US2887689A

US2887689A - Pocket closure

Info

Publication number: US2887689A
Application number: US626996A
Authority: US
Inventors: John R Conlan
Original assignee: Individual
Current assignee: Individual
Priority date: 1956-12-07
Filing date: 1956-12-07
Publication date: 1959-05-26
Anticipated expiration: 1976-05-26

Description

J. R. CONLAN POCKET CLOSURE May-26, 1959 S SheetS-Sheet l v File d Deo. 'r, 1956 l V! TOR JOHN R. CONLAN imam/5y:

May 26, 1959 J. R. CONLAN POCKET CLOSURE s Sheets-Sheet 2 Filed Dec. '7, 1956 urea/70k JOHN R- CONLAN May 26, 1959 Filed Dec. 7. 1956' J. CONLAN, 2,887,689 POCKET CLOSURE 3 Sheets-Sheet 3 INVENTOI? JOHN R. ,CONLAN United States Patent POCKET CLOSURE John R. Conlan, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada Application December 7, 1956, Serial No. 626,996

2 Claims. (Cl. 2-252) This invention relates to a closure for pockets.

This invention may be used in association with any garment pocket, such as shirt, pants and coat pockets, and with containers of the nature of purses, and it is to be understood that the term pocket as used herein and in the appended claims is intended to include purses and other similar containers. However, for the sake of convenience, reference will mainly be made to garment pockets.

An object of the present invention is the provision of a closure for pockets which may be quickly and easily opened and closed without any catches, or moving parts such as are used with zippers.

Another object is the provision of a pocket closure which may be used without altering the normal construction of the pocket.

A further object is the provision of a closure for garment pockets which may be quickly and easily removed from the garment and returned thereto when desired.

A still further object is the provision of a pocket closure which may be quickly snapped open and closed merely by flexing action and which is not liable to open accidentally, but if it does, it makes a clicking noise which may draw ones attention to the fact that the pocket has opened.

A pocket, including a purse, has an opening or entrance which is defined by opposed walls. These walls are usually secured together at the sides of the opening. In the case of a shirt pocket, for example, the shirt itself may form one wall of the pocket, and a panel which has been sewn to the shirt material forms the opposite wall. These two walls normally lie fairly close together, but there is nothing to prevent the contents of the pocket from dropping out. The present invention includes, in combination with the pocket walls, a strip of stilt material extending along either wall of the pocket at the opening thereof, at least a part of said strip being in the form of a resiliently flexible section. The flexible section of the strip has an area therein which changes its position in relation to the adjacent area of the section when the strip is flexed at' the latter substantially across its general longitudinal plane to retain the strip in the position to which it is flexed. When the strip is in one position, it retains the pocket walls together to keep the pocket closed. The walls cannot separate unless the strip is flexed from said position across its longitudinal plane, and when this is done, the pocket is opened.

Examples of this invention are illustrated in the ac companying drawings, in which,

Figure 1 illustrates a fragmentary portion of a garment, such as a shirt, showing a pocket with the closure in closed position,

Figure 2 is a view similar to Figure 1, showing the closure and pocket in open position,

Figure 3 is a view similar to Figure 1 illustrating the opposite side of the pocket and showing a closure strip.

Figure 4 is a perspective view of one form of closure strip,

. 2,887,689 Patented May 26, 1959 Figure 5 is an enlarged fragmentary longitudinal section taken on the line 5-5 of Figure 4,

Figure 6 is an enlarged cross section taken on the line 6-6 of Figure 4,

Figure7 is an enlarged longitudinal section through a closure strip and pocket with the latter closed,

Figure 8 is a view similar to Figure 7 with the pocket open,

Figure 9 is a fragmentary section taken on the line 99 of Figure 7,

Figure 10 is a fragmentary section taken on the line 10-10 of Figure 8,

Figure 11 is a perspective view of an alternative form of closure strip in its normal position,

Figure 12 is a section taken on the line 12-12 of Figure 11,

Figure 13 is a view similar to Figure 12 showing the closure strip in its closed position,

Figure 14 is a section taken on the line 14-14 of Figure 13,

Figure 15 is a section taken on the line 15-15 of Figure 13,

Figure 16 is a perspective view of a pocket in the form of a purse which is closed by the closure, and

Figure 17 is a view similar to Figure 16 showing the purse in the open position.

Referring to the drawings, 10 is a pocket having opposed walls 11 and 12 and an entrance or opening 13. In this example, the wall 11 consists of the garment on which the pocket is situated, while wall 12 has a panel secured to said garment by stitching 15 around three sides thereof, the edge 16 of the panel being free to allow for opening 13. The pocket may actually be of any desired construction, but it is illustrated herein in the simplest possible manner for the sake of clarity.

Figures 4 to 6 illustrate one form of closure strip 20. This strip extends along either of the walls 11 or 12 at the opening 13. However, it is preferable, in this example, to position it on wall 11. It may be on the outer or inner surface of said wall, but it is preferable to locate it on the inner surface, as shown in Figure 3-. Furthermore, the strip may be retained in position in any convenient manner. One way of doing this is to provide spaced retainer pockets '22 and 23 on the inner surface of wall 11 and opening towards each other. These retainer pockets are beside the opening 13 of the main pocket, and are spaced apart sufliciently to receive the ends of strip 20. With this arrangement, the strip may be quickly and easily inserted into and removed from the retainer pockets, and it cannot be seen from the outside of the garment.

The strip 20 may be formed of any suitable stiff and resiliently flexible material, such as spring steel or plastic with the required characteristics. While it is preferable to make the strip of a single piece of material, it will be understood that the strip may be formed with a section spaced from the ends thereof which is resiliently flexible, since the flexibility is usually required only at one area throughout the length of the strip.

With strip 20 of Figures 4 to 6, the centre section 26, the ends of which are designated by

broken lines

27 and 28, is the resiliently flexible section with which this invention is mainly concerned. This section of the strip has an area therein which changes its position in relation to the adjacent area of the section when the strip is flexed at said section substantially across its general longitudinal plane. This general longitudinal plane is the one in which the strip would lie if it was straight. However, the strip is normally curved from end to end, as clearly shown in Figure 4, and this is to be considered its normal position. In this example, the area in the flexible section which changes its position is in the form of a depression 30 formed in the strip. This depression protrudes from the surface 34 of the strip, as indicated at 35 in Figures 5 and 6. This depression is preferably spaced from the edges of the strip at 39 and 40, but it is to be understood that it may extend the full width of the strip, in which case, most of the section 26 would actually be shaped to protrude from the surface 34 of the strip. The depression is usually formed by pressing out a portion of the material of the strip so that the material at said depression is thinner than the surrounding material.

When the strip 20 is flexed at the section 26 substantially across its general longitudinal plane, the depression 30 snaps through the strip to protrude from the opposite surface 42 thereof, as shown in broken lines in Figures 5 and 6. This retains the strip in the new position which is bowed in the direction opposite to that in which it is bowed when in its normal position. In order to restore the strip to its normal position, it is only necessary to flex it at section 26 back across its general longitudinal plane, at which time depression 30 will snap back through the strip to its original position, thereby retaining the strip in its normal position.

By referring to Figures 7 to 10, it will be seen how the above-described action of the strip 20 is used to close and open the opening 13 of pocket 10. Figure 7 shows strip 20 in its normal position. At this time, the walls 11 and 12 are stretched so that they are pressed together and the pocket opening 13 is closed. When the strip is flexed in the opposite direction, it assumes the position shown in Figures 8 and 10, at which time walls 11 and 12 are separated so that the pocket is open. In order to close the pocket, it is only necessary to flex the strip back to its normal position. 1

Figures 11 to 15 illustrate an alternative form of closure strip 48 which may be substituted in the garment for strip 20. Strip 48 may be formed of a single piece of resiliently flexible material, or it may include only a single section formed of said material and incorporating the necessary elements for the proper functioning of the closure. However, it is usually mostconvenient to make the entire strip in the same manner. A

Strip 48 is curved in cross section as'indicated at 50. This means thatthe'material at the centre of the strip normally protrudes from the general plane of the strip, as indicated at52. In this case, the general plane of the strip'is roughly the plane the strip would lie' in if it were flat. When the strip'is flexed across this general plane in the direction in which said material normally protrudes, as indicated in Figure 13, said protruding material moves across the'plane at the point of flexing, as

indicated at 53. 'If strip 48'were in the retainer pockets 22 and 23 at this time, pocket 'would be open. When strip 48 is released, the protruding material at 53 snaps back to its normal position to restore the strip to the normal position thereof, at which time the pocket would be closed. v v

Figures 16 and 17 are included merely to show how this invention may be applied to a pocket in the form of a container, such as a purse. A purse 60 is formed of side panels or walls 61 and 62 which are secured together in any convenient manner around the edges thereof at the tops thereof to form an opening 65. Either of the above-described closure strips may be incorporated in or secured to either of the walls 61 or 62 beside the opening 65. Strip 20 is indicated by broken lines in Figure 17 in wall 61. When the strip is in its normal position, the walls 61 and 62 are held together, as shown in Figure 16, and when the strip is flexed to its opposite position, the walls are held open as shown in Figure 17. The purse is then closed by flexing the strip back to its normal position.

There may be further variations of this invention. However, the basic idea is that a closure strip normally retains the pocket closed, and this strip is so constructed that when it is flexed at some point throughout its length, the pocket is opened. When this is accomplished by means of a depression which shifts from one surface to the other of the strip, the latter remains in its new position until it is flexed back to the original position. If the strip or a section thereof is curved in cross section, the strip may be flexed to an open position, but as soon as it is released it returns to its normal position to close the pocket.

What I claim as my invention is:

1. A pocket closure comprising in combination with a pocket having an opening with opposed defining walls, a single strip of stiff material extending along a wall at the pocket opening, at least a part of said strip being in the form of a resiliently flexible section, and a substantially concave depression in the flexible section protruding from one surface thereof, said depression turning inside out to protrude from the opposite surface of the section when the strip is flexed at the latter substantially across its general longitudinal plane to retain the strip in the position to which it is flexed, and said depressionagain turning inside out back to its first position when the strip is similarly flexed in the opposite. di-

rection to retain the strip in its original position, said strip'when in one position retaining the pocketwalls together thereby keeping the pocket closed and when flexed from 'said' position across its longitudinal plane separating'the walls to keep the pocket open.

2. A pocket closure as claimed in claim 1 in which the material of the strip at the depression is thinner than the material adjacent to the latter.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS 1,149,242 Yager Aug. 10, 1915 FOREIGN PATENTS 331,795 France May 7, 1903