Jewelry – Body member encircling ornament – Expansible
Patent
1993-03-10
1995-02-28
Saether, Flemming
Jewelry
Body member encircling ornament
Expansible
24575, A44C 1102
Patent
active
053926161
DESCRIPTION:
BRIEF SUMMARY
FIELD OF THE INVENTION
The present invention relates to a connecting device such as used in the fields of jewelry and watch making, in particular for necklaces or bracelets, which is operable in collaboration with a second connection element.
BACKGROUND
In the field of jewlry numerous types of connections between the two ends of a necklace or a bracelet or the end of a necklace and a piece of jewlry are known already, whereby these connection elements comprise a male piece and a female piece, the latter having frequently the form of a length wise extended U which is provided to be introduced in the male piece. The flexibility of the U is further used to produce a latching effect once the female piece has been properly received in the male piece.
Typically, these connection elements, which are frequently called clasps, are themselves executed in a manner as to constitute a piece of jewlry and the clasp, for exemple for a pearl necklace forms an integral portion thereof and can not be exchanged by the owner of the necklace if she would wish to modify the optical appearance thereof. In a pearl necklace, the clasp is typically held by a loop of the thread on which the pearls are arranged. In other applications, the clasp of the necklace is directly brased to the last link of the necklace in the same way as for other metal jewlry.
Further, in particular for pearl necklaces, the thread which carries the series of pearls is formed to a loop at the end of the chain, and this loop engages with a metallic eye which is fastened to each classical connection element. This loop of the thread is suject to considerable abration where it is in contact with the metallic eye, and traditionally, in order to protect this thread, the latter is itself protected by a helically wound metallic wire which runs around the thread of the necklace in a way similar to a piano cord, and which comes into contact with the metal of the eye without permitting excessive friction between the thread of the necklace and the eye.
This technique, although technically satisfactory, comprises certain aesthetic disadvantages because the wire can not be hidden and represents therefore a not very aesthetic element in a number of embodiments of this type of connection.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
The present invention has the objective to eliminate these inconveniences and to propose a connection element for use in jewlry such as mentioned above, which is further characterized in that it comprises a housing substantially representing one half of a symmetric body, such as a sphere, and an elastic pin which is attached to the housing, which pin consists of a multiply bent rod or band, whereby said housing comprises a slot which is positioned opposite to the location where the pin is situated in order to permit the insertion of a pin of a second, subtantially identical connection element into the first connection element which is positioned in a 180.degree. rotated orientation with respect to said first connection element during connection of the free ends of the necklace or the bracelet or of one of these ends with a piece of jewlry comprising said second connection element.
According to a particular embodiment of this invention and in the case where two identical elements are used upside-down with respect to each other, the external outline of the two assembled elements can form a sphere which comprises, hidden therewithin or projecting outwardly therefrom two knee portions of the two pins at opposite sides. In other embodiments, the pin may be formed such as to stay within the sphere, and the "sphere" may assume the shape of a cyclinder or have a parallelepipedical shape.
In the embodiment of the present invention where the connection elements form a sphere, the housings comprise cut portions whereof a first cut portion is subtantially semi-circular, and corresponds to a partial cut of a hollow sphere following a plane substantially parallel to the axis of the sphere defined by the two projecting portions of the pins, a second substantially semi-circ
REFERENCES:
patent: 910340 (1909-01-01), Wittstein
patent: 2615227 (1952-10-01), Hornik
patent: 4569106 (1986-02-01), Lovato
patent: 4621393 (1986-11-01), Ambal
patent: 4667378 (1987-05-01), Sturm
patent: 5203058 (1993-04-01), Krauss
Massaroni Kenneth M.
Saether Flemming
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