Last weekend I helped a neighbour clear out her understairs cupboard before she moved house. She was about to throw out what she knew to be stair carpet clamps when I stopped her.
I always look at old pieces of equipment to see if there is a patent number on them. The only wording or numbering on them was:
Pat. No. 420204
Reg. No. 793737
The "Reg." number is for the registered design. It dates from the mid 1930s and the design would be in the National Archives.
The patent is available on the Web, as are most British patents back to 1895. GB 420204 is by Wilfred Anderson of Southfields, London, and it was "accepted" for publication in 1934. There are seven pages of description and drawings about how to use the clamps.
The database also shows that Anderson applied for another carpet clamp in collaboration with Hunter & Hyland, a firm based at Holborn. In 1940 and 1942 he applied for another two patents with the company, this time for curtain clamps.
Dull stuff, you might think. Not for the person researching the history of such clamps. The patents help date the invention and give the name and address of the applicants. They also describe how it works -- invaluable if you can't figure it out, or if part of it has been damaged. I'm sure many a museum has many such pieces, even if they don't know how to interpret the data.
Sadly, my neighbour didn't share my enthusiasm about the rescue of this little fragment of industrial archaeology. I only wanted one, but she handed over the whole bag, enough clearly for her staircase. I am now the proud owner of a dozen or so 70-year old carpet clamps, one of which will join the library's informal collection of artefacts.
Comments