AN IMPROVED MACHINE FOR ATTACHING BUTTONS
Year: 1872

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to William Morgan-Brown, of the Firm of Brandon
and Morgan-Brown, Engineers and Patent Agents, of 38, South-
ampton Buildings, London, and 13, Rue Gaillon, Paris, for the
Invention of "AN IMPROVED MACHINE FOR ATTACHING BUTTONS."—A
communication from abroad by Jeremiah Keith, of Providence,
Providence County, Rhode Island, United States of America.
Scaled the 18th February 1872, and dated the 14th September 1872.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said William Morgan-
Brown at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his
Petition, on the 14th September 1872.
I, WILLIAM MORGAN-BROWN, of the Firm of Brandon and Morgan-
Brown, Engineers and Patent Agents, of 38, Southampton Buildings,
London, and 18, Rue Gaillon, Paris, do hereby declare the nature of the
said Invention for "AN IMPROVED MACHINE FOR ATTACHING BUTTONS,” to be as
follows:-

page_text: buttons to boot uppers by mechanism, in effecting which the button
is held in position over the leather or upper by a suitable guide and
clamp bar, the upper being supported upon a suitable sewing machine
plate or work supporting surface, and the button standing with its
eye in such position that it can be brought under the needle and
clamped in position for the passage of the needle point through it.
The parts being in this position or having this relation the needlo
point passes down through the eye and through the work plate with
or to receive the thread, and after its rise from the plate and eye the
work plate or the needle has a lateral movement previous to the next
descent of the needle point, in which descent the point passes outside
the eye with or to receive the thread, so that the thread is successively
and intermittently carried through the eye and outside of the eye, thus
making a series of stitches which fasten the eye to the upper.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent,
filed by the said William Morgan-Brown in the Great Seal Patent
Office on the 5th March 1873.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, WILLIAM
MORGAN-BROWN, of the Firm of Brandon and Morgan-Brown, Engineers
and Patent Agents, of 38, Southampton Buildings, London, and 13, Rue
Gaillon, Paris, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Letters Patent, bearing date the Fourteenth day of September, in the
year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and seventy-two, in the
thirty-sixth year of Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors,
give and grant unto me, the said William Morgan-Brown, Her special
license that I, the said William Morgan-Brown, my executors, ad-
ministrators, and assigns, or such others as I, the said William Morgan-
Brown, 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,
excrcise, and vend, within the United Kingdom of Great Britain and
Ireland, the Channel Islands, and Isle of Man, an Invention for "An
IMPROVED MACHINE FOR ÅTTACHING BUTTONS,” a communication to me from
abroad by Jeremiah Keith, of Providence, Providence County, Rhode

page_text: Island, United States of America, upon the condition (amongst others).
that I, the said William Morgan-Brown, my executors or administrators,
by an instrument in writing under my, or their, or one of their hands and
scals, 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 William Morgan-Brown, 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 Invention relates to a method of fastening metal or metal-eyed
buttons to boot uppers by mechanism, in effecting which the button
is held in position over the leather or upper by a suitable guide and
clamp bar, the upper being supported upon a suitable sewing machine
plate or work supporting surface, and the button standing with its eye,
in such position that it can be brought under the needle and clamped
in position for the passage of the needle point through it. The parts
being in this position or having this relation the needle point passes'
down through the eye and through the work plate with or to receive
the thread, and after its rise from the plate and eye the work plate
or the needle has a lateral movement previous to the next descent of
the needle point, in which descent the point passes outside of the cye
with or to receive the thread, so that the thread is successively and.
intermittently carried through the eye and outside of the eye, thus
making a series of stitches which fasten the eye to the upper.
It is in this method of fastening a button that this Invention'
primarily consists, and the Drawing represents a machine for practising
) the Invention.
A shows in side and sectional elevation the front end of the work-
supporting plate or table, the sewing machine arm, and the stitch-
forming mechanism; B is a section on the line 2, z, looking toward
the front of the machine; O is a perspective plan of the work plate,
; button holding guide, &c.
:
a, denotes the stationary frame or bed; b, the stationary arm; c is a
post or stationary upright upon which is placed the front end of the
1

page_text: work plate d, the rear end of said plate being suitably supported so
that the front end of the plato is kept in horizontal position, the plate
having a short reciprocating horizontal slide movement upon the top
of the post c, for guiding which movement pins c may pass through
slots in the plate into the top of the post. The reciprocating move-
ment of the plate may be effected by a cam wheel 7 on a shaft h
(connected to the driving shaft i by gears k, l,) a pin or roll on an
arm projecting from the plate extending into the cam groove of said
wheel. m denotes an ordinary hook needle fixed in a needle bar which
reciprocates vertically in bearings at the front end of the arm b, said
needle being shewn as provided with an ordinary cast off, and having
its movements imparted to it by any suitable mechanism. The needle
has only vertical movements and plays through a slot o in the work
plate, the plate being so moved that at one descent of the needle it
passes through one end of the slot, and at the next descent it passes
through the other end of the slot, the work plate moving in one or the
opposite direction at each rise of the needle and preparatory to its next
descent.
Extending over the table is a bar or plate p having in it a slot q
which is shaped to receive and hold the button r to be fastened to the
upper, and this plate is made with provision for locating and retaining
it in such position upon the table that the needle point in one downward
movement passes through the eye, and in its next downward movement
passes outside of the eye. For this purpose the bar is shewn as mado
as a spring fastened beneath the table a pin t, which pin enters a hole v
in the table, the bar being held down to clamp the button by a latch x,
the pin and hole guiding the spring. By these means the position
of the button holding guide bar in the machine is always the same, and
always such as to ensure the movement of the needle point first through
the upper and eye, and next through the upper outside of the eye.
Beneath the plate is a rotatively reciprocating thread guide a for
laying the thread into the needle hook, said guide being turned in one
direction and laying the thread across the needle, and so that the
hook catches the thread in one descent of the needle and in the
opposite direction to again lay the the thread across the needle and in
position for the hook to catch it in the next descent of the needle, for
which purpose the vertical shaft or spindle, upon the top of which
is the guide, is provided with a gcar pinion d' meshing into and

page_text: driven by a gear rack c³ on the front end of a slide bar e having a
slotted arm f*, into which slot extends a crank pin 9ª extending from
the cam shaft h, the shaft first imparting forward movement to the
work plate and to the rack bar, and next a rear movement to the work
plate and to the rack bar, so that the plate is moved forward and the
thread guide turned, and the needle then descends, and (after the rise
of the needle) the plate moves back, and the thread guide, turns back,
and the needle again descends, the needle having the two complete
reciprocations at each single complete reciprocation of the work plate
and thread guide.
is
The operation of the machine is as follows:-The boot upper is laid
upon the work plate and under the bar p in position for attachment
of the button, the button being in its slot q in the position shewn
at A. The bar p is then pressed down until it is caught by the
latch. The thread passes under a tension spring and through
the eye of the thread guide a³, and the button is ready to be
fastened. As the main shaft i is turned the needle descends and
passes through the button eye, and the thread guide laying the thread
across the needle shank, the hook of the needle, as the needle rises.
catches the thread and draws it up in the form of a loop through the
eye, and before the needle completes its ascent a loop bender
pressed forward and bends the loop in a direction opposite to the hook,
so that as the needle starts down its point is sure to go through the
loop. Before the completion of the ascent the table is moved forward
5 and the needle point in descending passes down outside of the eye,
its hook again taking the thread, which has been again laid in its path,
and the needle drawing up a loop which is bent, as before, so that the
needle point passes through it, and in its descent again passes through
the eye (the table having been moved), these operations being continued.
) until the button is securely fastened, when without breaking the thread
the clamp bar is released from the latch the work moved forward,
another button placed in the slot and the bar again clamped, and the
new button fastened, as was the last, the whole row of buttons being
fastened, if desirable, without breaking the thread.
.
5 Having now described and particularly set forth the nature of the said
Invention, and the manner of carrying the same into effect, I would have

page_text: 1. The improvement in fastening buttons, consisting in holding each
button in a clamp bar beneath which the work is placed, and passing
the needle point and thread alternately through and outside of the eye,
the needle or work plate having a lateral movement between each two
successive movements of the needle through the work.
2. The button receiving and holding bar p having provision for
locking it in position, substantially as shewn and described.
3. In combination with the vertically reciprocating needle the laterally
reciprocating work plate d, substantially as shewn and described.
5
4. In combination with the work plate, button holding bar, hook 1
needle, and thread guide the loop bender ³ operating substantially as
shown and described.
5. In combination with the needle and laterally reciprocating work
plate the thread guide having a rotative movement in one direction
as the work plate moves forward, and a rotativo movement in the 1
opposite direction when the work plate moves back, substantially as
shewn and described.
6. The combination of the reciprocating needle, the rotatively recip-
rocating thread guide, the vibrating loop presser, and the reciprocating
table, relatively arranged and operating substantially as shown and 2
described.
In witness whereof, I, the said William Morgan-Brown, have here-
unto set my hand and seal, this Fifth day of March, in the year
of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and seventy-three.
WILLIAM MORGAN-BROWN. (L.S.)