IMPROVEMENTS IN BUTTONS, AND IN DEVICES FOR SECURING THE SAME TO FABRICS
Year: 1864

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by George Davies at the Office of
the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the 21st October
1864. A communication from abroad by Willoughby Hahn Reed, of
Philadelphia, in the United States of America.
I, GEORGE DAVIES, of No. 1, Serle Street, Lincoln's Inn, in the County of
Middlesex, and No. 28, St. Enoch Square, in the City of Glasgow, Civil
Engineer and Patent Agent, do hereby declare the nature of the said
Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN BUTTONS, AND IN DEVICES FOR SECURING THE
SAME TO FABRICS," (a communication to me from abroad by Willoughby Hahn
Reed, of Philadelphia, in the United States of America) to be as follows:-
The first part of this Invention consists of a metal button constructed for
secure attachment to fabrics and articles of wearing apparel in the manner
described hereafter.
The second part of this Invention consists in the use for fastening buttons
to fabrics of a rivet (formed as hereafter described), so that the head made
by striking the rivet with a punch may be uniform, substantial, and concentric
with the button, and form a neat central ornament for the same.
The third part of this Invention consists in the use of a sharp pointed pin
(formed as described hereafter) for the purpose of readily inserting the
sbanks of the buttons, or the stems of the rivets for fastening the saine into
fabrics without cutting the threads of the latter.
In carrying out the first part of this Invention a metal button is con-
structed with a tubular shank, a washer is placed thereon, and the shank is

page_text: inserted through the fabric, a second washer is then placed on the shank,
and the latter is then expanded, turned over, or rivetted so as to hold the
button securely.
In carrying out the second part of the Invention a metallic button is made
with a central hole, round which is an annular ridge or projection.
The rivet is made with a head of any convenient form, and the end of the
shank is countersunk so as to leave a central rounded projection or boss, sur-
rounded by an annular and angular projecting rim. The shank of the rivet
having been passed through the fabric from the back, and the perforated
button being placed over it, a punch with a suitable recessed face is placed on
the countersunk end of the shank, the head of the rivet is placed on an anvil
or other suitable foundation, and the punch being struck by a hammer wil
expand or turn the angular rim of the rivet over the annular ridge of the
button, and thus secure the same at the same time that it forms a neat
central ornament for the button..
The third part of the Invention is designed for facilitating the introduction of
the hollow metallic shanks or the rivets through the fabric without cutting or
breaking the threads of the same. In the former case a sharp-pointed
conical steel pin is used, which is about the same diameter as the exterior
of the hollow shank at its largest part or base, and is provided with a cylin-
drical projection (below the base), which fits in the interior of the hollow
shank. The button being placed (face downwards) on a table or other con-
venient place, and the washer adjusted as before described, the cylindrical
part of the pin is inserted into the hollow shank, the fabric is then pressed
down over the point of the pin, and passed on to the hollow shank, the effect
of which will be that the threads are expanded by the conical point of the
pin, and the shank is passed through them without their being cut or broken.
The pin is then removed, and the second washer being placed over the shank,
the latter is expanded or rivetted as above described. For the purpose of
passing the stem of a solid rivet through the fabric the pin is made with its
base larger in diameter than the stem of the rivet, the cylindrical projection
is dispensed with, and instead thereof a cylindrical recess is formed in the
base of the pin sufficiently large to pass over the shank of the rivet. This
pin is used in the same manner as that above describod.