, due to its inherent resiliency, springs back to reduce the slot to its normal width, which is merely substantially that of the shank portion of the lug between the lug-head and the back of the initial.

Other variations and modifications are possible within the scope of the invention as defined in the claims following, which, construed as broadly as is consistent with the prior art, are to be the sole measurers of the scope of protection contemplated. Any feature or features of one or more of the illustrated or other embodiments can be used without others. Anything shown in the drawings, as well as anything said in the foregoing speclfication, is to be taken in an illustrative sense only, and not by way of limitation.

I claim:

1. In an article of jewelry of the kind described, the combination of a mount having a slot-frame including two substantially bar-like resilient members constituting a pair of opposite sides for such frame; a plurality of selectively interchangeable initials; and means for mounting such an initial in a slot of the frame, such slot being an opening extending all the way through the frame from the front to the back thereof, and said means including a lug offset from the rear face of the initial and elongated in the direction of length of the slot and long enough to be sent all the way through said opening and having an enlarged portion thereof projected beyond the back of the frame, said enlarged lug portion constituting part of a means for locking the initial non-rockingly on the frame, said locking means being made effective by relative movement between said lug-portion and one of said bar-like 2. In an article of jewelry of the kind described,

the combination of a mount having a slot therein the form of an aperture therethrough bounded along a long side thereof by a resilient. beam 5- member included in a slot-frame carried by the mount; a plurality of selectively interchangeably assemblable initials; and means for mounting, such an initial in said slot and including a relatively diminutive lug on the back of the initial 0; shaped so as to be insertable into said slot against the resiliency of said beam-member and long to be sent all way through said aperthen to have a portion thereofv projected being so established as to constiof a means for locking the initial on a terminal portion of the lug being ng least one of said bar-like members to abnormal position during insertion of the lug said aperture as a consequence of such inn then by the automatic return of the "--lilre member last-mentioned to normal position clue to its cy.

3. The combination of claim 2, in which said frame opening is elongated in the general direction of greatest dimension of the frame, and said frame opening is partially bounded by a beammember resiliently yieldable to allow increase of the width of said opening, said beam-member at -.its edge facing the opening being thinned.

4. The combination of claim 2, in which said frame opening is elongated and relatively attenuated to constitute a mere slot, and said slot is partially bounded by a beam-member resiliently yieldable to allow increase of the width of the slot, said beam-member at its edge facing the slot having a bevel.

5. In combination, an initial-holder comprising a frame of resilient material having an opening; and an initial including a main body and a lesser body, said lesser body being a lug equipment carried on the rear face of the initial proper, said frame being of greater length than the maximum face dimension of said initial in one direction but of very much less width than the maximum face dimension of the initial in the opposite direction; and means for holding an initial. on and in front of the frame, said means comprising shapings partially carried by said lug equipment and partially carried by the frame, said opening being elongated to have a length several times its Width to constitute a slot, and said slot being lengthwisely subtended by a beam-member resiliently boivable to allow temporary increase of the slot width, said beam-member at its edge facing the slot being doubly beveled.

6. The combination of claim 2, in which said aperture is subtended by a beam-member resiliently archable and which beam-member is shoul- .dered along a length of its slot-facing edge.

'7. In combination, an initial-holder comprising a frame of resilient material having an opening; and an initial including a main body and a lesser body, said lesser body being a lug equipment carried on the rear face of the initial proper, said frame being of greater length than the maximum face dimension of said initial in one direction but of very much less width than the maximum face dimension of the initial in the opposite direction; and means for holding an initial on and in front of the frame, said means comprising shapings partially carried by said lug equipment and partially carried by the frame, there being an auxiliary positioning means provided for said lesser body of the initial, said means including a shouldering of said frame.

8. In combination, an initial-holder comprising a frame of resilient material having an opening; and an initial including a main body and a lesser body, said lesser body being a lug equipment carried on the rear face of the initial proper, said frame being of greater length than the maximum face dimension of said initial in one direction but of very much less width than the maximum face dimension of the initial in the opposite direction; and means for holding an initial on and in front of the frame, said means comprising shapings partially carried by said lug equipment and partially carried by the frame, there being an auxiliary positioning means provided for said lesser body of the initial, said means including a shouldering of said lesser body and a complementary recess in said frame at the front side thereof.

9. In combination, an initial-holder comprising a bar-like member; an initial including a main body and a lesser body, said lesser body being a lug equipmentcarried on the rear face of the initial proper, said bar-like member being of greater length than the maximum horizontal dimension of said initial; and means for holding the initial on and in front of the bar-like member, said bar-like member being of resilient material and having a slot going all the way through the same and elongated lengthwise thereof, said holding means being partially inclusive of the material of the bar-like member adjacent to the slot and being partially carried by said lug equipment the shape of a portion at the free end of the lug elongated in the direction of the length of the slot, said lug equipment being dimensioned and shaped for insertion through said slot, and said holding means also including a locking means made effective by relative movement between the part of the holding means carried by the lug equipment and a part of saidbar-like member adjacent to its slot.

10, In combination, an initial-holder comprising a bar-like member; an initial including main body and a lesser body, said lesser body being a lug equipment carried on the rear face of the initial proper, said bar-like member being of greater length than the maximum horizontal dimension of said initial; and means for holding the initial on and in front of the bar-like member, said bar-like member being of resilient material and having a slot going all the way through the same and elongated lengthwise thereof, said holding means being partially inclusive of the material of the bar-like member adjacent to the slot and being partially carried by said lug equipment in the shape of a portion at the free end of the lug elongated in the direction of the length of the slot, such locking being obtained by distortion of one of the two above-recited parts of said locking means relative to the other aboverecited part thereof incidental to insertion of said lug equipment through said slot, said lug equipment being shaped and dimensioned for insertion through said slot without injury to the bar-like member.

LEO K. STUPELL.

Images