US3000384A - Fastener tie - Google Patents

Description

Sept. 19, 1961 E. F. PlERS, JR

FASTENER TIE Filed Jan. 4, 1960 INVENTOR. EBER F. PIERS JR.

ATTO NEV Uni sd a es, te f 3,000,384 FASTENER TIE Eber F. Piers, Jr., 2436 Inverness Ave., Hollywood, Calif. Filed Jan. 4, 1960, Ser. No. 171 2 Claims. (Cl. 132-46) The present invention is directed generally to a fastener tie or adjustable band and more particularly to such a device for use by women in encircling and binding a hank or lock of their hair in a desired shape such as in a pony tail or the like.

In the preferred form the device in accordance with the present invention is made up of an elongated carrier such as a tape or band of flexible material having on opposite faces thereof surfaces provided with interengaging means, the interengaging surfaces being longitudinally spaced apart. By preference the interengaging surfaces are those incorporated in closures commercially identified by the trademark Velcro wherein one surface includes a multiplicity of small outwardly projecting loops of thin filamentary material and the other surface is provided with a multiplicity of curly or crinkled filamentary members interengageable with the loops when the-surfaces are juxtaposed. One end of the tape is provided with loop means large enough to permit the other or free end of the tape to be threaded through the loop. Desirably a portion of the tape or carrier is longitudinally elastic and in the preferred form of the invention hereafter described the elastic portion has the loop fixed thereto. The part of the tape having on opposite faces thereof the selectively interengageable surfaces is in the opposite end portion of the tape. I

In use the free or non-looped end of the tape is threaded through the loop and the thus threaded end is bent back upon itself so oriented that the interengaging surface of the bent back portion is facing inwardly in adjacent relation with the remaining portion of the tape forming the fastener tie or band about a hank of hair or the like: The free end is continued around the periphery of the band until the inwardly directed elements on the interengaging surface of the free end are brought into interengaging fastening contact with the outwardly directed elements of the other of the interengaging surfaces.

Use of the specific interengaging surfaces referred to and described above is particularly desirable Where the present fastener tie is used as a band around a hank or lock of hair since neither of the surfaces adheres to or becomes intertwined with hair, so the tie is readily removable.

Accordingly it is a principal object of the invention to disclose a novel construction of a flexible tape to form a band encircling a lock or hank of human air or the like and easily removable therefrom without any entanglement with the hair. Other objects of the invention are to provide such a device including a tape having a longitudinally elastic portion therein; to provide such a device including selectively mutually interengageable surfaces on opposite faces of a portion of the tape and longitudinally spaced apart; to provide such a device wherein such mutually fastenable surfaces do not stick or otherwise engage the hair around which the band extends in use; and for other and additional objects and purposes as will be clear from a study of the following description of a preferred embodiment of the invention taken in connection with the accompanying drawing, in which:

FIG. 1 is a fragmentary rear perspective view of the head of a woman including a pony tail having the retaining band of the present invention mounted thereon.

FIG. 2 is a developed view of the band of the present invention, a portion being shown folded backwardly for clarity of illustration.

F1216. 3 is a sectional view taken on line IIIIII of FIG. 4 is a view similar to FIG. 3 but on a somewhat exaggerated scale and with the parts shown in expanded relation for clarity of explanation.

Referring now in detail to the drawing and first to FIG. 1 thereof, there is shown a Womans head indicated generally at 10 having a lock or bank 12 of the hair thereon gathered into a pony tail 14 extending rearwardly of the head and the pony tail being retained in position by a fastener tie or band in accordance with the present invention indicated generally at 16.

FIG. 2 shows the fastener tie 16 in developed form. When the tie includes an elastic portion it may be one end portion of the band and is here indicated at 20. At the extreme end of the elastic portion 20 there is provided an elongated eye member 22 providing a generally rectangular opening 24. The eye 22 is connected to the tape by suitable means such as a tab portion 26 folded back upon the main portion 20 and secured thereto as by stitching 28.

The remaining portion 29 of the tape or band need not be elastic, and means are provided on opposite faces of the tape portion 29 which are selectively interengageable or fastenable together. In the present illustration of the invention such means include, on one face of the tape, a surface 30 consisting of a multiplicity of small filamentary members of curled or crinkled configuration constituting a sort of mat surface. On the opposite face of the tape and desirably extending to the outermost end of the tape there is provided a mating surface 32 consisting of a multiplicity of small loops made of filamentary material, the material being stiff enough so that the loops project outwardly from the face of the tape. The two surfaces 30 and 32 display the property that when they are brought into juxtaposition, a number of the individual filamentary members on the surface 30 become intertwined with the outwardly projecting loops formed in the surface 32 and thereby retain the parts in assembled or fastened relation. They may be separated from one another by peeling the surfaces apart. The surfaces when fastened together strongly resist relative longitudinal movement. For convenience of reference the surface 30 with its individual filamentary members forming a mat may be referred to as the male surface while the surface 32 with its multiplicity of loops of filamentary material may be referred to as the female surface. It will be understood that the two surfaces as thus identified may be reversed in their location in the device of the present invention.

The use of the present invention in forming a band to retain a hank or lock of hair in a desired design or arrangement such as is illustrated in FIG. 1 will be understood by reference to FIGS. 3 and 4. The free end of the tape distant from the elongated eye 22 is threaded through the opening 24 of the eye in such a way that when the free end is doubled back upon itself the female surface 32 will be directed inwardly toward the center of the spiral-like configuration thus formed. By reason of the fact that surfaces 30 and 32 are spaced apart or staggered, they are brought into substantial alignment when the tape is coiled or wound as shown. Accordingly the female surface 32 is in position for juxtaposition and consequent fastening engagement with the male surface 30 when the free end of the tape bearing the female surface 32 is wrapped around the entire structure as indicated in FIG. 4. When used, the elastic portion 20 of the tape permits the band to be cinched up around the lock of hair as tightly as desired by the slidable engagement of the tape through the eye opening 24. The parts will thus assume the relationship indicated in FIG. 3 with the successive turns or lays of the tape in close 3 contact in the spiral configuration. If desired some other part of the tape can be made elastic, such 'asthe portion having surfaces 30 and 32 thereon; or the elastic characteristics may be eliminated.

The hair retaining band in accordance with thepr esent invention is particularly advantageous in that neither of the surfaces 30 or 32 has any particular aflinity for human hair itself so that there is no tendency for entanglement of one or more strands of hair'in the band; fastening and unfastening of the band are hence facilitated. Furthermore it will be evident that the interengaging surfaces 30 and 32 may, if desired, extend throughout the entire length of tape portion 29, but it is characteristic of the invention that at least operative portions of the surfaces are longitudinally spaced apart on the tape so that such operative portions will 'be juxtaposed when the tape is wound on a lock of hair as described. It is also to be noted that when the band is assembled in operative position as indicated in FIG. 3 and in exploded form in FIG. 4, the tension exerted by the resilient portion of the tape upon the mating interengaging surfaces 30 and 32 tends to move such surfaces longitudinally of one another and this is the type of movement which these surfaces are best designed to resist. It will be evident that the tape can be quickly removed from the hair by merely flipping outwardly the free end of the tape so that the entire band can be quickly unwound from the lock of hair.

Modifications and changes from the specific form of the invention herein shown and described as 'apr'eferred embodiment will occur to those skilled in the art. All such modifications and changes not departing from the spirit of the invention are intended to be embraced within the scope of the appended claims.

I claim:

1. A fastener comprising: an elongated flexible tape having on opposite faces thereof interengageable mating surfaces including a first surface provided with a multiplicity of small outwardly projecting loops made of stiflE filamentary material and a second surface havinga multiplicity of curly filamentary members releasably interengageable with said loops, operative portions of said surfaces being displaced from one another longitudinally of the tape.

2. The fastener as stated in claim 1 wherein a portion of the tape is longitudinally elastic.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS 1,324,975 Morris Dec. 16, 1919 2,595,657 Harmon May 6, 1952 FOREIGN PATENTS 21,379 Switzerland Jan. 25, 1901

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