IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MANUFACTURE OF BUTTONS
Year: 1838

page_text: JAQUIN'S SPECIFICATION.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, CORNELIUS.
ALFRED JAQUIN, of Huggin Lane, Wood Street, in the City of London, send
greeting.
WHEREAS Her present most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria; by Her
Letters Patent under the Great Seal of Great Britain, bearing date at West-
minster the Seventh day of July, in the second year of Her reign, did, for
Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto me, the said Cornelius'
Alfred Jaquin, Her especial license, full power, sole privilege and authority,
that I, the said Cornelius Alfred Jaquin, my exors, admors, and assigns, or
such others as I, the said Cornelius Alfred Jaquin, my exors, adñiors, or
assigns, should at any time agree with, and no others, from time to time and
at all times during the term of years therein expressed, should and lawfully
might make, use, exercise, and vend, within England, Wales, and the Town
of Berwick-upon-Tweed, my Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MANUFACTURE
OF BUTTONS," in which said Letters Patent is contained a proviso that I, the
said Cornelius Alfred Jaquin, shall cause a particular description of the nature
of my said Invention, and in what manner the same is to be performed, to be
enrolled in Her said Majesty's High Court of Chancery within six calendar
months next and immediately after the date of the said in part recited Letters
Patent, as in and by the same, reference being thereunto had, will more fully
and at large appear.
NOW KNOW YE, that in compliance with the said proviso, I, the said
Cornelius Alfred Jaquin, do hereby declare the nature of my Invention, and
the manner in which the same is to be performed, are fully described and
ascertained in and by the following statement thereof, that is to say :-
My Invention relates to a mode of obtaining ornamental surfaces to buttons
which are covered with silk or other woven fabrics, by means of inclosing or
stamping and otherwise preparing the surfaces of silk or other woven fabric

page_text: employed, and in order to give the best information in my power, I will proceed
to describe the means pursued by me for carrying out my Invention. In the
first place I would state I can produce the desired impression or ornament on
the surface of the buttons either after they are made or by properly preparing
the circular portions of silk or other woven fabric which are to be used as the
covers of the buttons, before they are applied.
The process of embossing or stamping ornamental impressions on paper,
and also in some cases on silk and other fabrics by suitable dies, is well
understood, and my Invention does not relate generally to embossing of silk
or other woven fabrics, but only to so embossing and otherwise preparing silk
and other woven fabrics when for covering the surfaces of buttons, or when
such fabrics are intended for covering buttons.
י
It will readily be understood that, if embossed silk or other woven fabrics
were used for the covering of buttons without some further preparation, that
the wear, pressure, and damp to which buttons are subjected, would very
quickly efface the elegance of design which may be produced by embossing;
and it is desirable that, whatever be the cement or other proper preparation
which is used in setting and retaining the impression produced by embossing,
that it should be as much waterproof as possible, though this is not essential;
so long as it will retain, and cause the silk or other woven fabric to retain,
the enclosed impression which is given thereto.
The material I prefer to employ for this purpose is shelac dissolved in
naptha or spirits of wine, which not only renders the silk or other fabric
waterproof, but aids the paper or such like material employed, and also the
silk capable of retaining the ornamental figure or design produced by pressure
in dies.
In the first place I will describe the mode pursued by me, and which I have
found fully to answer the purpose, for preparing covers for buttons, which are
to be applied in making covered buttons with flexible or other shanks, and
made by dies and pressure, as is well understood, and was originally
invented by Mr. Benjamin Sanders, and is now extensively practised by
him and others, as well as by a plan employed by Mr. Aston, of Bir-
mingham, and known as Aston's mode of making covered buttons; or
such covers may be sewed or otherwise fixed on to proper shapes and
formed into buttons, my Invention not relating to the mode of combining
the parts into buttons, but only consists in a mode of producing ornamental
surfaces to covered buttons by embossing. In pursuing my Invention, circular
portions of silk or other woven fabric are to be cut by the fly-press or
otherwise, as is well understood, of the size proper for covering a given size of

page_text: buttons. On to the back of each of these portions of silk or other woven
fabric is applied a circular disc of paper or other proper material by means of
the cement above described, or other cement or material which will effect a
like purpose, the circular disc of paper being only of the size of the face or
front of the button, and the cement is allowed to dry... The silk or other woven
fabric so prepared by cement and other material is then ready to receive an'
impression by the aid of suitable dies, which are made, according to the
description and size of the button required; and thus, supposing a rose or.
other flower or other ornamental design as a centre to the button were
desired, in such case the rose or other design would be sunk in the centre of
the die, in like manner to ordinary dies used in making metal buttons with
ornamental designs or impressions thereon; and in order to obtain a die in
relief more suitable for impressing the prepared silk or other fabric as above
described; I find it desirable so to jag or roughen the under surface of the
punch or upper die, that when a circular piece of. button board (a number of
layers of paper combined together) is screwed down into the under die, it will
cause the button board to attach itself to the punch, and become the counter-
die for pressing the prepared silk or other woven fabric into the sunk or
engraved die, which will be found better and less liable to cut than when'
metal counter-dies are employed. When such dies are obtained, the circular
portions of prepared silk or other fabric are to be successively embossed,
taking care that the ornamental impression is produced as nearly as possible
in the centre of the portions of prepared woven fabric. The backs of the
impressions so obtained should be next filled up with a further quantity of
cement such as is above described, by which it will be rendered still less liable
to injury from any pressure it may meet with in the ordinary wear buttons
are subjected to. These portions of silk or other woven fabrics prepared and
embossed are now ready to be applied to the covering of buttons by dies and
pressure, as is well understood, or by the needle or other means, taking care
in using dies and pressure that the finishing dies are so sunk that the pressure
thereof will not injure the centre or ornamental pattern or design produced
thereon. When I make the button first by any of the known means, having
the outer covering of silk or other woven fabric in the course of making it,
I apply a surface of board next the woven fabric, and I prepare such circular
disc of button board by coating it well with cement, such as is herein described,
which is to come next to and in contact with the woven fabrics, such cement
being dried on the surface of the button board before using; and in making
the buttons with dies and pressure, the circular portion of silk or other
woven fabric unprepared is placed first in the mould, then the surface

page_text: of prepared button board, then the other parts of the button, as usual, and the
parts are to be combined by pressure, as is well understood, after which the
button is conveyed to another die having the ornamental impression which it is
desired to have embossed or impressed on the surface, and this die should be
heated to such a degree of heat that the operator can just bear his hand to
rest on it, which I find is readily effected and regulated by having a small gas
light acting against the die, and the impression is produced by the usual
punch pressing the button into the lower die with considerable force, and the
heat will aid the process and cause the cement to adhere to the outer fabric
or covering, and will give to it a degree of waterproof and retentive character
which the simple pressure of the die on the woven fabric would not of itself
possess, but, on the contrary, an impression without cementing and other
materials would have little effect.
Having thus described my Invention, I would remark that variations may
be made in the performing the operation herein described; I do not, therefore,
confine myself to the precise means herein described, so long as the principle
of my Invention be retained; but what I claim as the Invention secured by
the present Letters Patent is, the mode herein described of producing
ornamental surfaces to buttons covered with silk or other woven fabrics, by
means of embossing or impressing, and suitable preparation or cement
and other materials to retain the ornamental designs produced as above
described.
In witness whereof, I, the said Cornelius Alfred Jaquin, have hereunto
set my hand and seal, this Seventh day of January, One thousand
eight hundred and thirty-nine.
Inrolled the Seventh day of January, in the year of our Lord One
thousand eight hundred and thirty-nine.