US2192738A - Clasp - Google Patents

Description

March 5, 1940. .1. B. FREYSINGER ,7

CLASP Filed June 13, 1938 a "02mm L/OHN 5 EZEEYJ/NGEE Patented Mar. 5, 1940 at 'r FFlCE CLASP New Britain, Conn,

necticut a corporation of Con- Application June 13, 1938, Serial No. 213,305

3 Claims.

The present invention relates to clasps and more particularly to a clasp adapted to be used in combination with a suspender.

An object of the present invention is to provide a clasp which is relatively small and in which the over-all thickness is equivalent to the thicknesses of the jaws thereof.

A still further object is to provide manually operated means for closing said clasp; said means being adapted to lie in the plane of one of the jaws when in engaged position.

A still further object is a clasp which may be made from stamped metal with a minimum number of parts. is of pleasing appearance, and is both simple and economical to manufacture.

Other objects will be in part obvious and in part pointed out more indetail hereinafter.

The invention accordingly consists in the features of construction, combination of elements, and arrangement of parts which will be exemplified in the construction hereafter set forth and the scope of the application of which will be indicated in the appended claims.

In the accompanying drawing:

Figure 1 is a front View of one embodiment of the invention;

Fig. 2 is a side view of Fig. 1 with the clasp in closed position;

Fig. 3 is a side view of Fig. l with the clasp in open position;

Fig. 4 is a sectional View on the line L- l of Fig. 1;

Fig. 5 is a sectional view of the front jaw member of the clasp;

Fig. 6 is a fragmentary sectional view showing the pivotal connection between the jaw members;

Fig. 7 is a perspective enlarged view of the manually operable closing lever of the clasp;

Fig. 8 is a perspective view of a modified actuating lever; and

Fig. 9 is a sectional view of a clasp utilizing the lever of Fig. 8.

The invention comprises in general a pair of pivotally connected jaw members it and i2, spring means It normally urging the jaws to open position, and a manually operable means it for urging the jaws to closed position; said manually operable means being adapted to lie in the plane of and closely engage the periphery of the front jaw member when the clasp is closed.

The front jaw member Ill comprises a face plate it! having flanges 2! extending rearwardly from the side edges thereof and a flange 22 extending rearwardly from the lower edge thereof.

The rear jaw member I2 is similarly formed with side flanges 24 and a bottom flange 23, and as the rear jaw is slightly smaller than the front jaw the flanges thereon will lie within the flanges of the front jaw. The side flanges 2 of the rear jaw member are each provided with an out- 5' wardly turned pivot pin or trunnion 23 positioned approximately mid-way from the top and bottom edges thereof and adapted to be received within a pair of aligned openings 38 in the side flanges 20 of the front jaw member to pivotally connect the jaws together.

The jaws are normally urged to open position by the spring means Hi which may be made of a piece of strip steel bent to U shape and placed between the jaws in inverted position with one leg 32 engaging the rear surface of the face plate l8 of the front jaw member illadjacent the lower edge thereof and the other leg 3% engaging the rear surface of face plate i5 of the rear jaw member [2 adjacent the lower edge thereof. The spring is prevented from upward move" ment by a tongue 36 struck out and bent inwardly from the face plate [5 of the rear jaw member, thus maintaining the spring means i l in engagement with the jaw members beneath the pivot 28, whereby the jaws will be normally urged to open position.

The manually operable means for closing the jaws is stamped from a piece of metal into the form of an open rectangular frame with the top cross bar bent rearwardly from and at right angles to the side and bottom cross bars; the upper cross bar thus providing a transverse lever 38 having a rearwardly extending portion or camming arm 39 and reduced ends 4!! which are interconnected by the U-shaped member .12 com prising the side and cross bars of the frame member. The lever 38 is positioned rearwardly of face plate 13 of the front jaw member, with the reduced ends 40 thereof supported in and extending through a pair of aligned recesses at out out from the upper edge of the side flanges 2c of the front jaw member it whereby the lever may be journalled therein to move the camming arm 39 into and out of engagement with the rear jaw member I2. With the lever 38 so mounted, the U member 42 is angularly arranged relative to the camming arm 39 to depend from the reduced ends 40 to closely engage the outer periphery of and lie in the plane of the front jaw member ll! when the camming arm 39 is in closed engagement with the rear jaw l2. The lever 38 is secured in place by offsetting or rolling over the top portion of the face plate I8 of the front jaw member 10 to close the recess and to also provide a longitudinal opening 46 in which there may be pivotally mounted a suspenderengaging loop 48.

The operation will be readily understood by referring to Figs. 2 and 3. When loop 42 lies in the plane of jaw member 10, the lever 38 is at right angles thereto and the reawardly extending camming arm 39 engages the rear face of jaw member l2 above the pivots 28, camming the upper end of the jaw member outwardly and the lower end inwardly to closed position against the tendency of the spring M to move the jaws to open position. When loop 42 is swung forwardly out of the plane of jaw It and out of engagement with the periphery thereof, the lever 38 will be moved in a clockwise direc tion, as seen in Fig. 3, whereupon the camming arm. 39 will pivot downwardly out of closing engagement with the rear jaw member i2 and the spring M will urge the lower end of the jaw member l2 outwardly and the upper end inwardly to open the jaws.

As clearly indicated by Fig. 2, when the clasp is closed, the loop 42 lies in the plane of jaw member 60 and the over-all thickness of the clasp is not increased over the combined thickness of the jaw members. Likewise, all projecting parts are eliminated and the loop 42 has the appearance of being coextensive with and a part of the front plate H]. Moreover, as the lever 38 is at right angles to the loop 42, no turning movement results and unintentional opening of the clasp is eliminated. Such unintentional opening is further hindered by the close fit of the loop to the periphery of the clasp.

As shown in Figs. 8 and 9, the lever and loop may be made from a piece of wire bent substantially to form an open rectangular member 50 with rearwardly extending camming arms 52 projecting at right angles to the top cross bar or lever 53. The member 50 is supported in the recesses 44 of the front jaw Ill and operates in like manner to the lever of the first embodiment.

As many changes could be made in the above construction and many apparently widely different embodiments of this invention could be made without departing from the scope thereof, it is intended that all matter contained in the above description or shown in the accompanying drawing shall be interpreted as illustrative and not in a limiting sense.

It is also to be understood that the language used in the following claims is intended to cover all of the generic and specific features of the invention herein described and all statements of the scope of the invention which, as a matter of language, might be said to fall therebetween.

I claim as my invention:

1. A clasp comprising cooperating jaw members pivoted together for relative movement towards open and closed position, one jaw member having a face plat and flanges extending rearwardly from the side edges thereof, said flanges having aligned apertures therethrough, a U- shaped operating member having side arms and a bottom arm surrounding and lying closely adjacent the outer periphery and in the plane of the jaw member below said flange apertures, the upper extremities of the side arms having portions turned inwardly and seated within said flange apertures rearwardly of the face plate of the jaw member for pivotally mounting said operating member for movement into and out of the plane of the jaw member, and cam means disposed between said jaw members and carried by said side arm inturned seated portions for holding said jaw members in closed position when said operating member lies in the plane of the jaw member.

2. A clasp comprising cooperating jaw members pivoted together for relative movement towards open and closed position, one jaw member having a face plate and flanges extending rearwardly from the side edges thereof, said jaw member having a Suspender-receiving loop se- CLl16d to the upper end thereof, the flanges of said jaw member having aligned apertures therethrough adjacent said Suspender-receiving loop, a U-shaped operating member having side arms and a bottom arm surrounding and lying closely adjacent the outer periphery and in the plane of the jaw member below said flange apertures, the upper extremities of the side arms having portions turned inwardly and seated within said flange apertures rearwardly of the face plate of the jaw member for pivotally mounting said operating member for movement into and out of the plane of the jaw member, and cam means disposed between said jaw members and carried by said side arm inturned seated portions for holding said jaw members in closed posi tion when said operating member lies in the plane of the jaw member.

3. A clasp comprising cooperating jaw members pivoted together for relative movement towards open and closed position, one jaw member including a face plate and flanges extending rearwardly from the side edges thereof, said jaw member having a web-receiving loop secured to the upper end thereof, the side flanges of said jaw members being provided with oppositely disposed apertures adjacent said loop-receiving member, and a locking member supported in said apertures and comprising a rectangular frame having its upper cross bar supported in said apertures rearwardly of the face plate and its side arms and interconnecting bottom arm lying in the plane of the front jaw member and closely adjacent the periphery thereof, and cam means disposed rearwardly of the face plate of said jaw member and carried by the upper cross arm of said frame member for holding said jaw members in closed position when said locking member lies in the plane of the jaw member.

JOHN B. FREYSINGER.

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