US628203A - Fastening device. - Google Patents

Description

no. 628,20. Patented my 4, |899.

A. LEBLANC. FASTENING DEVICE.

(Application led Apr. 1, 1897.)

(lo Nudel.)

UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

ALFREDO LEBLANC, OF STAMFORD, CONNECTICUT.

FASTENING DEVICE.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 628,203, dated July 4, 1899.

Appnauon neaipru 1,1897. senti No. 630,247. or@ model.)

T0 LZZ whom 'llt may concern:

Be it known that I, ALFREDO LEBLANC, residing at Stamford, in the county of Fairfield and State of Connecticut, have invented certain new and useful Improvementsin Fastening Devices, of which the following is a specilicatiomreferenoe being had to the drawings accompanying and forming a part of the same.

Myinvention isan improvement in buttons or fastening devices, particularly such as are largely used on gloves, belts, and articles of wearing-apparel generally, and which are composed of a stud member with an upright shank having an enlargement at its end and attached to one portion of the glove or garment and a socket member provided with a socket to receive the enlarged end of the shank or stud and with which the stud is caused to engage when forced by pressure into the socket. l

The improvement consists in providing such or a similar button with a device such as a concave spring disk or plate which when forced by pressure out of its normal shape or position emits a clickingsound and repeats the same sound when the pressure is relieved and itis permitted to resume its normal shape or position, and this device is combined with the button in such manner that pressing on the top of the socket member of the button with the finger Will cause it to emit such sound by the movement of one part of the button with relation to another.

The object of the improvement is to provide, primarily, a 'means for distinguishing the buttons of a certain make or grade, the evidence of this fact being unmistakably furnished by the peculiar double .click distinct from the sound made by engagement of the two parts of the button, which is produced whenever the socket member of the button is pressed either for fastening a glove or other garment or at other times.

Another purpose of the invention is to provide a button of fanciful character and to enhance its sale as a novelty.

Having been, so far as I am aware, the first to designedly produce a button having this peculiar characteristic by inserting in it or incorporating with it a concave spring plate or disk which when reversed by pressure applied to the upper or exposed surface of the button emits a distinctive click or snapping sound, I regard it as within my invention to place this spring-plate in many positions and to use it in many different forms. Ishall therefore describe only the most practicable and economical form in which I have carried out the improvement anda few modifications which will serve to illustrate the nature and scope of the same.

Figure l is a central sectional view of a button or fastener embodying my invention and composed of two parts, which are shown detached. Fig. 2 is a similar view showing the two parts in engagement. Figs. 3, et, and 5 are sectional views of modifications of the invention;

Referring to Figs. l and 2, which show the invention in its preferred form, A designates a stem, with an enlarged end B and a base composed of la rigid plate C and a flexible resilient spring-plate D. These parts may constitute a stud member in themselves and be used as such alone or in conjunction with the socket member E, having a socket M, with slightly-resilient sides, into which the stem A may be forced and caused to engage by means of the enlargement on its end. In either case the flexible plate D is forced toward the rigid plate C when the two parts of the device are united, and this movement I' take advantage of to carry out my improvement by so constructing the said flexible plate D that when bent beyond the 'point necessary for the actual engagement of the two parts of the fastening device it will emit a sharp metallic sound or click, both when compressed and when released, and in order to insure the return of the spring disk or plate to normal position after compression I insert between it and the rigid plate C a spring F, which, however much it may be compressed, will always tend to resume its normal shape.

As above stated, the parts are so proportioned that when the two portions of thefastening device are in engagement the click will be produced by pressureupon the top vof the fastening device and forcing the stud loo member in the socket member slightly beyond its normal position of engagement.

In Fig. 3 a button or fastening device of more ordinary construction is shown composed of a hollow socket member E', with a contracted opening, and a stud with a baseplate C', a stem A, and a spring enlargement or head B. Within the socket member E is placed a concave spring disk or plate D', which will be forced inward when the'stud is pressed info the socket and caused to emit the clicking sound when moved beyond a certain point. Itis desirable to use a spring F in this as well as the other forms of button to insure the proper return of the sound-emitting disk D', should the latter be forced so far by the pressure applied to it as to resume a shape from which it would'not return unaided.

In Fig. 4 is shown a button or fastening device of substantially the same character, but with the spring-plate D2 secured to the socket member E2 in such position that it will be moved by the base of the stud when the latter is inserted into the part E2.

Another arrangement of the fastening device is shown in Fig. 5, in which the top of the socket member E3 is made by the spring or sound-emitting disk D3, which is separate from the socket, so as to be capable of being forced downward and yielding to the pressure of the finger when the socket member is fastened to the stud member. The spring F3 is used to assist the disk D3 to return to its normal position when forced downward too far. In allcases, however, it will be observed that I combine with the button or 'fastening device a sound-emitting plate, so that by pressure upon the same either before or after engagement such sound-emitting plate will be warped or deected in such manner as to produce the sound.

I have shown in a patent granted to me July 23, 1895, No. 543,029, a button or stud containing a concave spring disk or plate which in the operation of inserting the stud is bent or deflected; but such plateis not intended or designed to emit the clicking sound peculiar to the spring-plates which I employ in the present case, and even were it possible by the limited movement of which the shank or head is capable to so deflect the said disk as to cause it to emit any sound at al1 such sound would not in any event beproduced by pressure upon the head of the button, which is the special feature of the device of my present application.

Having now described my invention, what I claim is- 1. The combination in a fastening devicecomposed of a stud member and a socket member-of a concave spring disk or plate incorporated with or forming part ofone of said members, the said disk or plate by its position in one of said members being adapted.

by pressure applied to the top of the fastening device, to be bent or deflected, whereby when so bent or deflected the spring disk emits a clicking sound, as set forth.

2. i In a fastening device composed of a stud member and a socket member adapted for engagement, as set forth, the combination with the socket member, of a concave spring disk or plate secured therein in position to be bent or deflected by the stud when forced into the socket member beyond the position of normal engagement, and adapted, when so deflected, to emit an audible clicking sound, as set forth.

ALFREDO LEBLANC.

Vitnesses:

M. LAWSON DYER, BENJAMIN MILLER.

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