Buckle.

Application filed April 21, 1911. Serial No. 622,517.

To dll whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, James F. Molloy, a citizen of the United States, residing at West Haven, in the county of New Haven 5 and State of Connecticut, have invented a new and useful Improvement in Buckles; and I do hereby declare the following, when taken in connection with the accompanying drawings and the letters of reference 10 marked thereon, to be a full, clear, and exact description of the same, and which said drawings constitute part of this specification, and represent, in—

Figure 1 a front view of a buckle con15 structed in accordance with my invention. Fig. 2 a top or edge view of the same. Fig. 3 a sectional view of a buckle with webbing applied thereto.

This invention relates to an improvement 20 in buckles, and particularly to buckles of the one-piece type, and particularly adaptCvl for hose supporters but equally applicable for suspenders or for other purposes, the object of the invention being to provide a 25 buckle which may be readily webbed, which will be rustless and which will firmly hold the web against slipping; and the invention consists in the construction hereinafter described and particularly recited in the 30 claim.

In carrying out my invention I employ a plate 2 having ends 3, 4, forming fingers which turn rearward and inward into a plane parallel with the plane of the plate. 35 As shown the lower edges of these fingers taper downward from their outer ends. In this plate is a curved slot 5. The ends 6, 7, of the slots are straight, while the central portion is bowed upward and the lower 40 edge of the slot or tongue 8 is slightly bent outward; and in its upper edge is a long notch 9, although this notch may be omitted. The slot divides the plate into an upper bar 12 and a lower bar 13. In web45 bing the buckle the web 14 is passed from rear to front through the slot, and the end of the web is formed with a loop 15 the ends of which are readily hooked onto the fingers 3 and 4, and owing to the taper of the fingers this operation is greatly facilitated. 50 When tension is placed upon the web the deflection over the tongues 8 or 11 will be such as to prevent the web slipping through the slot, and this holding capacity is enhanced by the curvature of the slot. 55

It will be seen from the drawings that no metal is exposed at the back so that the buckle is a rustless buckle; and being in one piece is readily struck up from a strip of sheet metal. By forming the webbing 60 slot with straight ends arranged in line with each other and with a symmetrically curved central portion, the edges of the webbing are supported in the usual manner, while the central portion of the webbing is left 65 free for deflection by the tongue produced by setting the lower edge of the curved central portion of the slot slightly forward beyond the plane of the buckle, whereby the webbing is positioned in the usual manner 70 in the buckle and at the same time firmly gripped without the use of an independently formed gripping-lever.