AN IMPROVEMENT OR IMPROVEMENTS IN CLOTHES BUTTONS
Year: 1832

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, John
CHRISTOPHERS, of New Broad Street, in the city of London, Merchant, send
greeting.
WHEREAS His present most Excellent Majesty King William the Fourth,
by His Letters Patent under the Great Seal of Great Britain, bearing date at
Westminster, the Third day of August, in the third year of His reign, did,
for Himself, His heirs and successors, give and grant unto me, the said John
Christophers, His especial licence, full power, sole privilege and authority,
that I, the said John Christophers, my exors, adñiors, and assigns, or such
others as I, the said John Christophers, my exors, admors, or assigns,
should at any time agree with, and no others, from time to time and at all
times during the term of years therein expressed, should and lawfully might
make, use, exercise, and vend, within England, Wales, and the Town of Ber-
wick-upon-Tweed, my Invention of. "AN IMPROVEMENT OR IMPROVEMENTS IN
CLOTHES BUTTONS;" in which said Letters Patent is contained a proviso, that
I, the said John Christophers, shall cause a particular description of the
nature of my said Invention, and in what manner the same is to be performed,
to be inrolled in His said Majesty's High Court of Chancery within six
calendar months next and immediately after the date of the said in part recited
Letters Patent, as in and by the same, reference being thereunto had, will
,more fully and at large appear.
NOW KNOW YE, that in compliance with the said proviso, I, the said
John Christophers, do hereby declare the nature of my said Invention and the

page_text: manner in which the same is to be performed, are fully described and ascer-
tained in and by the following description thereof; that is to say:-
My Invention consists of improvements on my former Patent for "An
Improvement in Clothes Buttons," dated the Seventh day of October, One thou-
sand eight hundred and thirty-one, and to which said Patent a Specification,
dated the Seventh day of April, One thousand eight hundred and thirty-two,
was duly inrolled in the High Court of Chancery, wherein was set forth that
my then Invention consisted "in making clothes buttons with shanks of a
peculiar kind, to be permanently united to washers, as therein described," and
that the shanks of such buttons were "not formed with eyes or openings in
them as usual, to receive sewing thread, but the said shanks are round pins
"of metal or other hard substances, which are firmly fastened by soldering,
rivetting or other suitable means to the backs of the buttons at the centres
"thereof, so as to project out from the backs of the buttons for a length equal
" to the two or more thicknesses of materials whereof the clothes are made, or
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so many thicknesses as the buttons are required to button together, and to one
or more of which thicknesses the buttons are to be affixed;" and the shanks
of such buttons were made fast to the clothes by means of disks or washers
affixed by rivetting the ends of said shanks, in the manner described in
the said Specification.
Now my improvements relate to that description of hollow shank, shown in
Figure 2, of the Drawing annexed to the said Specification, and which shank
consists of a hollow tube or solid shank, having a hole formed down the centre;
and my first improvement consists in cutting or otherwise forming a series of
slits near the end of that hollow shank, which should be of malleable metal, in
order that the parts so cut or separated may be bended outwards and stand at
right angles to the shank, and thus forming a substitute for the disk or washer
mentioned in the aforesaid Specification. And my second improvement con-
sists of forming the pin (e) (by which the disk or washer was fixed to the
button) into two parts, having sufficient elasticity or spring to act as a spring
catch to retain the disk or washer and the button together, when applied to
clothes; and these buttons are particularly applicable to clothes which are
washed, as the buttons may be readily applied and as readily removed, conse-
quently by such removal the buttons will not be injured in the act of washing
or in getting up the clothes, neither will such clothes be injured when mangled,
as is the case when buttons are permanently fixed to the clothes. But in
order that my present Invention may be more clearly understood and carried
into effect, I will describe the Drawing hereunto annexed.

page_text: Figure 1 represents a button constructed according to my first improvement,
a, a, being the head of the button; b, the hollow shank; and it will be seeu
that the outer end is cut into a number of slits which are to be turned back
at right angles, as shown in Figure 2, and this turning back I readily effect by
means of an instrument shown at Figure 3, which consists of two chaps c, c,
and two limbs d, d, acting as a pair of pliers. In the inner edges of the chaps
are formed two semicircular gaps forming a circular aperture, by which the
shank 6 is firmly held just below the slits at the dotted line g, g, and by means
of the sharp end of a hammer, the separated parts are to be driven back till
they are brought level on the face of the chaps c, c, and this operation is of
course performed after the shank 6 has been passed through a hole made in
the clothes on purpose to receive it, and the radiating parts of the shank.will
prevent the shank being drawn through the hole.
Figure 4 represents a button constructed according to my second improve-
ment, a, a, being the head; b, the shank, which is formed of a small tube
having the hole of the outer end contracted in its size by which stops are
formed to meet the shoulders or projections on the spring catch, Figure 5; this
spring catch consists of two halves of a disk or washer, of metal or other
suitable material f, f, affixed by soldering or otherwise, one to each of the
limbs of the spring catch h, and it will be seen that on this spring catch are
formed projections or shoulders which, when forced into the shank b, will take
under the contracted mouth thereof, and hold the button and disk securely
together, so that it will only be necessary, when using the same, that the clothes
should have eyelet holes worked in those parts where buttons are required,
and passing the shank 6 through the same the spring catch is to be intro-
duced and the button will be securely attached to the clothes, and it will be
evident that when the buttons are to be removed the same may be done by
collapsing the two halves of the disk f,f, and thus remove the barbs or catches
when the same may be withdrawn from the shank b. The heads a, a, of the
buttons may be formed of any of the materials usually employed for that
purpose; or the same may be covered with silk or other materials suitable to
the clothes to which the same are to be applied; but as this part of the manu-
facture forms no part of my Invention, and will be well understood by button
makers, no further description thereof will be necessary.
Ilaving now described the nature of my Invention, and the manner of
carrying the same into effect, I would have it understood that what I claim as
my Invention is, first, the forming shanks to clothes buttons in the manner.

page_text: shown and described in Figures 1 and 2. And secondly, the application of a
spring catch to the shanks of clothes buttons, in the manner shown and
described in Figures 4 and 5.
In witness whereof, I, the said John Christophers, have hereunto set
my hand and seal, this Second day of February, in the year of our 5
Lord One thousand eight hundred and thirty-three.