AN IMPROVED FASTENING FOR SECURING BUTTONS AND OTHER SIMILAR ARTICLES TO WEARING APPAREL
Year: 1874

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by William Robert Lake at the
Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the
23rd November 1874.-A communication from abroad by Zillah K.
Young, of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States of America.
I, WILLIAM ROBERT LAKE, of the Firm of Haseltine, Lake, & Co.,
Patent Agents, Southampton Buildings, London, do hereby declare the
nature of the said Invention for "AN IMPROVED FASTENING FOR SECURING
BUTTONS AND OTHER SIMILAR ARTICLES TO WEARING APPAREL," a communication,
to be as follows :—
The object of my Invention is to produce a detachable fastening for
buttons and similar articles having an eye, stem, or a tuft back, that will
not require an eyelet hole or other opening to be previously made
through the fabric of the material to which the said article is to be
attached, and that will be strong and reliable as a fastening, simple and
inexpensive of construction, and morcover can be attached and detached
with great facility as occasion may require.
The said Invention consists in an open single metallic ring in com-
bination with a swinging metallic tongue or pin, as will hercin be
described. The said ring is open at one side and has a slight or shallow

page_text: groove or depression made directly across near the mid length of one-
half of the ring. The said pin or tongue has the end opposite to its
pointed free end made into a loop or eye, which will slip easily and allow
the said tongue or pin to swing freely on the ring, so that when the said
detachable fastening has been applied to the apparel, the pointed end of
the said tongue or pin will rest securely in the indentation or groove of
the ring, while the button, through the cyc shank of which the said
tongue or pin has been passed, will be securely held fast to the fabric of
the apparel.
The manner of attaching and detaching the button or other similar
useful or ornamental article, whether it has a rigid eye, stem, or a tuft
back, is as follows, namely:-The operator holding the fastener by his
fingers and thumb of one hand, and the part of the apparel to which the
button or other article is to be attached in the other hand, passes the
sharp pointed end of the said tongue or pin through the fabric of the said
apparel by inserting its pointed end from the side of the fabric opposite
to the side upon which the button or other article is to be secured, then
through the tuft or metallic eye stem and back through the fabric of the
apparel. The operator then slips the said ring around in the eye or loop
of the tongue, until the said groove or indentation comes under the
pointed end of the said tongue, and thus the button or other similar
article is secured to the apparel.
The objects of the said groove or indentation are to keep the ring from
being moved around in the loop of the tongue in wearing the apparel,.
and to permit the withdrawal of the pointed end of the tongue therefrom:
with facility when it is desired that the button or other article should be
detached from the apparel.
The extreme point of the tongue may if desirable be slightly bent
toward the fabric, in order. to prevent its catching into any garment it
may in wearing come in contact with, and for the same reason the
extreme ends of the open ring should be rounded or beveled off. The
mid length of the said tongue may be slightly bowed or bent for the
purposc of giving a tendency to keep the eye of the button stem in the
centre of the ring.