IMPROVEMENTS IN BUTTONS OR DRESS FASTENINGS
Year: 1858

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to James Doherty, of Edinburgh, in the County of
Mid Lothian, North Britain, Foreman Tailor, for the Invention of
"IMPROVEMENTS IN BUTTONS OR DRESS FASTENINGS."
Sealed the 30th September 1858, and dated the 7th April 1858.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said James Doherty at the
Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the
7th April 1858.
I, JAMES DOHERTY, of Edinburgh, in the County of Mid Lothian, North
Britain, Foreman Tailor, do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention
for "IMPROVEMENTS IN BUTTONS OR DRESS FASTENINGS," to be as follows, that is
to say:-
This Invention relates to the manufacture of ordinary metal and other
buttons with projecting tubular shanks or necks for receiving the strain and
wear of the garments, instead of allowing such strain and wear to operate, as
at present, solely upon the attaching threads. These buttons may be struck
up in dies, or formed by attaching the necks to the button discs, or otherwise,
and each neck has in it a rounded cross-bar for holding the attaching-threads.
This bar may either be in the solid metal of the button, or it may be a pin put
in separately; such buttons are extremely easy to work when in position, and
they are far more durable in their attachments than ordinary buttons.

page_text: SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said James Doherty in the Great Seal Patent Office on the
4th October 1858.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, JAMES
DOHERTY, of Edinburgh, in the County of Mid Lothian, North Britain, Fore-
man Tailor, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Seventh day of April, in the year of our Lord One
thousand eight hundred and fifty-eight, in the twenty-first year of Her reign,
did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto me, the said
James Doherty. Her special licence that I, the said James Doherty, my execu-
tors, administrators, and assigns, or such others as I, the said James Doherty,
my executors, administrators, and assigns, should at any time agree with, and
no others, from time to time and at all times thereafter during the term
therein expressed, should and lawfully might make, use, exercise, and vend,
within the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, the Channel
Islands, and Isle of Man, an Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN BUTTONS OR
DRESS FASTENINGS," upon the condition (amongst others) that I, the said
James Doherty, my executors or administrators, by an instrument in writing
under my, or their, or one of their hands and seals, should particularly
describe and ascertain the nature of the said Invention, and in what manner
the same was to be performed, and cause the same to be filed in the Great
Seal Patent Office within six calendar months next and immediately after
the date of the said Letters Patent.
NOW KNOW YE, that I, the said James Doherty, do hereby declare the
nature of the said Invention, and in what manner the same is to be per-
formed, to be particularly described and ascertained in and by the following
statement thereof, that is to say :-
My said Invention consists in making buttons or dress fastenings with pro-
jecting tubular shanks or necks at their backs as herein-after particularly
explained and illustrated in the accompanying Drawing. The said tubular
shanks or necks receive the strain and wear of the garments which they are
employed to fasten, and defend the thread by which the button or fastening is
attached from the strain and wear to which they are subjected in buttons of
the ordinary construction.
Figure 1 of the accompanying Drawing represents in section a metal button
constructed according to my Invention; and Figure 2 shows the same
attached to an article of dress. The same letters indicate the same parts in

page_text: the said Figures 1 and 2. The said button is composed of two parts or shells
marked a and b respectively in the said Figures 1 and 2. The front shell a is
perforated at its middle, and has a bar c extending across the perforation, as
is well understood, the said perforation and bar being common in buttons of
the ordinary manufacture. The back shell 6 has a tubular shank or neck d,
into which shank or neck the perforation at the middle of the said shell a
opens. The neck d may be slightly spread or expanded at its open end. In
attaching the button to a garment, the end of the said neck or shank is
placed upon the garment as shown in Figure 2, in which Figure the garment
is marked e. The thread fis passed from the under side of the fabric e up
the tubular shank or neck d, over the bar c, down the neck d, through the
garment 6, and so on as many times as may be deemed necessary to secure
the button firmly to the garment. The fabric of which the garment is made,
is drawn somewhat up the neck d, as represented in Figure 2, and the edge
of the said neck is thus kept firmly against the garment. The neck d, thus
constitutes the true shank of the button, and when the said button is passed
through a button hole, the strain and wear of the button hole is borne by the
neck d, the thread f being wholly preserved from the action of the button
hole. By this method of construction, the function of the thread is simply
the attaching of the button to the garment, the neck d constituting the true
shank. I do not think it necessary to describe the machinery and tools by
which the shells a and b are made, as they differ in no essential respects from
the machinery and tools well known and commonly employed in making metal
buttons, and in raising metals in general. The dies or tools to be used in
making the shell 6 are made of a form suitable for producing the neck dat
the back of the shell 6, the said dies or tools being the counterparts of the
interior and exterior of the part b, as is well understood by press-tool makers
and others acquainted with the making of metal buttons and the raising of
metals. The shells or parts a and b, are put together in the ordinary way.
I sometimes employ a double bar, made of a piece of wiro doubled and
inserted between the shells as shown in Figure 3, which Figure represents in
plan the under side of the top shell, with the doubled wire g placed therein.
The complete button is represented in section in Figure 4; the said section
represents the upper shell in the section taken through the line h, Figure 3.
I sometimes make the upper shell with four or other number of small holes, or
insert a disc perforated with holes between the front and back shells, as repre-
sented in plan in Figure 5, and in section in Figure 6, the thread being passed
through. the holes after the manner of attaching an ordinary four-hole button,
instead of over the bar or bars described with reference to Figures 1, 2, 3,

page_text: and 4. Although I préfer to make metallic buttons of two shells as described,
yet they may be made in one piece by casting or otherwisc.
When I make buttons according to my Invention of non-metallic substances,
such as ivory, bone, and wood, I prefer to make the button and tubular shank
in one piece as represented in Figure 7, which Figure represents a bone
button made according to my Invention. The bar over which the thread is
passed in attaching a button to a garment may either be made of a piece of
wire passed through the neck, as represented at i, or a piece of wire or bar maý
be inserted in the front of the button across the opening in the said button.
But I do not think it necessary to describe the various modifications of which
my Invention is susceptible, as I believe the nature of my Invention will be
sufficiently understood by the description herein-before given, reference being
had to the accompanying Drawing.
In attaching ordinary buttons the workman sews the said buttons on slack,
and a neck or shank is made by twisting the thread around the slack stitches,
but in attaching buttons made according to my Invention the said buttons are
sewn on tightly, and the fabric of which the garment is made is drawn up the
tubular shank or neck. Much less labour is required to attach buttons made
according to my Invention than is required to attach ordinary buttons, and my
improved buttons are more secure and present a neater appearance in the
shank than ordinary buttons, and give greater room for the play of the button
hole. Although I prefer to place the bar or bars over which the thread is
passed in attaching the button either in or near the face or in the body of the
button as shown in Figures 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, and 6, or near the top of the neck as
shown in Figure 7, yet the said bar or bars may be placed at any such distance
up the neck as will suffice to keep the neck closely held to the surface of the
garment when the button is sewn on.
Although I have described my Invention only with reference to ordinary or
circular buttons, yet my Invention may be applied to buttons of other than a
circular form, and to all such dress fastenings as are or may be attached as
sewn-through buttons are attached, or require for their action a shank similar
to a button shank, but as I believe all such applications of my Invention will
be sufficiently understood by the description herein-before given, I do not think
further details necessary.
Having now described the nature of my Invention, and the manner of
carrying the same into effect, I wish it to be understood that I do not limit
myself to the precise details herein described and represented, as the same
may be varied without departing from the nature of my Invention; but I
claim as my Invention the improvements in buttons or dress fastenings

page_text: herein-before described and represented in the accompanying Drawing, that is
to say, making a tubular shank or neck at the back of a button or dress
fastening, the said shank or neck having a bar or bars or cross piece or pierced
dise at or near-its top, or across some portion of the shank or neck other
than the bottom of the said shank or neck, so that when the button or dress
fastening is attached to a garment by threads passing up the tubular shank or
neck and over the bar or cross piece or pierced disc, the edge or bottom of the
shank or neck shall be pressed into close contact with the garment, the said
tubular shank or neck defending the thread from wear, and receiving the strain
and wear of the button hole, and also giving room for the play of the brace end
or other button hole.
In witness whereof, I, the said James Doherty, have hereunto set my
hand and seal, this Second day of October, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and fifty-eight.
Witness,
GEO. VALLANCE, Witness.
JAMES DOHERTY. (L.S.)