IMPROVEMENTS IN CONNECTING OR FASTENING BUTTONS TO WEARING APPAREL, BOOTS AND SHOES, AND OTHER ARTICLES
Year: 1876

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by Francis Daniel Taylor at the Office of
the Commissioners of Patents on the 5th August 1876.
FRANCIS DANIEL TAYLOR, of Birmingham, in the County of Warwick, Civil and
Mining Engineer. "IMPROVEMENTS IN CONNECTING OR FASTENING BUTTONS TO
WEARING APPAREL, BOOTS AND SHOES, AND OTHER ARTICLES."
My Invention consists of the improvements herein-after described in connecting
or fastening buttons to wearing apparel, boots and shoes, and other articles without
sewing.
Although my Invention is specially applicable to such buttons as require to be
permanently connected to the article of dress, such as trouser buttons, coat buttons,
boot and shoe buttons, and the like, yet my said Invention may also be applied to
buttons for sleeves, cuffs, and wrist bands.
In carrying my Invention into effect I use a button having a central shank or
stem with a head or enlargement on its end, and for the purpose of fastening the
button to the garment or article, I use a metallic or other disc having a hole in its
middle of a size proper to fit loosely on the shank of the button, but of less diameter
than the head of the shank. Passing from the edge of the disc, and opening into
the central hole thereof is a radial slot. The width of the said radial slot is less
than the diameter of the central hole into which it opens. In the shank of the
button and on opposite sides are two cross slits or notches. These slits or notches
are not opposite one another, but are situated in different.planes.
In fastening the button to a garment the cloth or material is pierced, and the
hended shank is passed through the piercing; the fastening disc is then passed into
the shank, and between the head of the shank and the material, so as to prevent the
said head being drawn through the material.
The connection of the disc with the shank is effected by inclining the disc so as
to engage the opposite edges of its radial slot with the two notches in the shank,
and then sliding the disc towards the stem. When the central hole in the disc has
reached the shank the disc passes on to the latter, the sides of the slot being dis-
engaged from the notches in the stem, and the button is securely fastened to the
garment.
In order the more effectually to prevent the accidental unfastening of the button,
the disc may be turned round so as to remove the radial slot from near the notches
in the shank. When the disc is thus secured to the shank the pressure of the

page_text: material preserves it parallel to the button, so that it cannot accidentally take such
an inclination as is necessary to permit the sides of its radial slot to pass into the
cross notches in the shank, and be drawn through the said notches to remove it
from the shank, hence great security in the attachment of the button is obtained.
The notches in the shank may be at right angles to the shank or inclined thereto,
or the notclics in the shank may be dispensed with. In this case, one of the sides
of the radial slot is bent considerably out of the plane of the other side of the slot,
so as to permit the head of the shank to be passed into the central hole in the disc.
The two sides of the slot are then bent into the same plane, when the disc is
fastened to the shank, and the button to the garment. Or a washer or disc of india-
rubber, leather, or other elastic material may be employed. The elastic washer has
a central hole of the size of the shank.
After the headed shank has been passed through the garment the central hole in
the elastic washer is forced over the rounded head of the shank on to the said
shank, the elasticity of the said washer causing it to contract on the stem and fasten
the button to the garment.
My improvements are applicable to buttons made of metal and non-metallic
materials.