Ajax Eyelet Fastener

Machine Appliance Corp.
Brooklyn, New York

Although they are now used for fastening cloth or leather, eyelet machines were once popularly used for fastening papers.   Eyelets were considered classier than staples and were often used to fasten legal and other "official" documents.

Eyelet machines actually predate staplers.   The first paper fastener patented in the U.S.A. was an eyelet machine designed by William H. Rodgers of New York.   Rodgers's machine, like most early eyeleters required three separate operations to fasten documents:

1. Punch the paper
2. Insert the eyelet (by hand)
3. Clinch the eyelet

In 1915, the Ajax Eyelet Fastener automated this process by automatically feeding the eyelet, punching the paper, and clinching the eyelet with a single pull of the handle.

The Ajax machine was first patented in 1916 by Louis Myers of Flatbush, NY with improvements to the holder punch and feed mechanism patented in 1918.   The earlier versions of the machine had a nickel plated lever (as shown in the photo's below and the ad from 1918 above).   By 1926, the lever was painted black.

How It Works

Loose eyelets are dumped into the drum on the top of the machine.   The drum has slots around its perimeter that allow eyelets through only when they are oriented so that they will slide down the feed track.   Each time the handle is pulled the drum rotates slightly.   The eyelets tumble around inside the drum at random until they line up with one of the slots and are allowed down the feed track.

The eyelets slide down the feed track until they reach the flexible fingers in front of the punch.   When the lever is pulled, the main punch pushes the flexible fingers out of the way.   A retractable "holder punch" inside the main punch enters the hole in the eyelet and grips it until the eyelet contacts the paper.   As the holder punch retracts, the main punch forces the eyelet through the paper and swages it against the anvil.   When the lever is released, the punch retracts into the body of the machine and the next eyelet slides in place in the flexible fingers.

The early versions of these machines are not particularly well constructed.   They are just small and light enough to be unstable during use.   However, the base has holes so that the unit can be mounted to a work surface.

Only the bottom part of the base is made from cast iron.   The rest of the body is made from soft sheet steel.   There are a number of tapped holes in the sheet metal for fine thread screws that hold the nameplate, feed track, and flexible feed fingers.   These holes strip easily due to the fine thread and softness of the sheet metal.

The nickel plating is thin, many examples that you find have rusted drums and feed tracks.   The internal gears that rotate the drum are not hardened and are often stripped.  

The Bates Manufacturing Company of Orange, NJ aquired the Machine Appliance Corp. and began to gradually improve the device, eventually ending up with the very robust Bates Eyelet Machine.

In spite of its shortcomings, the Ajax Eyelet Fastener must have been popular - they are now quite common (indicating that they sold well in their day).   Prices for these average around $25.

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