A NEW MANNER OF MAKING BUTTONS OF IRON OR STEEL, COVERED WITH TIN AND OTHER METAL, OR TIN ALONE
Year: 1787

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, JAMES
ALSTON, of Birmingham, in the County of Warwick, Buckle and Button
Maker, send greeting.
WHEREAS His most Excellent Majesty King George the Third, by His
Royal Letters Patent, under the Great Seal of Great Britain, bearing date
the Thirtieth day of October, in the twenty-eighth year of His reign, did give
and grant unto me, the said James Alston, my exors, adñiors, and assigns,
His special licence, full power, sole privilege and authority, that I; the said
James Alston, my exors, admors, and assigns, and every of them, by myself
and themselves, or by my and their deputy and deputies, servants or agents, or
such others as I, the said James Alston, my exors, admors, or assigns,
should I agree with, and no others, from time to time and at all times thereafter
during the term of years therein expressed, should and lawfully might make,
use, exercise, and vend my Invention of "A NEW MANNER OF MAKING BUTTONS
OF IRON OR STEEL, COVERED WITH TIN AND OTHER METAL, OR TIN ALONE," as to
me, the said James Alston, my exors, admors; or assigns, or any of them,
should in their discretion seem meet; and that I, the said James Alston, my
exors, admors, and assigns, should and lawfully might have and enjoy the
whole profit, benefit, commodity, and advantage from time to time coming,
growing, and arising by reason of the said Invention, during the term of years
therein mentioned, to have, hold, exercise, and enjoy the said licence, powers,
priviledges, and advantages therein-before granted or mentioned to be granted

page_text: unto me, the said James Alston, my exors, adñiors, and assigns, for and
during and unto the full end and term of fourteen years, from the date of the
said Letters Patent next and immediately ensuing, and fully to be compleat
and ended according to the Statute in such case made and provided; in which
said Letters Patent there is contained a proviso obliging me, the said James
Alston, by any instrument in writing, under my hand and seal, to cause a par-
ticular description of the nature of my said Invention, and in what manner the
same is to be performed, to be inrolled in His Majesty's High Court of Chancery
within one calendar month next and immediately after the date of the said
Letters Patent, as in and by the same, relation being thereunto had, may more
fully and at large appear.
NOW KNOW YE, that in compliance with the said provisoe, I, the said
James Alston, do hereby declare that my said Invention of A new Manner of
Making Buttons of Iron or Steel, covered with Tin and other Metal, or Tin
alone, is described in manner following, that is to say :-
The iron or steel being rolled to a proper thickness with a smooth surface,
and freed from scale by a grinding mill, or by the methods usually practised for
the making of tinned iron, commonly called sheet tin, or by any other means;
I cut out the different sized button blanks with a common piercing press, and
the burr or rag left on the lower edge is taken off and the edges rounded with
a file, whilst the button is turning round in a lathe called the edging lathe; the
shanks or eyes are then either soldered on the bottom with metal solder or
screwed or rivetted in. Those intended to be stampt or pressed (when tinned)
are then put into an iron or other vessel and mixed in strata or layers either
with pounded wood, charcoal, pit coal, coak dust, calcined bone, or horn dust,
or with saw dust, or with either or any of these, separate or mixed. They are
then covered close over with clay and placed in a coak or coal fire, so regulated
in an oven or otherwise that the necessary annealing heat may be given without
injury to the shanks; they are then permitted to cool gradually as the fire
goes down; when quite cold, they are shaken together a barrel, box, or bag, and
put into a weak acid pickle; and if need be, I also scour them with sand and
water to free them entirely from scale, and are kept in water or lime water
until wanted for tinning, which is then performed as follows:-.
The buttons, being dipped into a solution of sal-ammoniac, are drawn whilst
wet through pounded rosin, and put into a cage or perforated iron box, having
an upright handle and a lid turning upon a hinge close to the handle, which
when shut is fastned down by another iron-rod or handle having a hook at
bottom, which passes through the lid and side of the box, and by these handles
being drawn together with an iron ring; the box is then gradually immersed.

page_text: into melted tin and moved about until the buttons are found to be compleatly
coated over, when they are taken out, the superfluous metal beaten off and
dropt out of the box down an inclined board into water. Any other of the
expeditious methods of tinning in common use may be substituted instead of
the one here described, but it is essential that they should at last be tinned with
a clear smooth surface without knots or inequalities; for that purpose I suspend
them by the shanks or wire hooks placed at proper distances on a plate of iron
so that no button shall touch another; they are then dipped into melted tin, the
surface of which is covered with oil, tallow, or other fat substance; when taken
out, one or more smart blows are given them that the superfluous tin may be
compleatly driven away, and are immediately put into hot water until the tin
upon them becomes fixed; they are then shaken in hot soft saw dust or in bran,
and if necessary are further cleaned, with leather or a soft brush, with whiting
or any other fine powder. They are then carried to the fly press or stamp
where they receive the desired impressions or device, the bottom die having a
recess to receive the shanks. The buttons are sometimes polished at a lathe
with a brush and whiteing, or with a burnisher made of bloodstone or steel
either before or after being pressed or stampt; they are also ornamented with
chasing or otherways at pleasure.
The plain buttons are rubbed on soft leather with oil and putty or other fine
powder, and cleared off on leather, or are burnished or polished as before
mentioned; for some particular forms or devices, and likewise when the iron or
steel is not sufficiently smooth, I anneal, pickle, and stamp the blanks previous
to the shanks being fixed on, the fraze or selvidge, if any, is cut off at a piercing
press, and they are then edged and passed through the other processes as
before described, and may be restamped or not after tinning, as required.
By the foregoing methods I also tin buttons made of cast iron previously
annealed, the scale being taken off either by shaking them together, by turning
or rubbing them, or by an acid menstruum; but as the stroke of the stamp
or press, or chasing punch, would, if used, break them to pieces, they are
generally cast of the desired pattern, or plain, and may afterwards be orna-
mented with the turning engine, or engraved. For tinning, I make use of
grain tin, tin alloyed with bismuth, best London pewter, or any other compo-
sition of tin which will melt sufficiently fluid.
In witness whereof, I, the said James Alston, have hereunto set my hand
and seal, the Twenty-sixth day of November, in the year of our Lord
One thousand seven hundred and eighty-seven.
JAMES ALSTON. (L.S.)

page_text: AND BE IT REMEMBERED, that on the Twenty-sixth day of November,
in the year of our Lord 1787, the aforesaid James Alston came before our said
Lord the King in His Chancery, and acknowledged the Specification aforesaid,
and all and every thing therein contained and specified, in form above written:
And also the Specification aforesaid was stampt according to the tenor of
the Statutes made for that purpose..