IMPROVEMENTS IN BUTTONS AND OTHER DRESS FASTENINGS, PART OF WHICH IS ALSO APPLICABLE FOR OTHER PURPOSES." PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the
Year: 1853

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to James Septimus Cockings, of Birmingham, in
the County of Warwick, Patent Agent, for the Invention of
"IMPROVEMENTS IN BUTTONS AND OTHER DRESS FASTENINGS, PART
OF WHICH IS ALSO APPLICABLE FOR OTHER PURPOSES."
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said. James Septimus
Cockings at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his
Petition, on the 17th December 1858.
I; JAMES SEPTIMUS COCKINGS, of Birmingham, .in the County of
Warwick, Patent Agent, do hereby declare the nature of the said
Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN BUTTONS AND OTHER DRESS FASTENINGS
PART OF WHICH IS ALSO APPLICABLE FOR OTHER PURPOSES," to be as fol-
lows (that is to say) :—
pro-
My improvements may be placed under two heads, and consist, first,
in making and substituting a new material or materials to be used
instead of thick paper or mill board for the filling or packing of certain
description of buttons, whereby I effect a great saving in cost and
duce a better and lighter article, which I make in the following way :-
I take common wood saw-dust and boil it in common size until they
5 are thoroughly incorporated and the dust reduced to a pulpy state, when
I take a sheet of thin paper laid smooth on a suitable frame or bed,

page_text: and on such paper I spread a layer of the saw-dust pulp in such
quantities according to the thickness I require, when I next lay on the
pulp another thin sheet of paper, thus inclosing the pulp between the
two sheets, and in this state left to dry and harden, when the said
material may be cut into round discs and worked up in the same way
that the paper or. mill board.is now worked.
Secondly, in the application of hollow wire to buttons, dress fasten-
ings, and other articles where lightness, strength, and economy are
required, such as button shanks, rings for fancy vest and other buttons,
part of brooches, hooks and eyes to dress and other purposes, belt loops
and slides, buckle frames, chin chains for soldiers caps and helmets,
and chains for other purposes; whether made by machinery or other-
wise, and other articles that have heretofore been made of solid wire.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent,
filed by the said James Septimus Cockings in the Great Seal
Patent Office on the 16th June 1854. !
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I,
JAMES SEPTIMUS COCKINGS, of Birmingham, in the County of Warwick,
Patent Agent, send greeting...
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Letters Patent, bearing date the Seventeenth day of December, in the
year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and fifty-three, in the
seventeenth year of Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and succes-
sors, give and grant unto me, the said James Septimus Cockings, Her
special license that I, the said James Septimus Cockings, my execu-
tors, administrators, and assigns, or such others as I, the said James
Septimus Cockings, my executors, administrators, or 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 AND OTHER DRESS FASTENINGS,
PART OF WHICH IS ALSO APPLICABLE FOR OTHER PURFOSES," upon the con-

page_text: dition (amongst others) that I, the said James Septimus Cockings, 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 James Septimus Cockings, do
hereby declare the nature of my said Invention, and in what manner
the same is to be performed, to be particularly described and ascer-
tained in and by the following statement. (that is to say):-
My Invention may be best understood by being described under two
heads, the first relating to the filling or packing of buttons, and the
second to the form of wire I propose using for button shanks, but which
said wire is also applicable for hooks and eyes, and other purposes. Tho
packing or filling required in the manufacture of covered or florentine
buttons has hitherto been made from paper formed into thick sheets or
boards, and cut up into round discs according to the various sizes that
may be required, while my Invention, relating to..this.;part of buttons
consists in partially substituting saw-dust in the place of paper for this
purpose, and the manner propose carrying it into effect will be under-
stood by the following description. I provide myself with a suitable
stand and moveable top, which will best answer the purpose if made
in two parts, the one part fixed to a suitable joint to enable it to be
turned over on the other when required, and which top or tops may be
of wood or other suitable material, such as slate, which I have found to
answer well, but which must, of course, be made true and flat on the
surfaces, and it will be advisable to saturate it with oil or melted grease,
which it will readily absorb. On the top, which is fixed with a joint
to the frame, I lay a sheet of paper of any quality, texture, or thickness,
but for the sake of economy, and the better defining of what I have
found to answer the purpose, I will-state that thin cap paper will
answer well, but it should be damped before laying it on the slate, that
it may expand with the moisture; and is now ready for the saw-
dust composition to be laid on it, which composition is simply saw-dust,
water, a little alum, with glue, parchment shreds, or any other suitable
:

page_text: glutinous material, which being thoroughly mixed and boiled for a long
time on a slow fire until it becomes a thick pulp about the consistency
of paste, when it is fit for use, and in this state a sufficient quantity is
spread evenly over the sheet of paper first described as being placed on
the slate table, and which I prefer being kept gently warm by a small
lamp, gas, or hot water underneath, as it prevents the composition
getting cold or being chilled; and in this state I lay upon the composi-
tion already distributed a sheet of thin paper similar to the one before
described, and pass a roller over it, that it may be evenly and completely
united to the composition, which is now completed, and has only to be
removed to be dried by the atmosphere or the action of heat in a stove.
But I may observe that in order to remove the sheet from the table, I
have found it advantageous to adopt the following plan, namely, to have
a wood frame, on which is stretched a sheet of what is called wire gauze,
and I lay it on that part of the table not occupied by the composition,
and turn the top on which the composition rests over on it, which can
then be easily removed for drying, as before stated, as it now lays on the
wire gauze, and from these sheets of composition when dry my button
filling or packing is to be cut up into round discs in the ordinary way,
and the waste or refuse from such has only again to be boiled up and
used in the manner herein described. But the great advantage attending
this is, that it is susceptible of being moulded into any form that may
be required, for it is only to sink cavities in the slate or other top, of the
desired shape and size, when the sheet of paper in this case must be
laid on dry, and the composition will soon moisten it and expand it,
forcing it into the concave cavities below, and finished off with a sheet
of paper as in the former case, but which, when being cut up into
discs, must be cut according to the form and size given to them by the
cavities in the bed or table. And I would further observe that if it is
desirable that such packing should have a projection on the back to
fill out the necessary protusion of the flexible shank, that can also be
donc by sinking cavities in another piece of slate or other suitable
material, such cavities being suitably disposed, and the slate or other
top fitted to the other, so that the shank projection should come in the
centre of each disc according to their obverse form. Thus I effect a

page_text: great saving in substituting a less expensive material for the packing of
covered buttons, independent of the facility in moulding such packing
into any desired form that may be required, a desideratum of no mean
importance in the manufacture of what is called ball buttons, as well as
fancy buttons for ladies' wear.
And the second part of my Invention, which relates to the wire
applicable for button shanks, dress fastenings, and other purposes, and
which said Invention consists in its being made hollow, whereby I
effect a considerable saving in the weight of the raw material, indepen-
dent of its being lighter, which may be desirable for many purposes,
and as the making of this wire presents no novelty different from that
which is described in the Specification of a Patent granted to Thomas
Potts and myself on the Seventeenth day of January, One thousand
eight hundred and fifty-three, wherein we simply claimed the applica-
tion of hollow copper wire for telegraphic communication; but in this
case I do not confine myself to copper, as hollow wire may be made of
various metals, ar mixed metals, nor is it necessary in every instance to
preserve an uniformity in its sectional shape, as it may be half round
or slightly flat on one side, or, in fact, any shape that may be desirable
for the purposes to which it is applicable, and which I have set out in
my Provisional Specification as not only applicable for button shanks,
but also for rings for fancy vests, and other buttons, parts of brooches,
hooks and eyes for dress and other purposes, belt loops and slides,
buckle frames, chin chains for military caps and helmets, and chains for
other purposes, whether such chains be made by machinery or other-
wise, and for various other articles that have heretofore been made of
solid wire.
In witness whereof, I, the said James Septimus Cockings, have
hereunto set my hand and seal, this Fourteenth day of June,
in the year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and fifty-
four.
SEDTIMETIS
COCKINGS
el
JAMES SEPTIMUS COCKINGS. (s)