IMPROVEMENTS IN APPARATUS USED IN THE MANUFACTURE OF BUTTONS MADE FROM BONE, VEGETABLE IVORY, AND THE LIKE SUBSTANCES
Year: 1878

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION. left by Frank Wirth at the Office of the
Commissioners of Patents on the 5th August 1878. A communication from
the Schönebecker Knopf Fabrik, Adolph Philipp & Co., of Schönebeck-on-the-
Elbe, in the Empire of Germany.
FRANK WIRTH, of the Firm of Wirth and Company, Patent Solicitors, at
Frankfort-on-the-Main, in the Empire of Germany. "IMPROVEMENTS IN APPARATUS
USED IN THE MANUFACTURE OF BUTTONS MADE FROM BONE, VEGETABLE IVORY,
AND THE LIKE SUBSTANCES." [A communication from the Schönebecker Knopf
Fabrik, Adolph Philipp & Co., of Schönebeck-on-the-Elbe, in the Empire. of
Germany.]
This Invention relates to improvements in machinery or apparatus used in the
manufacture of buttons made from bone, vegetable ivory, and similar substances.
The object of the said Invention is to cut the thick button blauks into two parts
in place of turning them down as heretofore practised, thus effecting a saving of
material and time.
In constructing the said machinery or apparatus according to this Invention, I
provide two jaws, between which the button blank is placed, where it is held fast
by a centre piece upon a lever, being moved forwards and thus carried against a
circular saw. A sliding plate carried in guides fixed to the bed plate of the
apparatus is then drawn back until the two half blanks come over an aperture in
the said sliding plate and a corresponding aperture in the said bed plate; through
these apertures the two halves at once fall. One of the said guides is provided with
a wedge and drawing-up screws. The said sliding plate carries two projections,
through which a screw passes; this screw runs through the aforesaid jaws, and serves
to regulate the distance between the two.
To one of the jaws is attached a rod on which is a nut or ring, and around this
rod are wound two spiral springs; the first of these springs serves to push the afore-
said jaws so far forward that the openings formed between them and by the
aforesaid centre piece, as also by the sliding plate and bed plate, do not fit over one
another, as otherwise the button blank would immediately fall through on being
placed between the jaws.

page_text: The second spring presses with one end against a supporting piece on the end of
the rod, and with the other against the aforesaid nut or ring, thus serving to hold
the first-named spring tight and to fix the blank when the aforesaid lever is pressed
towards the circular saw. This lever turns at one end on a pivot and has in its
centre a slot in which a nose on the said centre piece moves. The said lever being
pressed towards the saw causes the said centre piece to hold a blank tight against
the jaws, and this cannot move further forwards without carrying with it the
sliding plate drawn by the projections thereon; the whole thus moves on towards
the saw when the blank is cut through, the lever arm is then drawn back and the
two pieces fall through the aperture in the sliding plate.
The sliding plate is provided with a slit in front so as to allow the saw to pass
up to the blank; the jaws are also placed sufficiently wide apart to allow the same
to pass between them.