US1030457A - Snap-seal. - Google Patents

Description

E. J. BROOKS. SNAP SEAL.

APPLIOATION FILED APR. 1, 1912.

1,030,457. Patented June 25, 1912.

, INVENTOR Attorney EDWARD J. BROOKS, OF EAST ORANGE, NEW JERSEY.

SNAP-SEAL.

Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented June 25, 1912.

Application filed April 1, 1912. Serial No. 687,616.

To all whom it may concern: I

Be it known that I, EDWARD J. BROOKS, a citizen of the United States of America, and a resident of East Orange, in the State of New Jersey, have invented a new and useful Improvement in Snap-Seals, of which the following is a specification.

This invention relates, in common with previous improvements, to self-fastening seals, or snap seals as they are commonly termed, for use, as substitutes for lead and wire seals and other press-fastened or pressfastenable sealing devices, to secure the doors of railway freight cars and for other like purposes. Examples of such snap seals are set forth in my specifications forming part of United States Letters Patent No. 1,017,950, dated February 20, 1912, and other Letters Patent therein referred to.

The present invention is more particularly additional to the improvement in snap the form of tubes one within the other within a bulb-shaped sheet-metal seal part that may be and preferably is also of one piece, and only one end of the shackle is snap fastened.

The present invention consists in an improved snap seal of that type, and in certain novel combinations of parts embodied there in as hereinafter particularly described and claimed.

The leading object of this invention is to more securely lock the snap fastened end within the preliminarily fastened sheath end of the shackle.

Other objects will be set forth in the gen- 1 deep end notch, 9, and with a relatively eral description which follows.

A sheet of drawings accompanies this specification as part thereof.

Figures 1 and 2 are perspective views of the seal part and shackle, respectively, as they appear before being united; Fig. 3 is an elevation of the improved snap seal as it leaves the factory with its members preliminarily united; Fig. 4 is an elevation of the snap-fastened seal in use as a car-door fastening; Fig. 5 is a plan view of the seal as it leaves the factory with the shackle in section on the line A-B, Fig. 3; Fig. 6 represents a section through the snap-fastened seal on the line C-D, Fig. 4; and Fig. 7 represents a longitudinal section on the line EF, Fig. 6.

Like reference characters refer to like parts in all the figures.

In common with my said patented snap seal set forth in Letters Patent No. 1,017,950, the improved snap seal as shown is composed of a bulb-shaped seal part a and a flexible shackle 6, both of any suitable sheetmetal and each complete in one piece; the seal part a is in the shape of a cup or vase, round in cross section, with its upper edge or lip turned in and a central round inlet thus formed, as represented respectively at 1 and 2 in Fig. l and other figures; the shackle ends, 3 and 4, are tubular and adapted to fit slidably one within the other; the larger or sheath end 3 is preliminarily, fastened within the seal part by contracting the latter tightly around it; the other shackle end, 1, is snap-fastened within the seal part after being passed through a pair of car-door staples, 0, cl, Fig. 1, or the like; and the shackle ends are connected by a fiatbody portion, 5, which is provided with any desired lettering or distinguishing marks represented by 19670 and I X Y Ry. Fig. 8, and is adapted to be readily cut through to remove the seal. In the improved snap seal said sheath end 3 of the shackle b is constructed with a pair of circumferential embossed beads, 6, to cooperate with the inturned edge surrounding the hole 2 in the top of the seal part a, and with lower end portions, 7, adapted to cont-act with the bottom 8 of the seal part as in Fig. 7, and to be pressed downward tightly against the same when the seal part is contracted to preliminarily fasten this shackle end. Between said end portions 7, on each side of said sheath end 3, the improved shackle is provided with a short catch portion, 10, within the notch on each side of the shackle; and the other shackle end, 4:, is correspondingly constructed with a pair of deep end notches, 11, and with outturned and rebent hooks, 12, at the extremities of the catch portions between these notches 11; said catch portions 10 of the sheath end and the catch portions supporting said hooks 12 of the other shackle end being rendered yielding by said notches and being sufliciently resilient and so constructed and arranged as to adapt said hooks 12 to interlock with said catch portions 10 immediately above said bottom 8 of the seal vided with a circumferential indented bead,

15, Figs. 2, 3, and 7, located at a convenient point which is above said supplemental snap catches 13 in the fastened seal, as shown in Fig. 7, to prevent access to the snap catches as a whole through the interior of the tubular shackle ends.

In practice the sheath end 3 embraces the inner end 4 closely enough to prevent the insertion of any tampering device between them, but the interior of said inner end 4 is necessarily of sufficient diameter in some sizes of the improved snap seal to expose the snap catches 12 and 13 to manipulation therethrough unless it be effectively obstructed in some way. It is so obstructed by contracting the same to a sufficient extent above all the catches in the fastened seal by said indented bead 15, as shown in Fig.7.

The notches 9 and 11, catch portion 10 and hook 12 at one side of the shackle may obviously be omitted; or there may be more than two of each; and other like modifications will suggest themselves to those skilled in the art.

Having thus described said improvement, I claim as my invention, and desire to patent under this specification:

1. An improved snap seal having, in com bination, a bulb-shaped seal part constructed with a downwardly pressing inturned edge surrounding a central hole in its top, and a flexible shackle constructed with a tubular sheath end provided with a circumferential bead adapted to cooperate with said edge to preliminarily fasten this shackle end within the seal part; said sheath end being further constructed with end portions adapted to contact internally with the bottom of the seal part, and notches separating said end portions, and the respective shackle ends being provided with catch portions including catch portions within said notches adapted to interlock with each other within the seal part immediately above said bottom when the seal is snap fastened. v

2. The combination, in a snap seal, of a bulb-shaped seal part and a flexible shackle having tubular ends, one of which is a sheath end, connected by a flat body portion; said sheath end being preliminarily fastened within said seal part and 0011- structed with an end notch and a catch portion within said notch, and the other tubular shackle end being slidably insertible endwise into the said sheath end and constructed with a hook-shaped catch portion at its extremity adapted to interlock with said catch portion of the sheath end at the snap fastening operation.

3. The combination, in a snap seal, of a bulb-shaped seal part and a flexible shackle having tubular ends, one of which is a sheath end, connected by a flat body portion; said sheath end being preliminarily fastened within said seal-part and constructed with an end portion adapted to contact with the bottom of said seal part internally, an end notch and a catch portion within. said notch, immediately above said bottom of the seal part, and the other tubular shackle end being slidably insertible endwise into said sheath end and constructed with a hookshaped catch portion at its extremity adapted to interlock with said catch portion of p the sheath end at the snap-fastening operation.

4. The combination, in a snap seal, of a bulb-shaped seal part and a flexible shackle having tubular ends, one of which is a U sheath end, connected by a flat body portion; said sheath end being preliminarily fastened within said seal part and constructed with a plurality of end portions adapted to contact with the bottom of said seal part internally, deep end notches between said end portions and a relatively short catch portion within each of these notches, and the other tubular shackle end being slidably insertible endwise into said sheath'end and constructed with a hook-shaped catch portion arranged to interlock with each of said catch portions of the sheath end at the snapfastening operation.

5. The combination, in a snap seal, of a bulb-shaped seal part and a flexible shackle having tubular ends, one of which is a sheath end, connected by a flat body portion; said sheath end being preliminarily fastened within said seal part and constructed with one member of a snap fastening device located within the seal part and the other tubular shackle end being slidably insertible endwise into said sheath end and constructed with the other member of said ternally, an end notch, a catch portion Within said notch immediately above said bottom of the seal part and one member of a supplemental snap-catch device above said catch portion, and the other tubular shackle end being slidably insertible endWise into said sheath end and constructed With a hook-shaped catch portion at its extremity and the other member of said supplemental snap catch device, and adapted to inter- 0 lock With said sheath end at the snap-fastening operation substantially as hereinbefore specificed.

EDl/VARD J. BROOKS.

Witnesses: I

G120. O. ToTTnN, VINCENT VVEAVER.

Copies of this patent may be obtained for five cents each, by addressing the Commissioner of Patents, Washington, D. G.

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