US370096A - Hair-pin - Google Patents

Description

UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICEO MATHEW J. STEFFENS, OF CHICAGO, ILLINOIS.

HAIR-PIN.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 370,096. dated September 20, 1887.

(No model.)

To all whom it may concern.-

Be it known that I, hIA'IHEW J. STEFFENS, residing at Chicago, in the county of Cook and State of Illinois, and a citizen of the United States, have invented a new and useful Improvement in Safety Hair-Pins, of which the following is a full description, reference being had to the accompanying drawings, in which- Figures 1 and 4 are side views with the pin closed; Fig. 2, a side view with the pin open; Figs. 3 and 5, plan or edge views.

The object of this invention is to provide a straight-pronged hair-pin which may be easily inserted or removed, and which will remain in position when placed in the hair, and thereby avoid many of the difficulties which have heretofore existed in the use of ordinary hairpins.

In the drawings, A indicates the prongs; B, the spring; 0, projecting parts for Operating the pin, and D flattened points.

Pins containing my improvements are made with straight converging prongs of the wire ordinarily used for such purpose, or they may be niadeofsteel wire,which willgivethem a better spring act-ion, and the pins are to be made of varying sizes and of the different-sized wires now used for a similar purpose. VVhe'n made of the larger sizes, the projections C may be flattened, as shown at Fig. 3, so as to give a better hold for the hand, and when made of small wire such flattening will be omitted and the form of the wire preserved, as shown at Fig. 5.

The ends D are flattened, and may be left blunt or sharp, as desired. They, however, should not be made sharp enough to cut or injure the hair, and by flattening them the points are made to come together, as shown, when the pressure is removed from the projections C.

It will be seen that the hair-pin is made of a single piece of wire, to which is given the necessary bends to produce the form shown, and the spring B may be an open spring, as shown in Figs. 1 and 2, or the wire maybe given one or more coils, as shown at Fig. 4. In the form shown at Fig. 4 a very small wire maybe used, so as to form a practically-invisible pin, and when larger wires are used it will be understood that one or both of the parts 0 may be finished with an ornamental attachment or not, as may be desired, and for the smaller sizes the flattening of the points D may be omitted, as the pin will lock itself in the hair without them; but the flattening is preferred for all sizes.

In inserting the pin it is opened by pressure from the hand into the form shown at Fig. 2, when it is easily inserted, and when released it will assume the form shown in Figs. 1 and 4 and lock itself in the hair, so that it will remain where placed, and by the use of this pin the hair, when dressed, will remain as dressed without the liability of becoming disarranged by the slipping out or movement of the hairpins heretofore made and used.

I am aware that pins for use in papers and laces have been made with pointed double prongs tending to spring apart and connected by'a spring-loop or inward bend, whereby the double pin is held in place. I am also aware that hair-pins have been made with double curved prongs without spring-coils and having projections or enlargements to assist in holding the pin in place. These I do not claim, and my improved hair-pin differs therefrom in consisting of straight converging prongs connected by a spring-coil and having projections at the spring end by which the prongs are manipulated, the whole being made in a single piece.

What I claim as new, and desire to secure by Letters Patent, is-

1. In a hair-pin, the combination of two converging prongs, A A, the connecting-spring B, and handle projections O C, said parts being constructed substantially as described, whereby the free ends of the converging prongs spring normally inward and are separated by pressure on the handle projections, substantially as set forth.

2. In a hair-pin, the combination of the straight converging prongs A A, having flattened points D D, the spring B, and end projections, G O, substantially as shown and described.

MATHEW J. STEFFENS.

\Vitnesses:

ALBERT H. ADAMS, HARRY T. J oNEs.

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