US1272209A - Locking hair-pin. - Google Patents

Description

J. P. BURKE.

LOCKING HAIR PlN.

APPLICATION FILED MT. 20. I917.

1 ,272,209. Patented July 9, 1918..

v WITNESSES I INVENTOR 9 cLRBurbe W By M fiTTOR/MEYS the device in a ladys hair. I wish it to be l r P P. Beam, OF STBUTHERS, QHIO.

LOCKING HAIR-PIN.

To all whom it may concern.

Be it known that 1, James P. BURKE, a citizen of the United States, and a resident of Struthers, in the county of Mahonmg and State of Ohio, have invented a new and Improved Locking Hair-Pin, of which the following is a full, clear, and exact description.

This invention relates to hairpins and has particular reference to that type of hairpins that are intended to be self locking.

Among the objects of the invention, therefore, is to provide a hairpin having or including prongs that are adapted to be so interlocked with the strands of hair or each other as to preclude any reasonable possibility of the hairpin loosening or slipping out of the hair.

My improved hairpin is calculated for use particularly in connection with hair ornaments such as tortoise shell, celluloid, or ornamental metal devices having prongs adapted to project into and thereby hold understood, however, that the invention is well adapted for ordinary pins employed for the dressing of ladies hair.

With the foregoing and other objects in view the invention consists in the arrangement and combination of parts. hereinafter described and claimed, and while the invention is not restricted to the exact details of construction disclosed or suggested herein, still for the purpose of illustrating a practical embodiment thereof reference is had to the accompanying drawings, in which like reference characters designate the same parts in the several views, and in which- Figure 1 is a plan view of a preferred embodiment of interlocking prongs, the

prongs being spaced or open as in the posi-.

tion for introduction into the hair.

Fig. 2 is a simila'r'view'but with the dej vice turned around a longitudinal central. axis through an angle of 90 degrees, and

Figs. 3 and 4 are views with the prongs interlocked, but being otherwise-similar to Figs. 1 and 2 respectively.

My improved hairpin, or is shown as comprlsmg two features, namely,

a head '10 and a pair of prongs 11. The.

lustrated consists merely of a loop of material of a more or less flexible nature such as ring metal, celluloid, tortoise shell, or the like. The head further head inthe form i more m y be of an Qm m t l nature s ch Specification of Letters ?atent. Application filed October 20, 1917. Serial No. 197,089.

hair ornament,

Patented July 9, 3238.

as of polished gold or silver and may be of any desired configuration but as to the head per- 86 I am not particularly concerned in this instance.

The main feature of importance and novelty l1 es in the peculiar construction and operation of the two prongs/11 which are or may be duplicates. Each prong in general from one end to the other, except as will shortly be described, is substantially straight but 1n the open position of the pin the two prongs are so arranged with respect to each other that they lie in different planes, one in eflectintersecting the plane of the other as may be appreciated if the pin occupying the position of Fig. 2 be rotated so that the upper prong approaches the observer while the pin is rotated as a whole through about one eight of a turn. Described in another way the head 10 consists of a curve in the form of a spiral rather than an arc of a circle and the two prongs extend from the points or ends of the spiral 10" at an oblique angle to each other instead of in the same plane as would be true. if the curve were an arc of a circle. One reason for this particular feature may be appreciated if the pin in the position of Fig. 2 be regarded as held steady by the lower prong and the upper prong be grasped at .the point and drawn toward the observer and thence swung downwardly into the position of Fig. 4. The resilience of the metal, therefore, at the spiral head 10 acts to hold the two prongs in interlocking engagement with suflicient force for the purpose of preventing accidental withdrawal of the pin from the hair.

At any desired point or place along the same from one end to the other, each prong is provided with a compound curve 12. This curve maybe described in a general way as a spiral, or Sl10h -'9.S'IIilgl1t be formed by grasping the "prongs firmly by' the fingers "while; in spaced relation, on opposite sides of the curves 12.;and then'giving the device as a whole a twisting movement preferably tions of. thepinhowever, whether locked or unlocked either straight portion of either prong lies approximately in alinement with the other straight ortion of the same prong.

It wil be we hem r tha th 1 9 or head portion of the pin approximates a position in a plane at right angles to the plane of the points of the prongs. This fact can be appreciated best from Figs. 2'and 3. In Fig. 1, however, the point of the lower prong must be read as occupying a po'sition closer to the observer than the point of the upper prong while the opposite end of the upper prong and upper point 10 lies closer to the observer than the lower point 10. In other words with the pin lying on the paper corresponding to Fig. 1 neither end thereof would lie flat against the paper. In Fig. 2'the points both lie flat while the loop projects approximately at rights angles thereto. From the construction of the prongs illustrated it will be observed that m the interlocking action thereof there are provided two shoulders at the points 13, which when the in is in looking position bear squarely against each other and are 50 held by the resiliency of the device especially at the head as described above.

The operation may be briefly summarized as follows: With the pin in open position as shown in Figs. 1 and 2 it is introduced into the hair in the usual manner and after it is so introduced the operator holds the fingers of one hand firmly and flatly against the points of the prongs and then imparts a right-handed or clockwise rotation to the head thereof which causes the shoulder'portions 13 of the prongs to interlock in the position shown in Figs. 3 and 4 as a result of the twisting action imparted to the pin between its ends. The strand or portion of the hair that is thus trapped within the closed loop 14 of the pin will in eifect positively hold or lock the pin from withdrawal. Anyforce that might be applied to the pin tendin to cause such withdrawal without unlocking the pin would simply cause the entrapped strand of hair to tend to spread the end'of the loop toward the points with the result that the interlocking shoulders 13 will more positively be held together. As

noted in Fig. 3 the locking efiect is precisely the same as though the up er prong of Figs. 1 and 2 be swung towar the observer and thence downwardly entirely beneath the other prong oint making a practicall positive lock and yet without any ossibi 'ty of breaking, cutting, or otherwise damaging the hair in practice. To remove the pmobviousliy it is necessar only for the operator to hol the points 0 the prongs by'pressmg with the fingers on one hand against the same and givmg the head or loopportion of the pin a left-handed partial turn or twist around its longitudinal axis. After the in is thus unlocked it may, of course, be w1th drawn in the usual manner.

I claim:

1. The herein described locking hairpin comprising ahead and two prongs extending therefrom, the tially straight rom one end to the other except for a short distance between the ends where it .is formed into a spiral formin a shoulder adapted to interlock directly with the similar shoulder of the other prong, whereby when the pin is introduced into the hair with the prongs spaced from each other and the ends of the prongs are then held firmly and the head end of the pin is given a turn or twist around the longitudinal axis of the pin the two shoulder matically interlock.

2. In a locking hairpin, the combination of a head and two pr ngs projecting therefrom resiliently, eac prong intermediate of its ends being provided with a compoundcurved portion while the straight portions on opposite sides of the curved portion lie approximately in the same direction, said curved portions of the two prongs being adapted to interlock when the head of the pin is given a rotation around a longitudinal axis 0 the pin with respect to the points of the prongs.

JAMES P. BURKE.

rongs being each substanportions auto-

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