US2183994A - Key holder - Google Patents

Description

INVENTOR M BY M ATTORNEY Patented Dec. 19, 1939 j ATES KEY HQLDER Albert W. Lindquist, Edgewood, R. L, assignor to Freeman Doughaday Company, a corporation of Rhode Island Application December 27, 1938, Serial No. 247,853

2 Claims.

My present invention relates to the jewelry art, and has particular reference to a novel constructlon for a key holder.

It is the principal object of my invention to pro- 5 vi e a key holder having a small number of parts,

which can be easily manufactured at low cost.

a of stamped resilient material, and which has no auxiliary springs or other working parts.

With the above and other objects and advantageous features in view, my invention consists of a novel arrangement of parts more fully disclosed in the detailed description following, in conjunction with the accompanying drawing, and more specifically defined in the claims appended thereto.

In drawing:

Fig. l is a plan View of the novel key holder construction;

Fig. 2 is a side view thereof; and

Fig. 3 is a plan view of the key holder blank.

It has been found desirable to provide a key ring construction which does not utilize auxiliary 25 springs or telescoping parts, and which is preferably made of a single piece of resilient metal, whereby there are no auxiliary parts to become loose or distorted, and whereby the entire cost of manufacture is greatly reduced.

Referring to the drawing, the novel keyring construction includes a heart-shaped base it! made of spring material and having two sides II and it. which incline towards each other to provide a key guide opening it, the inwardly directed ends i i and it positioned in contiguous and substantially touching relation to provide a barrier against withdrawal of a key. The base of the keyring may be of any desired form, but preferabiy heart shaped to provide a straight centi portion which is preferably indented as indicated at it to permit locking engagement, as by clamping", with a connecting member [8 of standard construction, which has an end loop 19 to which the keyring chain 29 is attached.

The above construction utilizes a single keyring base which may be made of stamped material, or may be made of spring wire, the two sides being resiliently urged towards each other so as to retain the contiguous ends thereof in close adjacency. When a key is inserted into the guideway between the two ends, the sides of the key will force the two ends apart so as to permit passage therethrough, and the ends will then come together again as soon as the opening in the key is reached,

whereupon the key may be strung on one side or the other. To remove the key, the key is again brought up to the upper end of the keyring, and is again forced downwardly into the guideway, the two sides then separating to permit movement of the key head into the open space of the keyring and thus allow removal of the key from the keyring.

The entire construction therefore includes a one-piece base, which performs all the functions or" a keyring, these functions being accomplished by the inherent resilience of the two sides, the key chain being attached to the lower end of a closure member secured to the base. Although the illustrated keyring is heart-shaped, any other desired shape may be utilized, the essential feature of the invention consisting in utilizing a one-piece base, having a large central opening, which has two side arms with their ends in close adjacency and adapted to be separated and to return to their original position because of their resilience.

While I have described a specific constructional embodiment of my invention, it is obvious that changes in the size, in the material used for the parts, and in the arrangement of the parts, may be made to suit the requirements for different keyring designs, without departing from the spirit and the scope of the invention as defined in the appended claims.

I claim:

1. In a key holder, an integral, one-piece heartshaped base having two arms spaced to provide an opening and resiliently urged towards each other, the arms having their ends extending towards each other to form a key-guide passage, and then towards the opening and into close adjacency to form a closure for said opening, said arms being integrally connected by a narrow, straight, horizontal portion with shoulders, and a connecting member having an end loop interlocked to said horizontal portion.

2. In a key holder, an integral, one-piece heartshaped base stamped from resilient sheet stock having two arms spaced to provide an opening and resiliently urged towards each other, the arms having their ends extending towards each other to form a key-guide passage, and then towards the opening and into close adjacency to form a closure for said opening, said arms being integrally connected by a narrow, straight, horizontal portion with shoulders, and a connecting member having an end loop interlocked to said horizontal portion.

ALBERT W. LINDQUIST.

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