US352541A - Henry heard and herbert cyril heard - Google Patents

Description

UNITED STATES :PATENT OFFICE.

HENRY HEARD AND HERBERT CYRIL HEARD, OE 24 NEWPORT ROAD, .OARDIEE COUNTY OE GLAMORGAN, ENGLAND.

WIRE LACING.

SPECIFICATION'fOrming part of Letters Patent No. 352,541, dated November 16, 1886.

Application filed November 2, 1885. Serial No. 181,728. (No model.)I Patented iu England August 22, 1885, No. 9,970; in Belgium October 20,1885, No. 70,575; in France October 22, 1885. No. 159,192; in Austria-Hungary October 26, 18H5, and in Canada January To all whom t may concern,.-

Be it known that we, HENRY HEARD, of 24E Newport Road, Cardiff, in the county of Glamorgan, Great 1 Britain, solicitor, and HER- BERT CYRIDHEARD, of the same place, engineer, have invented an Improved System of Making and Fastening Flexible Lacings, (for which application has been made for Letters Patent in Great Britain, No. 9,970, dated August 22, 1885,) of which the following is a specication. Y

The subject of our present invention is an improved construction of lacing or flexible connector, intended to be used for the purpose of maintaining in close contact two adjacent edges or faces of liiexible material-such as leather canvas, or the like-without diminishing the flexibility of-said material at or in the immediate neighborhood of the line or area of contact.

Numerous attempts have been made to produce a connector for the above mentioned classes of material which shall be capable of easy application and without rigidity after being so applied 5 but in the majority of inventions of this kind the bulk of the material which it has been necessary or customary to employt or the comparative rigidity imparted to such material by the strain to which it must be subjected in pulling it tight, results in producing a joint which is very deficient in flexibility, and frequently gives Way in use. ,A further drawback is the bulkiness of the material, which interferes with its easy use.

Some of the accompanying gures illustrate the details of the construction of our invention, While in others its double application as a boot-lace and a belting-lacing is shown; altough we would have it distinctly understood that we do not confine our invention to either of the two applications just mentioned, which have been selected for illustration not only lbecause laced boots and machine-belting are such well-known and familiar objects, but also because they represent between them uses demanding the maximum tension with the maximum flexibility and compactness.

Among other uses to which our invention can be applied with advantage are the following: for lacing leggins, gaiters, corsets, harness, and other similar articles.

Figure 1 is a perspective view of a mans laced boot furnished with one of our improvedlacings. Figs. 2, 3, and 4 are respectively plan and side elevation land plan With lace attached of the fastener illustrated in Fig. l.v

In Figs. 1 to 15 there are illustrated five different kinds of fasteners, either one of which may be used as a fastener for our improved lacings,`although we do not confine ourselves to the use of any one of the fastenersillusf trated, inasmuch as they may all be dispensed with and the fastening made by simply tying, hooking, or twisting the two ends of the lace together in any well-known manner. It follows, therefore, that when our lacing is used `with either of the fastening devices illustrated in detail in Figs. 2 to 15, one end of the lace is attached to the fastener, (see Fig. 2,)and the lace then taken through the first hole directly to the farthest hole, at which point the lacing proper really commences, whereas if our improved lace is to be used Without a special fastener, the necessary fastening of its ends being accomplished by simply twisting or the like,the lacing proper is commenced at the farthest hole or pair of holes and finished at the terminal one or pair. We prefer that the holes in the material to be connected should be strengthened by the insertion of metallic eyelets, which have the well-known property' of protecting the edges of the holes and preventing them from being torn.

The fastener illustrated in Figs. 2, 3, and 4 consists of an oblong metal plate, a, in the center of which is produced, by punching out or other convenient process, an eye, b, to which the end c'of the lace is fastened. From the opposite side of the plate there spring three headed pins, ddd. The two Outer ones are in line next to one side edge of the plate a, and the central one out of line With its neighbors and next the opposite edge of the plate. The right and left spacing of the pins enable them to maintain a tight grip upon the end of the lace,

which is passed left and right between them,as shown in Figs.- 1 and 4.

Laces made according to our invention consist of several strands of fine metal wire-such as bronze or steel, or other metal combining flexibility with tenacity-of a suitable number and thickness for the purpose of theinvention.v The individual strands are then twisted, woven, plaited, or worked together in any convenient or suitable vway,preferably by machinery of an y well-known type. q

Figs. 1,4, and 6 show, respectively,a twisted, a woven, and a plaited lace. p

When the laces have been cnt ofi` the requisite length, both ends, or only one, according as to whether a special fastener is to be vused or not, are dipped into molten metal, or otherwise metallically connected, so as to form a solid end or tag, e, which is then capable of being pointed, as shown inv Figs. 1, 4, 6, and by the tags s2 s2 in Figs. 16 to 22. Theuse of our invention as a boot-lace with a special fastener is illustrated in full in Fig. 1. The blunt end of the'lace f, having been securely fastened to the eye of the fastener in anyrconvenient way,is passed through the first hole, across and under the junction of the two edges g l1., as indicated by the dotted lines, and out at the far hole j, from which point it is laced-over and under until it emerges from 7c, the companion hole to the rst one, where it is fastened by being passed between the pins of the fastener, and, lastly, bent partially round the last pin d. (Sec Figs. 1 and 4.) rlhe lace is thus bent three times as it passes through the fastener, and, being made of metal strands, it will not readily unbend, as would a leather or :mohair one. The frictional grip of the pins upon it is therefore and thereby maintained until straightening the lace at the angles e and e'l (see Fig. 4) releases it from the fastenershold upon it and allows of the process of unlacing being proceeded with forthwith.

The four modifications of the fastener above described with reference to Figs. 1 to 4, and illustrated, respectively', in Figs. 5 and 6, 7 to 9, 10 to 12, and 13 to 15, are equally applicable with the former to fastening our improved flexible metallic lace. In either modification the lace is held by the frictional grip of the pins or equivalent projections of the fastener upon it, which grip is maintained so long as the bends in the lace as it passes through the fastener are not straightened out.

The fastener in Figs. 5 and 6 is made out of a short length of wire, bent so as to produce three eyes, Z Z Z2. One end of the lace is fastened to the central eye, Z', and the tag end passed up through one eye, Z, and down through the other, Z2, for effecting terminal fastening.

The fastener illustrated in Figs. 7, 8, and 9, which are respectively side and end elevation and plan, consists of a plate of metal, on, corresponding with the plate a of Figs. 2, 3, and 4, and having a central eye, n, corresponding with the eye b of Fig. 3, and three hooks, o o o2, of rectangular section, with rounded edges to prevent the lace being in jured. These last are placed, relatively to each other, on the plate m in the same way as the pins d d d on the plate a of Figs. 2, 3, and 4, and the fastener is used in the same way as described with reference to the one illustrated in Figs. 1 to 4. y

The fastener illustrated in Figs.,10, 11, and 12, which are respectively side and end elevation and plan, consists of a plate of metal, p, with an eye, p', corresponding, respectively, with the plate a and eye b of Figs. 2,3, and 4, and two prongs, q q', projecting in opposite directions from the opposite side of the plate p.

rlhe fastener illustrated in Figs. 13, 14, and 15, which are respectively sideand end elevation and plan, consists of two eyes, r 1f, through which the lace is threaded in the same way as illustrated in Figs. 5 and 6, for the purpose of effecting terminal fastening, and a third eye, r2, corresponding in point of function with the eyes p', n, b, and Z", previously described, to which the lace is securely fixed before it is used as a lace.

The way in which the pins of the fastener described with reference to Figs. 1 to 4, or the hooks of the fasteners described with reference to Figs. 7, 8, 9 and Figs. 10, 11, and 12, respectively, or the eyes of the fasteners described with reference to Figs. 5, 6, and Figs. 13, 14, 15, respectively, hold their respective laces is practically the same-viz., frictional grip only-in each modification of our improved lacing-fastener.

- We do not specify any particular method for the manufacture of our improved fasteners, as they may be either stamped or cast, or produced in any other convenient and suitable way.

The remaining figures illustrate the application of our improved lacings made with both ends tagged and pointed, and used, therefore, without any special fastener.

Figs. 16 and 17 are respectively side elevation and plan of two adjacent faces laced together. S is the lacing, laced under and over from the first pair of holes, s s, to the last pair, s s', where the tagged ends s2 .s2 are hooked together. Figs. 18 and 19 are respectively plan and side elevation, showing our invention applied to the connection of two adjacent edges. Figs. 20 and 21 are respectively plan and elevation showing our invention applied to the connection of two adjacent edges, the lines of lacing being diagonal and crossing each other, instead of parallel. Fig. 22 is a plan showing the application of our invention to the connection of two `adjacent edges, the system of lacing being nearly the sameas in the application illustrated in Figs. 18 and 19.

Any other system or type of lacing, as far as regards the direction, parallel or diagonal of the lacing, and whether the same is single or double, may be adopted, according to the spe cial requirements of the case to which the laeing is to be applied.

We wish it to be distinctly understood that,

IIO

according to our invention, we make our improved laces by uniting strands of wire without, eithe rprevious or subsequently to the said vuse wire strands to strengthen or improve laces by incorporating the strands with'the material or materials-such as flax or cottonof which the lace is made, the wire strands forming but a small proportion of the bulk of the whole-as, for instance, in the specification of a patent for beltlaces No. 313,974, March 17, 1885; but according to our invention We use nothing else' but wire, which, it is well known, possesses a much greater capacity foi` resisting wear and tear than such materials as flax, cotton, or leather, and, besides this, permits of the tagbeing produced by so simple and economical a method as soldering the ends of the different wire strands together, whichwould be impracticable if any material incapable of withstanding the heat of hot metal or of being incorporated with hot metallic solder were used in the manufacture of the lace.

To produce a pointed tag, the pointing may be produced either before or after the formation of the tag.

We claim- 1. A flexible metallic lace consisting of several metal wires twisted, plaited, or woven to gether, in combination with a solid metal tag at each or both of the ends of said lace, each tag consisting of the ends of the wire strands of the lace united and mutually incorporated by solder or molten metal, substantiall y as hereinbefore described.

2. In combination with a eXible composite metallic wire lace for connecting the adjacent edges or surfaces of eXible material or materials, a fastener or locking device to which the two ends of said lace can be fastened, one end permanently and the other releasably, said fastener or locking device consisting of a plate having an eye formed on its under face, to which the rst-above-mentioned lace end can be fastened permanently, and having three pins projecting from its upper face, which are set alternately a little out of line with each other, substantially as hereinbefore described.

3. The combination of a boot and a flexible metallic lace consisting of several metal wires twisted, plaitcd, or woven together, said lace being furnished with a solid metal tag at one end` consisting of the ends of the metal wires united and mutually incorporated by solder or molten metal, with a fastener or locking device to which the untagged end of the lace can be fastened permanently and the tagged end releasably, said fastener or locking device consisting of a plate having an eye formed on its under surface, to which the untagged end of the lace can be permanently fastened, and having also three pins on its upper face set thereon alternately a little out oi" line With each other, substantially as hereinbefore described. v'

In testimony whereof we have hereunto set our hands.

HENRY HEARD. HERBERT CYRIL HEARD. Witnesses:

SAMUEL LLEwELLYN DADDs, 248 Cowbrz'dge Road, Oardtl, Glamorgan, Solicit- 0r8 Clerk. l

PETER ROBERTS,

19 Tredegar Street, Oarcll, Glamorgan, Solz'clth ors O lerk.

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