IMPROVEMENTS IN THE CON- STRUCTION AND MANUFACTURE OF BUTTONS, A PART OR PARTS OF WHICH IMPROVEMENTS MAY ALSO BE APPLIED TO OTHER SIMILAR PURPOSES
Year: 1854

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Samuel Frearson, of Glascote, in the County of
Warwick, Gentleman, for the Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN THE CON-
STRUCTION AND MANUFACTURE OF BUTTONS, A PART OR PARTS OF WHICH
IMPROVEMENTS MAY ALSO BE APPLIED TO OTHER SIMILAR PURPOSES."-A com-
Sealed the 29th December 1854, and dated the 8th September 1854.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Samuel Frearson at the
Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the 8th
September 1854.
I, SAMUEL FREARSON, of Glascote, in the County of Warwick, Gentleman,
do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN THE
CONSTRUCTION AND MANUFACTURE OF BUTTONS, A PART OR PARTS OF WHICH IMPROVE-
HMENTS MAY ALSO BE APPLIED TO OTHER SIMILAR PURPOSES," to be as follows:-
The said Invention relates principally to such buttons as are called perforated
buttons, and are made wholly or mainly of metal. Instead of making the
said buttons with a circular hole in the middle divided by a bar, the said
buttons are made with two circular holes, as represented at a, b, Figure 1,
which said Figure represents one of the improved buttons. A button con-
structed according to the said Invention has the following advantages:-It may

page_text: be attached more firmly to a garment by sewing, as the form of the bar c does
not permit of the sliding motion or play which takes place with a bar having
parallel sides; the said bottom is also more economical in construction from
the facility with which the tools are made. Figure 2 represents in vertical
section a pair of dies to be used in making the button, Figure 1. The tools
d, e, and die f, are made wholly or mainly by turning in a lathe, the said
tools d, e, being fixed in the die f and bed f' in the manner represented. The
said tools d, e, being made as explained, by turning, are inexpensive, and are
casily replaced in case of damage. The button may have holes of the form
represented at g, h, in Figure 3, in which case the die and tools are made in
a manner illustrated by Figure 4. Two cylindrical holes i, k, are made in
the die ; and the upper die m, which has holes of the form of g, h, Figure 3,
is dropped over the die 1, as represented. The tools inserted in the holes i, k,
are made by turning, and after being fixed in their proper relative positions in
a chuck, are again turned in a lathe, so as to give their outer sides the figure
indicated by the inner circle in Figure 3. The buttons, Figures 1 and 3, may
either be made of two shells or of a single shell. When made of two shells
the edges of the holes in the said shells are turned inwards, so as to make the
said edges round. When the said buttons are made of one shell, the edges
of the holes are turned over, if the metal is sufficiently thin, or are rounded
by pressure if the metal is thick. The said turning and rounding of the
edges of the holes may be effected by the dies and tools during the raising of
the shells. Figures 5 and 6 represent an improved feeder with which blanks
too thin to be fed by the ordinary feeder are supplied to the dies for raising
shells for buttons. The said feeding is effected by placing a a pile of blanks in
a tube, and a plate having the thickness of one blank slides under the said
tube, and at each advanco pushes the bottom blank from the pile. When
the blanks are thin, the feeder will not act with certainty on account of its
thinness. This is remedied by placing on the thin feeder n, Figure 5, a
saddle o, Figure 6, which said saddle strengthens the said feeder without
interfering with the thickness of its working parts. The said feeder may be
used for all purposes where the method of feeding described is applicable,
and the improvements in buttons herein described may be applied to all such
buttons as the same arc or may be applicable to.

page_text: SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said Samuel Frearson in the Great Seal Patent Office on the
6th March 1855.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, SAMUEL
FREARSON, of Glascote, in the County of Warwick, Gentleman, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Eighth day of September, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and fifty-four, in the eighteenth year of Her
reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto me, the
said Samuel Frearson, Her special licence that I, the said Samuel Frearson,
my executors, administrators, and assigns, or such others as I, the said Samuel
Frearson, 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 THE CONSTRUCTION AND
MANUFACTURE OF BUTTONS, A PART OR PARTS OF WHICH IMPROVEMENTS MAY ALSO
BE APPLIED TO OTHER SIMILAR PURPOSES," communicated to me from abroad,
upon the condition (amongst others) that I, the said Samuel Frearson, by an
instrument in writing under my hand and seal, 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 Samuel Frearson, do hereby declare the
nature of the said Invention, and in what manner the same is to be performed,
to be particularly described and ascertained in and by the following statement
thereof (that is to say):-
The said Invention relates principally to such buttons as are called perforated
buttons, and which are made wholly or partly in metal, and consists, firstly,
of new or improved forms to be given to the said buttons; and, secondly, new
or improved tools to be used for the manufacture of the said buttons.
That part of the Invention herein-after described which relates to machinery
for feeding blanks to button machines may also be used for feeding blanks to
eyelet, coining, and other machines. Perforated metal buttons made of one or
two shells or discs of metal are commonly made with a circular hole in the
middle thereof, which said circular hole is divided in halves by a bar crossing
the said circle as a diameter. In attaching the said button to a garment, the

page_text: thread is passed over the said bar, but the play or sliding motion which the
said bar is capable of in the loops of the thread occasions a looseness in
the button, which is objectionable. One part of the Invention consists in
making two circular holes at or near the middle of the button, or one circular
hole divided by a bar of the form herein-after explained and represented in
the accompanying Drawing.
Figure 1 represents in plan, and Figure 2 in vertical section, a button
made according to the said Invention. The said button possesses two circular
holes a, b, as represented; the said button may be attached more firmly to a
garment by sewing than a button having a circular hole, divided by a bar,
having parallel sides, as the form of the bar c, Figures 1 and 2, does not permit
of any play or sliding motion of the said bar in the thread by which it is sewn
to the garment. Each of the holes a, b, is surrounded a depression or
countorsink, the said depressions or countersinks opening into one another,
as represented in Figure 1, thereby giving room for the thread by which the
button is attached to the garment. Figure 3. represents in plan another
button constructed according to the said Invention; Figure 4 represents a
section of the same, taken through the line d, Figure 3; and Figure 5
represents a section of the same, taken through the line e, Figure 3. The
said button has two holes f, g, of a nearly elliptical Figure, the outer sides of
each hole being portions of the same circle, and the inner sides of each holo
being portions of circles, having the same radius as or less than the circle
forming the outer sides of the said holes; the bar h, by which the said holes
f, g, are separated, has the advantage of having no sliding motion or play
when sewn on a garment. The buttons, Figures 1 and 3, may be made of two
shells or a single shell; when made of two shells, the edges of the holes in
the said shells are turned inwards, so as to make the said edges round. When
the said buttons are made of one shell, the edges of the holes are turned over
if the metal is sufficiently thin, or are rounded by pressure if the metal is
thick. I sometimes modify the form of the button, Figure 1, in the following
manner, that is to say, instead of making the holes circular, the said holes
are made of a nearly elliptical form, as represented in Figure 6, but the edges
of the said holes have a countersink or depression around them, as shewn in
Figure 6, and also in the section of the same, Figure 7. I sometimes cover
or partly cover the buttons, Figures 1, 3, and 6, with some fabric or flexible
material, and I sometimes insert a disc of fabric or flexible material between
the two shells; when the said buttons are made of two shells of very thin metal,
I introduce paper or millboard between the said shells.
The button, Figure 3, is sometimes modified in the manner illustrated in

page_text: Figure 8; the said button, Figure 8, consisting of two shells, the one cousti-
tuting the front or back of the button, having a circular hole at its centre;
and the other shell constituting the back or front of the said button, having
two holes near the centre, as will be understood by an inspection of the said
Figure 8; the opposed portions of the holes in the blanks leave the nearly
elliptical holes i, k. The said button may be covered or partly covered with a
fabric, or have a fubric or paper introduced between the shells; if the front is
completely covered with a fabric, I hotpress the cloth or fabric into the form
of the holes i, k.
Buttons of the forms represented in Figures 1, 3, and 6 may be made of
clay, or any other plastic substance capable of being moulded or pressed;
and buttons of the form of Figure 1 may be made of wood, bone, horn, ivory,
or shell
Figure 9 represents in vertical section a pair of dies to be used in making
the button, Figure 1. The tools l, m, and die n, are made wholly or mainly by
turning in a Inthe, nearly all the parts of the said tools and die being cylin-
drical or conical, or of such forms as, being concentric with the same axis, may
be produced by the process of turning. After flattening the opposed (see
Figure 10), the said tools are fixed in the cylinder o by a pin or cotter p.
The said tools being made as explained, by turning, are inexpensive, and
easily replaced in case of damage; or the tools l, m, may be made by being
drawn through a draw plate of the required shape, as wire is generally
drawn, and cut off in lengths, and the points or parts which form the holes
and countersinks may be turned in a lathe. Figure 10 represents a plan of
the die and tools n, l, m. Figures 11 and 12 represent the lower dies and
tools by which the button, Figure 3, is made; and Figure 18 represents a plan
of the same; two cylindrical holes q, r, are made in the dies; and the collar t,
which has a circular hole formed therein, is dropped upon the dies, as
represented.
The tools u, v, inserted in the holes q, r, are made by turning, their lower
part being cylindrical, and their upper portions having the form of the holes f, g,
Figure 3; the inner sides w of the upper portions of the tools u, v, that is to
say, the sides which are turned towards each other, are of the same curvature
as the lower cylindrical portions; and the outer sides of the upper part of the
said tools u, v, that is to say, the portions which are most distant from each
other, have the curvature of portions of the same cylinder. The said tools
are formed in the following manner :-Two cylindrical steel rods are fixed in
the holes q, r, of the dies, and the said die being placed concentrically in &

page_text: lathe, the upper and outer portions of the said rods are, by the simple appli-
cation of an ordinary turning tool, turned to the required figure.
The collar forms a bearing for the tools u, v, and forms also a portion of
the cutting or forming surface of the die. I have not thought it necessary
to represent the upper die to be used with the dies, Figures 11, 12, and 13,
as the said upper dies are the exact counterpart of the said lower dies,
Figures 11, 12, and 18, in all essential respects; that is to say, the dies and
collar t, without the tools u, v, by being inverted (the collar t having a convex
instead of a concave face), constitute the upper die to be used with the dies
Figures 11, 12, and 18; neither do I think it necessary to describe the
changes of form which must be made in the dies, Figures 11, 12, and 13, in
order to produce the button, Figure 6, as an ordinary workman will, by an
inspection of Figure 14, which represents the modified tools in question, be
able to effect the same.
The method of constructing dies and tools for making buttons by the
process of turning in a lathe is applicable to the construction of dies and tools
for making buttons of forms different from those I have described and repre-
sented, and I consider all such applications as constituting part of the said
Invention. Figures 15 and 16 represent an improved feeder, by which blanks
too thin to be fed by the ordinary feeder are supplied to the dies for raising
shells for buttons. The said feeding is effected by placing a pile of blanks y
in a tube, and a plate 1, having the thickness of one blank, slides under the
said tube, and at each advance pushes a blank from the pile y; when the
blanks are thin the feeder will not act with certainty, on account of its
thinness depriving it of the necessary strength and rigidity. This is remedied
by placing on the thin feeder 1 a saddle 2, which said saddle strengthens the
said feeder without interfering with the thickness of its working parts.
The manner of inserting the feeder 1 into the saddle 2 will be understood
by an inspection of the under side of the said saddle in Figure 16. In order
to prevent more than one blank from being carried forward at one time the
following arrangement is resorted to:-A block 3, capable of a vertical sliding
motion, and pressed downwards by the spring 4, bears upon the bed 5, on
which the blank slides; the said blank, in being pushed out of the feeder,
passes under and raises the said block 3; but the lower edge 6 of the said
block 3, against which said lower edge the blank is first pressed, being bevilled,
as represented, if more than one blank is pressed against the said edge,
only the lowest passes under the block 3. The said feeder is applicable to the
feeding of eyelett and coining machines and to feeding blanks generally.

page_text: Having now described the nature of the said Invention, and the manner in
which the same is to be performed, I wish it to be understood that I do
not limit myself to the precise details herein described, as the same may be
varied without departing from the nature of the said Invention; but I claim
as the said Invention,―
Firstly, the construction of buttons of the shapes and according to the
methods herein described and illustrated in the accompanying Drawing,
whether the same be made of metal or of any other material of which buttons
are or may be made.
Secondly, the method herein described and illustrated in the accompanying
Drawing of constructing dies and tools for making buttons, that is to say,
by turning in a lathe, as described, whether the said tools and dies be
used for the manufacture of buttons of the kinds herein described or of
other kinds.
Thirdly, the method herein described and illustrated in the accompanying
Drawing of constructing a feeder for feeding blanks to button machines,
eyelett and coining machines, and such other machines as the same is or may
be applicable to.
In witness whereof, I, the said Samuel Frearson, have hereunto set my
hand and seal, this Fifth day of March, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and fifty-five.
Witness,
GEORGE SHAW.
SAMUEL FREARSON. (L.S.)