US2339077A - Position retainer for hats - Google Patents

Description

Jan. 11, 1944. HOFFELD 2,339,077

POSITION RETAINER FOR HATS Filed Feb. 19, 1945 Patented Jan. 11, 1944 lJNlTED STATES PATENT OFFICE POSITION RETAINER FOR HATS Louis Hofield, Bronx, N. Y.

Application February 19, 1943, Serial No. 476,439

2 Claims.

My invention relates to women's and childrens hats, and more specifically to a device for retaining a hat on the head of the wearer in whatever position it is given when first put on, whether the hat be evenly placed on the head in the usual position, or whether it be tilted to one side or the other.

My object is to provide a device of simple and cheap construction removably attached to the hat, and preferably formed in part of yielding material to adapt any one of the devices for use with hats of different sizes.

Another object is to provide a device of the character described in which a minimum amount of the yielding material is used.

A third object is to provide a device of the character described, designed to hold the hat in adjusted positions upon the head of the wearer.

Other obgiects will appear in the subjoined description.

The invention consists in certain novel features of construction and arrangement of parts as will be hereinafter described and claimed, reference being had to the accompanying drawing, in which- Fig. 1 is a perspective view illustrating one method of employing my device for holding a hat in tilted position on the head of the wearer.

Fig. 2 is a perspective illustrating how a slightly modified form of my device may be employed for holding a hat tilted in the same direction, namely; to the right.

Fig. 3 is a perspective view of a hat with the device attached thereto in approximately the position it would occupy relatively thereto when in use.

Fig. 4 shows a plan view of the device detached from the hat; and,

Fig. 5 shows a slightly modified form of Fig. 4.

Referring further to the drawing, it will be seen that my device, which for brevitys sake may simply be referred to herein as hat retainer, com-prises two loops, l and 2, formed preferably of small braided cord, said loops being each formed by bending a section of cord upon itself bringing its two extreme ends together, and rigidly connecting them to each other by means of an anchoring needle 3 of well known construction in this art, which is designed to detachably engage the inner band 4 of the hat, as clearly shown in Fig. 3.

The loops are linked together at their inner ends. The loop I is much shorter than the loop 2, and is preferably formed of elastic cord,

i In this case the loop has already whereas the longer loop 2 is formed of nonelastic cord.

There are two reasons for making the loop 1 of elastic cord and short, whereas the loop 2 is made of inelastic cord and much longer. In the first place, due to the present shortage of rubber, no more elastic cord will be manufac-- tured during the duration, and hence dealers are limited to the stock that is already manufactured and on hand. This makes it necessary to practice extreme economy in the use of rubber lest there be none at all obtainable, and the manufacture of these devices would have to be discontinued, since, for obvious reasons, it is very desirable that devices of this character should have a limited degree of elasticity. In the next place, users of these devices often desire to wear their hats tilted to one side or the other, so that the rim of the hat on the downwardly tilted side comes down close to the ear of the wearer, in which case the elastic loop I can be slipped over the ear just as a buttonhole is slipped over a button: in this instance, the ear corresponding to a button and the elastic loop to the buttonhole. I should be only large enough to conveniently engage the ear, and should be elastic to engage ears of slightly difierent sizes without discomfort.

Inasmuch as the retainer is provided with detachable anchoring needles, persons desiring to wear the hat tilted to the right side will wear the small elastic loop at the right side of the hat, but if they desire to wear their hats tilted to the left side, they will attach the retainer to the hat with the elastic loop at the left side in position to engage the left ear of the wearer.

In the modified form of the device shown in Fig. 5, I have shown the two long sides of the long loop 2 rigidly united to each other at 5, whereby to divide the inelastic loop 2 into two sections indicated by 2 and 2 respectively. The loop formed by the opposing non-elastic sections 2 may be passed over the ear of the wearer just as is the elastic loop I, the operation of which been described; or, the right-hand end of the middle loop 2* may be made to embrace the ear bringing the point 5 just above the top of the ear, as illustrated in Fig. 2 of the drawmg.

It should be noted that in this modified form of the device either one (the elastic or the nonelastic) of the short loops may be employed to hold the hat tilted either to the right or left on the head of the wearer. To illustrate this, let us refer to Fig. 1 of the drawing in which the elastic loop I engages the right ear of the wearer to hold the hat tilted to the right; but let us further suppose that, in order not to interfere with some special arrangement of the hair of the wearer, it is undesirable to encircle the right ear of the wearer with the elastic loop I. In that case, the elastic loop I is not placed around the right ear of the wearer, as shown in Fig. 1, but instead thereof, the loop 2 is placed around the left ear of the wearer encircling it, as shown in Fig. 2, in which the point 5 in Fig. 5 of the drawing, comes at the base of the top projecting portion of the ear. Upon reflection it will be seen that the hat would still be held in exactly the same position it nOW occupies in Fig. 1, namely, tilted to the right. Any attempt to tilt the hat shown in Fig. 2 to the left would impart to the loop 2* a downward pull on the left ear of the wearer, and such a pull would be most effectually resisted because of the protruding shape of the upper part of the ear.

In the modified form of the device shown in Fig. 5 it will be seen that the device consists practically of three loops-two short loops with a longer loop between them, one of the short loops being formed of elastic material, and the other of non-elastic.

The cords of which this device is formed braided cords as indicated by the shading in Fig. 4 of the drawing. For the sake of clearness, shad.- ing is omitted from the other figures of the drawing.

For obvious reasons, the braiding on the elastic cord is not quite so close as that on the nonelastic which latter is closely and tightly woven, much so that it feels almost as rough as a li tle file when the fingers are run along it. Having this roughened surface on the exterior of the long loop which engages the jaw of the wearer tends to hold the device against longitudinal a movement when in use. In fact, it causes the device to grip, as it were, the neck of the user. And then, the fact that the cords are doubled greatly increases the frictional resistance of the cord to longitudinal movement when in operation; and greatly decreases the tendency of the device to produce that disagreeable feeling as if the cord were cutting into the flesh of the neck when secured a little too tightly on the wearer.

Thus it will be seen that I have provided a device of very simple and cheap construction, which adequately performs all the functions required of such a device.

What I claim is:

1. A device of the character described, for holding a hat in a given position on the head of the wearer, said device comprising a comparatively long middle loop for passing under the chin of the wearer, and having a shorter loop at each end of the long loop, said shorter loops each having at its outer end an anchoring pin for engaging the inner band of the hat at opposite sides thereof above the ears of the wearer, one of said shorter loops being of a size to receive the ear of the wearer, and of a length to extend from the under side of said encircled ear to the point above the same where the loop is connected to the inner hand of the hat; and the other short loop being of a length to extend from the top of the other ear of the wearer to its point of contact with the inner band of the hat above said ear.

2. A device of the character described for holding a hat tilted to one side of the head of the wearer, said device comprising a comparatively long middle loop for passing under the chin of the wearer, with a shorter loop at each end thereof, said shorter loops being each provided at its outer end with anchoring means for engagement with the inner band of the hat on 010- posits sides thereof above the ears of the wearer, the one of said shorter loops at the lower side of the hat being formed of elastic material and of a size to receive the ear of the wearer, and of a length to extend from the under side of said encircled ear to the point above the same, where the loop is connected to the inner band of the hat; and the other short p at the higher side of the hat being of a length to extend from the top of the other ear of the wearer to its point of contact with the inner band of the hat above said ear whereby any strain imposed upon the hat to tilt it in either direction will be yieldingly resisted by the short elastic loop, thereby requiring the minimum amount of elastic material for the production of the device.

LOUIS HOFFELD.

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