US622380A - Clothes-pin - Google Patents

Description

M 3U @i c 4 n C e w w PATENT SARAH J. MILEY, OF MANCHESTER, NEW HAMPSHIRE.

CLOTHES-PIN.

SPECIFICATION forming part Of Letters Patent No. 622,380, dated April 4, 1899. Application led February 14,1898. lSerial No. 670,164. (No model.)

To all whom t may concern:

Be it known that I, SARAH J. MILEY, a citizen of the United States, residing at Manchester, in the county of Hillsborough and State of New Hampshire, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Clothes- Pins; and I do hereby declare the following to be a full, clear, and exact description of the invention, such as will enable others skilled in the art to which it appertains to make and use the same.

This invention has forits object a general improvement of the ordinary clothes pin when made of a single piece of wood, which frequently gives' much trouble and annoyance by failing to hold a garment upon a line. Such a pin may be forced very tightly onto a garment and line; but if the wind is blowing strong the garment strains the pin so severely that it often slips off, letting the vgarment fall to the ground. Then, again, when the pin grips the garment sufficiently tight to withstand the strain caused by a strong wind the pin is liable to split, thus rendering it useless.

The object of my invention is to overcome these difficulties by improving the efficiency of the ordi-nary style of clothes-pin; and to this end my invention consists of a clothespin made of a single piece of bifurcated wood of the same form as is the common pin, having the adjacent sides of its split or bifurcated portion corrugated and provided with curved strengthening or stay plates, and having prongs projecting at right angles from its edges for driving into the pin at opposite terminals of the slit or bifurcation, as fully set forth in the following specification and claims and clearly illustrated in the drawings accompanying and forming a part of the same, of which- Figure l is an elevation of my improved bifurcated clothes-pin, Fig. 2 being a sectional elevation of the same. Fig. 3 is a crosssection taken on line X X of Fig. l. is an enlarged perspective view of one of my improved stay-plates which prevent the clothes-pin from splitting. Fig. 5 is an enlarged elevation showing a simple modification of my improved stayplates.

Similar reference-letters designate correspending parts throughout the several views.

The clothes=pin A is bifurcated at B; but

Fig. 4. v

to carry out my invention this slit B is made with a corrugated cutter, which forms line ridges or corrugations upon the adjacent sides of the slit, as at b in the drawings, rendering the pin certain to hold a garment to a line if properly applied, and to prevent the clothespin fromV splitting when excessively strained I provide a pair of metal plates C, curved to correspond with the diameter of a clothespin and having two or more prongs c for driving into the wood, as seen in F-igs. 2 and 3, and these prongs c may be flat and ser rated, as at cin Fig. 4, or they may be formed of threaded wire, as in Fig. 5, the purpose of these serrated or threaded prongs being to firmly and securely hold the plates C upon the clothes-pin.

It is a matter of common knowledge that the grain of the wood of clothes-pins extends longitudinally, or practically so, and while the interiitt-ing corrugations serve to fasten the clothes more securely upon the line the pin would be liable to split along the grain above the end of the .bifurcation were it not for the stay-plates described. For this reason the terminal prongs of the plates are disposed with the grain, serving to bind the wood fiber and prevent its spreading laterally or splitting, while the intermediate prong is disposed across the grain, in line with the bifurcation, to sever the fiber and prevent the split from extending above the stay-plate in the event of the pin being subjected to sufficient strain to start the split.

It should be noted that no special adaptation of the pin for the reception of the plates is necessary and that the plates constructed as described may be quickly applied to any pin of ordinary construction.

A practical test of my improved clothes-pin satisfies me that it can be relied upon to hold a garment upon a line Where the ordinary pin will work o, allowing the garment to drop.

Having described myimprovements, what I claim is=t l. As a new article of manufacture a wooden clothes-pin provided with a longitudinal slit, and diametrically-opposed stay-plates located above the slit and provided respectively with terminal prongs extending into the pin above and at opposite sides of the slit and disposed with the grain and an intermediate prong di- IOO - rectly above the slit and disposed across the pin, and an intermediate prong above the ter;

grain, substantially as specied. minal prongs, directly above the slit and dis- 2. As a new article of manufacture a wooden posed across the grain, substantially as speciclothes-pin provided with a tortuous slit formlied. v 5 ing intertting corrugations, diametrically In testimony whereof I aflix my signature I5 opposite stay-plates located above the slit and in presence of two witnesses.

of substantially triangular form and provided SARAH J. MILEY. respectively with terminal prongs extending Witnesses: from the plate above and at opposite sides of J. Il. THURSTON,

Io the slit and disposed with the grain of the l). II. SULLIVAN.

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