US1229827A - Gold-testing device. - Google Patents

Description

R. D. VERCLER.

GOLD TESTING DEVICE.

APPLICATION FILED NOV. 1. I916.

Patented June 12, 1917.

WITNESSES mourn/.1. WASNING mu, 0 c.

RAYMOND D. VERCLER, DE LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA.

GOLD-TESTING DEVICE.

Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented June 12, 191W.

Application filed November 7, 1916. Serial No. 130,044.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, RAYMOND D. VERQLER, a citizen of the United States, residing at Los Angeles, in the county of Los Angeles and State of California, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Gold Testing Devices, of which the following is a specification.

This invention has reference to gold testing devices, known in the jewelry trade as gold testing needles, which are used for testing gold jewelry.

The object of the invention is to improve the construction of such gold testing needles so as to make them handier in use and of more rigid construction than heretofore.

Heretofore gold testing needles have been made separately for each grade, and then strung upon a ring so that any chosen one of the needles might be utilized. Each needle comprises a main portion of some base metal, such as brass, with a gold tip or needle point soldered thereto and corresponding in carat or fineness to the gold to be tested. A testing device so constructed usually comprises nine separate needles ranging in fineness by steps of two carats from four to twenty carats. Such a group of testing needles is mounted upon a retaining ring and each needle must be separately brought into position, whereby it may be rubbed on the touch stone. In order to keep down the bulk of the device such needles must be made rather narrow and thin. The device is difiicult or awkward to manipulate both because of the grouping and because the indicia used to dilferentiate the separate needles are only visible when the needles are spread open. Further the needles are sufliciently delicate in construction to be liable to distortion and injury.

By the present invention the basic portion of the needles is made in the form of a disk with short stout spokes radiating therefrom and each spoke at the outer end carries a gold point. The disk may be provided with a central opening for convenience of manipulation and storage and causing a corresponding lightening of the weight of the device without any sacrifice of rigidity. Each spoke terminates in a dovetail tongue and the needle is provided with a dovetail slot receiving the tongue. Finally the needle point is made fast to the basic portion or support of the needle by soldering or otherwise.

Such a device has the advantage of extreme rigidity and actually less weight than the ordinary group of individual needles. The points are more rigidly secured than before and the whole structure is far more sturdy than is the case with the customary form of such needles.

The invention will be best uiulerstood from a consideration of the following detailed description, taken in connection with the accompanying drawings forming part of this specification with the further under standing that while the drawings show a practical form of the invention, the latter is not confined to any strict conformity with the showing of the drawings, but may be changed and modified so long as such changes and modifications mark no material departure from the salient features of the invention.

In the drawings Figure 1 is a perspective view of the gold testing device.

Fig. 2 is a detail of one of the spokes or needles with some parts in section to show the interior structure.

Referring to the drawings there is shown a disk 1 with a central opening 2 and a circular series of radially outwardly extending spokes or needles 3. Each needle 3 terminates at the outer end in a shoulder t from which projects radially a dovetail tongue 5. Each needle 3 carries a small block 6 constituting a point or terminal for the needle, and such block 6 is formed of gold of a certain fineness. The degree of fineness is indicated by a number shown at 7 which numbers in the particular showing of the drawing vary from four to twenty by steps of two. For instance, the needle point 6 on the needle 3 containing the number 4 has a fineness of four carats. The next point in order has a fineness of six carats, and so on in order until the last needle point of the series has a fineness of twenty carats.

The dovetail connection between the ne dles and the points provides a particularly strong junction which is further strengthened by solder 8 applied to the junction. In the showing of the drawings the various parts are more or less exaggerated in order to more clearly show the construction. For instance, the body portion 1, which may be made of brass or other base metal in the form of a spider, may be about one-sixteenth of an inch in thickness and about two inches in diameter exclusive of the points.

Since the gold points are of far greater value than the brass body, the tongues 5 are formed on the brass body and the grooves for receiving the tongues are formed in the points, wherefore the amount of gold employed is minimized.

The solder 8 is shown as covering the junction between the points and the needles, but it is evident that the solder may be otherwise applied so long as the points are firmly attached to the needles without liability of loosening therefrom and being lost.

The device is used in the usual manner by rubbing the points upon a touch stone upon which the gold to be tested is also rubbed for comparison. Vvith the ordinary type of testing device where the needles are separately mounted upon a. ring so as to be brought one at a time in the working position, it is not at all uncommon in practice to bend the needles by the force used in the rubbing action.

With the present invention the needles may be made much sturdier and can be con siderably shortened. For instance, in commercial forms of needles the body portion is about one and one-half inches in length. lVith the present invention the body portion need not exceed three eighths of an inch in length. By arranging the needles as a circular series of radially projecting arms of a spider, the device occupies considerably less space than in prior structures for a like purpose, and the body may be made considerably thicker or of much heavier gage metal.

Moreover, all the numbers indicating the fineness of the gold points are always visible and the desired point can be chosen quickly and without the necessity of hunting through and moving a large number of points to find the desired one.

The dovetail connection holds the point in place and the junction is further strengthened by the application of hard solder so that the mechanical connection greatly strengthens the junction between the body of the needle and the point and is far superior to the use of solder alone as has heretofore been the custom, which prior custom frequently results in the breaking off of the points.

Furthermore, the base has a decided advantage in ease and cheapness of manufacture, since the body of the device may be made of a single stamping instead of necessitating nine stampings and a support, as is the case with the customary commercial forms of testing devices of the general character of the present invention.

The use of the device is facilitated by having the opening 2 of a size to seat the ball of the thumb.

hat is claimed is l. A gold testing needle structure, comprising a one piece body member of disk form having a circumferential series of arms or needles projecting radially therefrom, and gold points of varying degrees of fineness carried by respective arms or needles, and each arm having thereon indicia repre senting the degree of fineness in gold of the point carried thereby.

2. A gold testing needle device comprising a disk of relatively base metal of suitable gage in the form of a spider having relatively short arms projecting radially therefrom and constituting the bodies of the needles, and a needle point of gold on each arm, the points varying in fineness in gold and the arms having indicia thereon indicating the degree of fineness ofthe respective points.

3. A gold testing needle device comprising a disk of sheet metal with arms radiating therefrom and each terminating in a tongue, and a series ofgold needle points, one for each tongue, and each provided with. a groove receiving the tongue of the respective arm or needle, the device having indicia indicating the degree of fineness in gold of the respective points.

4. A gold testing needle device comprising a disk of sheet metal with a peripheral series of radial arms projecting therefrom and each arm terminating in a dovetail tongue, and a series of gold points each individual to a respective arm and provided with a dovetail groove for receiving the tongue of the arm, with the points soldered to the arms, the arms having indicia thereon denoting the degree of fineness in gold of the respective gold points.

5. A gold testing needle device comprising a disk of sheet metal with a peripheral series of radial arms projecting therefrom and each arm terminating in a dovetail tongue, and a series of gold points each individual to a respective arm and provided with a dovetail groove for receiving the tongue of the arm, with the points soldered to the arms, the arms having indicia thereon denoting the degree of finenessin gold of the respective gold points, and the device having a central opening therethrough of a size to seat the ball of the thumb of the user.

In testimony whereof I have afiixed my signature in the presence of two witnesses.

RAYMOND D. VERCLER.

WVitnesses W. C. KL IsT, NORMAN L. ENTLER.

Copies of this patent may be obtained for five cents each, by addressing the Commissioner of Patents, Washington, I). C.

Images