Patent: Pocket-knife
In 1899, German Emil Kühn received a patent in the United States for a pocket knife without a spring, which was not only cheaper to make but also easier to open. The invention was also registered in Germany and Great Britain, but those patents have not been found.
125 years ago, pocket knives did not yet have thumbstuds, flippers, or other inventive devices to facilitate opening. Most just had a small nail groove, which sometimes made opening the knife rather difficult. Emil Kühn claimed to have found a solution for this problem, on which he applied for a patent in German on 30 July 1898, in Great-Brittain on 27 October 1898 and in the United States on 21 November 1898. Only the American patent has been found. This states that Kühn was living in the village of Untenkatternberg, since 1929 part of Solingen, Germany. No details are given about his professional occupation, although one may assume it had something to do with knives.
The US-patent describes Kühns invention as follows:
“Figures 1 and 2 are side views of the knife in the closed an open position, respectively, and Fig. 3 is a back view of the knife in the half-open position.
a is the knife handle; b, the blade; c, a pin to which the blade is firmly attached and which carries on the outside of the knife-handle a loop, or eye f, the end of which is free to turn therein.
G is a projecting knob over which the head of the loop, clip, or eye f can be made to catch. To prevent the blade moving too far in the direction of the arrow k [there is no arrow k in the drawing, only an arrow x], a check-pin h is fixed at a little distance sidewise from the pin, as shown.
The method of opening and closing the knife is very simple. In order to open the knife, the loop, clip, or eye f is first lifted over the knob g, when by turning the said loop, clip, or eye the pin c, carrying the blade is turned. When the blade has reached the position shown in Fig. 2, the clip is again pressed down over the knob g, by which means the blade is held in the open position. The loop, clip or eye being movable in the end of the pin c, a slight spring is obtained, causing it to catch firmly on the knob g.
The opening of pocket-knives, which is often very troublesome, will be greatly facilitated by the present invention, and a very considerable reduction in the cost of manufacture is obtained by dispensing with the springs which are usually employed in pocket-knives.”
125 years ago, pocket knives did not yet have thumbstuds, flippers, or other inventive devices to facilitate opening. Most just had a small nail groove, which sometimes made opening the knife rather difficult. Emil Kühn claimed to have found a solution for this problem, on which he applied for a patent in German on 30 July 1898, in Great-Brittain on 27 October 1898 and in the United States on 21 November 1898. Only the American patent has been found. This states that Kühn was living in the village of Untenkatternberg, since 1929 part of Solingen, Germany. No details are given about his professional occupation, although one may assume it had something to do with knives.
The US-patent describes Kühns invention as follows:
“Figures 1 and 2 are side views of the knife in the closed an open position, respectively, and Fig. 3 is a back view of the knife in the half-open position.
a is the knife handle; b, the blade; c, a pin to which the blade is firmly attached and which carries on the outside of the knife-handle a loop, or eye f, the end of which is free to turn therein.
G is a projecting knob over which the head of the loop, clip, or eye f can be made to catch. To prevent the blade moving too far in the direction of the arrow k [there is no arrow k in the drawing, only an arrow x], a check-pin h is fixed at a little distance sidewise from the pin, as shown.
The method of opening and closing the knife is very simple. In order to open the knife, the loop, clip, or eye f is first lifted over the knob g, when by turning the said loop, clip, or eye the pin c, carrying the blade is turned. When the blade has reached the position shown in Fig. 2, the clip is again pressed down over the knob g, by which means the blade is held in the open position. The loop, clip or eye being movable in the end of the pin c, a slight spring is obtained, causing it to catch firmly on the knob g.
The opening of pocket-knives, which is often very troublesome, will be greatly facilitated by the present invention, and a very considerable reduction in the cost of manufacture is obtained by dispensing with the springs which are usually employed in pocket-knives.”
The drawings from US patent 2633,854, granted on 26 September 1899 to Emil Kühn of Untenkatternberg,
near Solingen, Germany.