AIBDC : 005528 These are drop dead deco in style. They could have been made at any time between the 20s and the 50s, help us to find out when and who designed them: http://10most.org.uk/artefact/stair-carpet-clips

The stair rods were patented on 10 September 1932 by Ernest Harrison, of Laythorn Street in Bury.

The full patent listing is: 392,800. Stair-rods and eyes. HARRISON, E., 2, Lathom Street, Bury. Sept. 10, 1932, No. 25245. [Class 52 (v).] A stair-carpet holder comprises a socket part'b secured to the stair ; it has an open top, and is adapted to receive the spigot a<1> of the clip a which is formed with recesses a<2>, a<3> so as to produce longitudinal and transverse shoulders which engage the pile of the carpet. In a modification, the clip is triangular in cross section to fit in the angle of the stair. The holders may be made of thermo-plastic material such as synthetic resin. You can find pix here:http://worldwide.espacenet.com/publicationDetails/biblio?DB=worldwide.espacenet.com&II=14&ND=3&adjacent=true&locale=en_EP&FT=D&date=19330525&CC=GB&NR=392800A&KC=A

Nice work for day one!

Go Team Orchard!!

I would so very much like to see an image of: 'Improvements in and relating to dust excluders for the corners of rooms and the like'

"A dust shield for corners is formed with as many edges as there are planes.." and the like!

All that I can tell you about these is that I have a box full of them.

I love my friends! Knew you'd come up trumps but this is above and beyond!!

These comments are really interesting. Stephen, what is the story behind you having a box of these Stair carpet clips? Is it just any box or is a box made for the clips - if so, an image of it would be good... does it have any info on it?

Wonderful to see the patent for the clips and to have a firm date of 1942 for their design and to know they were in manufacture at least by 1934.

Hi Susan, about 15-years ago I was renovating a 1920s house in Wolverhampton and found a box of these in a local junk shop. Some were broken and most had paint on them. Over the years I've picked up more as and when I've seen then for sale with the intention of making up a good complete set. The 'box' is just an old biscuit tin, not the original packaging unfortunately.

Lovely image - thank you.

Stamped on the underside of the clips reads- "BYSON" DESIGN & METHOD OF MANUFACTURE PAT. IN ENGLAND & ABROAD No. 392800 Tested and Approved SERIAL 924 GOOD HOUSEKEEPING INSTITUTE Conducted by GOOD HOUSEKEEPING MAGAZINE

Thank you for that, Stephen. I wonder if you or anyone else has come across the Good Housekeeping Insitute or its magazine?

The Good Housekeeping Magazine (I thought) was a well known brand. It's available in WH Smiths. http://www.goodhousekeeping.co.uk/

I wonder if there is anyone with the time or inclination to look through issues from 1931 until they find mention of the award? The right issue could hold just the info we are after...

We still need to find out two things, one: who is Ernest Harrison? Is he a patent agent, an employee of Byson, the company secretary or lawyer perhaps? And two: who did Byson employ, retain or hire to design the carpet clips?

Unless he was a genius inventor, looks like he was an agent - see http://www.patentmaps.com/assignee/Ernest_Harrison_2.html

Not all of them are - a few are in America and relate to a different Harrison with an extra forename. But most of them appear to be the same man.

There has been an exciting development… We now know who Ernest Harrison was and who designed the carpet clips and are awaiting permission from Ernest's grandaughter to publish what she has told us. Expect this tomorrow, Tuesday.

Well done!

Out of interest, how was she found?

How exciting. Tuesday seems a long way away. On 21 Oct 2013, at 17:14, Phil Blume wrote: >

Many apologies to you Lewis and also to Stephen, who does have such a box. Thank you for pointing out the error. Blog now corrected. On 22 Oct 2013, at 00:27, Lewis Orchard wrote: >

Last Thursday I found a Canadian website written by Rosemary Phillips in which she tells of her grandfather, Ernest Harrison, inventing a bread slicer in 1927 and this being the "beginning of an inventors creative career".

I emailed Rosemary Phillips asking if she knew of any connection between her grandfather Ernest Harrison and the Ernest Harrison of Bury, Lancashire, who is the focus of our enquiry.

and, and...

I received this from Rosemary Phillips yesterday. Hello Phil, Thank you so much for your e-mail – this really means a lot to me. Yes, Ernest Harrison, my grandfather, was the designer of those plastic stair treads, through his company Byson, in Bury, Lancashire. Byson also produced plastic buttons, and helmets for the war, and toilet seats. Ernest’s biggest contribution to the design world (besides creating one of the first automatic bread slicers) was the introduction of foam rubber (then only used as an insulation) to replace horsehair in upholstery. My attempts at finding the source of this in 1981 were at Dunlopillo in Wales, where they were unable to provide that information, but did give me a formal luncheon that left the Dunlopillo scientists and staff wondering about why I was there – that my visit was evidently very important. So in effect, you could say, that Ernest Harrison was also the initiator of the foam revolution... this will not be shown in the historic documentation of the industry... but I know about it because I lived with the chairs that Ernest used to demonstrate to Dunlop how to use their foam insulation for upholstery. They were not comfortable to sit on, because the foam they had at the time, that was used in those chairs, was in open squares, not a whole slab. I spent a fair bit of time trying to research this information, but without much success... and when Ernest died, all I was able to rescue from his belongings was a few drawings of items he was still trying to patent in the 1950’s...

You can find Rosemary's website here: http://www.quillsquotesandnotes.com/bite-bread.htm

I have uploaded to the files section the two chapters of her book sent to me by Rosemary Phillips. Both include extensive reference to her grandfather, the inventor, Ernest Harrison.