IMPROVED FASTENINGS FOR BOOTS, SHOES, GAITERS, GLOVES, AND LIKE ARTICLES
Year: 1880

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by Marks Leopold Müller at the Office
of the Commissioners of Patents on the 6th November 1880.
MARKS LEOPOLD MÜLLER, of Sandall Road, Camden Town, in the County of
Middlesex, Mechanician. "IMPROVED FASTENINGS FOR BOOTS, SHOES, GAITERS,
GLOVES, AND LIKE ARTICLES."
My Invention has for object simple and effective fastenings for boots, shoes,
gaiters, gloves, stays, corsets, belts, wearing apparel, and other like articles, whereby
I am enabled to dispense with button-holes, laces, and button-hooks, and, at the
same time, to produce a fastening which can be readily closed and opened.
My improved fastenings consist of two similar parts or pieces, each of which is
composed of an upwardly and outwardly curved shank, one such part or piece
being secured, as hereinafter described, to one side of the article to be fastened,
while the other, or similar part or piece, is secured to the opposite, or corresponding
side of such article. In one arrangement the outer portion of the shank is bent
down at a right angle to the curved portion, and this depending portion is split or
divided. The inner portion of the curved shank is provided with a knob or
button, which acts as a lever when it is desired to effect the fastening or unfastening.
In this arrangement the fastening is secured to the article by inserting the depending
portion of the shank therein, and interposing between it and the article a metal
washer, against which the split portions are turned over or bent, and are clenched,
thus rendering the fastening a fixture on the article, or the shank may terminate
in a boss or projection tapped to receive a screw.
In a second arrangement the outward portion of the shank is provided with an
eye, through which a tubular eyelet is passed and clenched, and which secures the
fastening to the article. If desired the fastening may be free to rotate around
the eyelet.
In a third arrangement each part or piece of the fastening is composed of two
detachable portions, viz., the curved shank, carrying the knob or head, and a stud,
on which the shank is fitted and around which it is free to rotate. The shank is
split, and is provided with a keyhole slot, or other suitably shaped slot, into which
the stud engages.
In a fourth arrangement the shank terminates in a hook which embraces the
stud, and around this stud the shank is free to rotate.

page_text: In a fifth arrangement the shank is provided with an eye or loop, and engages in
a hook formed on or secured to the stud.
In a sixth arrangement the eye of the shank is slipped over a spring piece
furnished with projections which retain the shank in place, such spring piece being
first slipped through an eyelet fixed in the article to be secured.
By constructing the fastenings, as set forth in the four last arrangements, a
longer or shorter shank can be used, as may be found necessary, the shanks, in
every case, being of the same upwardly and outwardly curved shape as that first
herein described.
The buttons employed may, in some instances, be half buttons or hemispherical
buttons, one such half button being furnished with a projection and the other with
a depression, which engage one into the other, so that the buttons when in their
closed position appear like the ordinary globular or spherical button.