IMPROVEMENTS IN BUTTON FASTENERS
Year: 1875

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to William Henry Heath, of No. 181, Bishopsgate
Street Without, for the Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN BUTTON
FASTENERS."-A communication from abroad by Zillah Young, of
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, in the United States of America.
Scaled the 9th December 1875, and dated the 28th September 1875.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said William Henry
Heath at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his
Petition, on the 28th September 1875.
I, WILLIAM HENRY HEATH, of No. 181, Bishopsgate Street Without,
do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for “IMPROVEMENTS
IN BUTTON FASTENERS," to be as follows:-
-
The object of this Invention is to produce a detachable fastening for
buttons and similar articles (having cither a rigid eye stem or a tuft
shank) that will not require an eyelet hole or other opening to be made
through the fabric of the apparel to which the same is to bo attached,
and at the same time will be strong and reliable as a fastening, simple

page_text: and inexpensive of construction, and can be attached and detached
with ready facility; and the said Invention consists of an open metallic
ring, in combination with a swinging metallic tongue or pin.
The open ring has a slight or shallow groove or depression made
directly across near the middle of one half of the ring, and the pin or
tongue has the end opposite to its point made into a loop or eye, which
slips casily and swings freely on the said ring.
The manner of attaching and detaching the button or other similar
useful or ornamental article, whether it be a rigid eye stem shank or
a tuft shank button, &c., is as follows, viz. :-The operator holding the
fastening in one hand and fabric of the apparel in the other passes the
sharp pointed end of the tongue or pin through the said fabric, from
the side thereof which is opposite to the side to which the button is to
be applied, and secured then through the eye stem shank or tuft shank
of said button (as either the one or the other sort be used), then back
through the fabric of the apparel and through the gap or opening in the
ring, when the operator slips the ring around so as to pass the part
which has the indentation or groove under the pointed end of the
tongue or pin until the said pointed end drops into said groove or
indentation, thus securely holding the button to the outer side of the
fabric of the apparel.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent,
filed by the said William Henry Heath in the Great Seal Patent
Office on the 28th March 1876.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, WILLIAM
HENRY HEATH, of No. 181, Bishopsgate Street Without, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Letters Patent, bearing date the Twenty-eighth day of September, in
the year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and seventy-five,
in the thirty-ninth year of Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs
and successors, give and grant unto me, the said William Henry
Heath, Her special license that I, the said William Henry Heath,
my executors, administrators, and assigns, or such others as I, tho
said William Henry Heath, my executors, administrators, and assigns,

page_text: 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, exercise, and vend, within the United
Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, the Channel Islands, and Isle
of Man, an Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN BUTTON FASTENERS," (a
communication to me from abroad by Zillah Young, of Philadelphia,
Pennsylvania, in the United States of America,) upon the condition
(amongst others) that I, the said William Henry Heath, my executors
or administrators, by an instrument in writing under my, or their, or
one of their hands and seals, 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 Henry Heath, 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 object of this Invention is to produce a detachable fastening for
buttons and similar articles (having either a rigid eye stem or a tuft
shank) that will not require an eyelet hole or other opening to be made
through the fabric of the apparel to which the same is to be attached,
and at the same time will be strong and reliable as a fastening, simple
and inexpensive of construction, and can be attached and detached
with ready facility; and the said Invention consists of an open metallic
ring, in combination with a swinging metallic tongue or pin, as will be
fully described with reference to the accompanying Drawings, in which
Figure 1 is an elevation partly in section showing a button having an
eye stem or shank of metal attached to a piece of cloth, and my said
fastening for the purpose applied thereto, and Figure 2 a plan view of
my said fastening detached from the fabric.
The open ring A has a slight or shallow groove or depression a¹ made
directly across near the middle of one half of the ring A, and the pin
or tongue B has the end opposite to its point made into a loop or cye,
which slips easily and swings freely on the said ring, so that when the
fastening has been applied, as will be described, the pointed end of said
tongue or pin B will rest securely in the indentation or groove a' of the

page_text: Another point of utility is that my fastening is a unity and not liable
to be separated into parts, as is the case with all the detachable button
fastenings with which I have any knowledge.
I claim as my Invention a detachable button fastening consisting of
the single open ring A and swinging tongue B, constructed and con-
nected together substantially as described.
In witness whereof, I, the said William Henry Heath, have
hereunto set my hand and seal, this Twenty-fourth day of March,
in the year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and seventy-
six.
WILLIAM HENRY HEATH. (L.S.)
24th March 1876.