IMPROVEMENTS IN FASTENERS FOR CLOTHING AND THE LIKE APPLICABLE WHERE BUTTONS ARE NOW USED
Year: 1883

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to William Phillips Thompson of the Liverpool and London
Agency for Foreign Patent Solicitors 6 Lord Street Liverpool in the County
of Lancaster for an Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN FASTENERS FOR
CLOTHING AND THE LIKE APPLICABLE WHERE BUTTONS ARE NOW USED
a communication from Messieurs de Saint Denis and Co of Paris in the
Republic of France
"
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said William_Phillips Thompson
at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents on the 3rd December 1883.
WILLIAM PHILLIPS THOMPSON of the Liverpool and London Agency for Foreign
Patent Solicitors, 6 Lord Street Liverpool in the County of Lancaster, "IMPROVE-
MENTS IN FASTENERS FOR CLOTHING AND THE LIKE, APPLICABLE WHERE BUTTONS
ARE NOW USED."-A communication from Messieurs de Saint Denis and Co. of Paris
in the Republic of France,
This invention has for its object a species of hook-button permitting the
realization of a new mode of fastening, of clothes, suppressing button-holes. This
system of hoop button unites in itself the advantages filled now by the simultaneous
employment of buttons and of hooks, these two modes of attachment being then
mutually completed in certain arrangements. Until the present time in effect
when buttons or hooks have been used as fasteners of garments, sometimes buttons
only have been used, at other times hooks only, while often, above all in ladies
dresses, buttons and hooks have been employed simultaneously, the hooks (and
eyes) being employed as principal agent to fasten the garment, and the buttons
solely for ornamentation. The hook button to be described performs this double
service, and realizes the following advantages.
1st. The complete suppression of the button hole, always troublesome to make,
and sometimes even impossible, notably in certain thick stuffs, in plushes and in
furs consequently economy of workmanship in the making of the garment.
2nd. Neatness of raiment, which need not be any more spoiled in its most
conspicuous part by the gaping openings of button-holes worn by long usage,
entailing thus longer wear of the garment.
1

page_text: 3rd. Prolongation of the duration of the button, which not being frayed and
worn by continual buttoning and unbuttoning, will preserve more indefinitely its
freshness.
4th. The possibility of the employment of any form of button, which until now
has not been used owing to other than the more or less round form being the only
practicable one, that is to say the only one that can be buttoned and unbuttoned
without great effort and the tearing of the button-holes through which the buttons
have to pass.
The hook button is composed of a button properly so called, which button can be
of any solid tough material, metal, cloth, pearl, bone, ivory, corrozo composition, or
glass, and of any desired form, round, square, oval, or polygonal. To the under
part of this button is fixed a bent metallic shank, destined after having transfixed
the stuff of one of the edges of the garment, to make a hook junction and catch in
an eye or ring fixed upon the other edge of the garment, and thus fasten it.
The hook-button is fixed or sewn to the garment by the aid of a ring (shank)
placed not in the centre of the button, as is generally done with a shank, but in
the side opposite to that occupied by the bent shank, and in order to avoid the
sloping of the apparent surface from the side in which the hooking is performed,
and to maintain it on the contrary always in a position nearly parallel to the
plane of the garment.
It will be seen then that the principal innovation of this system rests in this
fact, that the hook formed in one body with the button traverses the tissue of the
vestment upon which is applied the hook-button, and the button-hole is thus
suppressed.
The shank can be a double wire or long bent wire loop with the two sides
touching each other as in ordinary hooks for dresses.

page_text: SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent filed by
the said William Phillips Thompson in the Patent Office on the 3rd June
1884.
WILLIAM PHILLIPS THOMPSON of the Liverpool and London Agency for Foreign
Patent Solicitors 6 Lord Street Liverpool in the County of Lancaster " IMPROVE-
MENTS IN FASTENERS FOR CLOTHING AND THE LIKE APPLICABLE WHERE BUTTONS
ARE NOW USED." A communication from Messieurs de Saint Denis and Co. of Paris
in the republic of France.
D
This invention has for its object a species of hook button permitting the
realization of a new mode of fastening of clothes suppressing button holes. This
system of hoop button unites in itself the advantages filled now by the simultaneous
employment of buttons and of hooks, these two modes of attachment being then
mutually completed in certain arrangements.
Until the present time in effect when buttons or hooks have been used as
fasteners of garments, some times buttons only have been used, at other times hooks
only, while often, above all in ladies dresses, buttons and hooks have been employed
simultaneously, the hooks (and eyes) being employed as principal agent to fasten
the garment and the buttons solely for ornamentation.
The hook button to be described performs this double service and realizes the
following advantages.
1st. The complete suppression of the button-hole always troublesome to make,
and sometimes even impossible, notably in certain thick stuffs, in plushes and in
furs consequently economy of workmanship in the making of the garment.
2nd. Neatness of raiment, which need not be any more spoiled in its most
conspicuous part by the gaping openings of button holes worn by long usage,
entailing thus longer wear of the garment.
3rd. Prolongation of the duration of the button, which not being frayed and
worn by continual buttoning and unbuttoning will preserve longer its freshness.
4th. The possibility of the employment of any form of button, which until now
has not been used owing to other than the more or less round form being the only
practicable one, that is to say the only one that can be buttoned and unbuttoned
without great effort and the tearing of the button holes through which the buttons
have to pass.
The hook button is composed of a button properly so called, which button can
be of any solid tough material, (metal, cloth, pearl, bone, ivory, corrozo_composition,
or glass) and of any desired form, round, square, oval, or polygonal. To the under
part of this button is fixed a bent metallic shank, destined after having transfixed
the stuff of one of the edges of the garment, to make a hook junction and catch in
an eye or ring fixed upon the other edge of the garment, and thus fasten it.
The hook button is fixed or sewn to the garment by the aid of a ring (shank)
placed not in the centre of the button, as is generally done with a shank, but in
the side opposite to that occupied by the bent shank, and in order to avoid the
sloping of the apparent surface from the side in which the hooking is performed,
and to maintain it on the contrary always in a position nearly parallel to the plane
of the garment.
It will be seen then that the principal innovation of this system rests in this
fact, that the hook formed in one body with the button traverses the tissue of the
vestment upon which is applied the hook button, and the button hole is thus
suppressed.
The shank can be a double wire or long bent wire loop with the two sides
touching each other, as in ordinary hooks for dresses.

page_text: The drawings attached to this Specification shew various specimens of the system
of book buttons, thus enabling the method of fixing and of using them to be easily
understood.
In the modification shewn in Fig. 1, the button A, of any suitable form and
material, bears at a point more or less distant from its central part a bent metal
shank B forming a hook, and on the opposite side a loop C intended for attaching
it to the garment shewn in section at E, the button A being moreover held in
its place by the penetration of the bent shank B through the thickness of the
cloth.
The same figure shews that upon the other part E of the garment is fixed a loop
or catch D destined to receive the hook B.
In the modified hook button shewn in Fig. 2 is shewn the use, for the attaching
of the hook B, of a metallic wire F doubled, the two ends of which brought
close together are fixed in the body of the button A. This arrangement secures in
a very simple manner a piece rounded in every direction at the end of the hook
button B.
Having now particularly described and ascertained the nature of the said
invention, as communicated to me, and in what manner the same is to be carried
into effect I claim as new, the combination of parts forming a hook button for
use without button holes, and possessing as its distinctive feature the arrangement
of a shank, bent in the form of a hook, attached not to the centre but to a point
more or less near to the edge, the opposite part of the button bearing a loop or
catch designed to be sewn or fixed to one side of the garment to which the button
is fixed, which button is also held in place by the bent shank which passes through
the garment, and catches in a ring or loop attached to the other side of the
garment.
In witness whereof I the said William Phillips Thompson have hereunto set
my hand and Seal this 29th day of May in the year of our Lord one thousand
eight hundred and eighty four.
WP. THOMPSON (L.S.)