Improvements in Attachments to Ladies' Ornamental. Dress Buttons for Converting Buttons Temporarily into Brooches.
Year: 1897

page_text: Date of Application, 8th NOV., 1897
Complete Specification Left, 8th Aug., 1898-Accepted, 17th Sept., 1898
Improvements in Attachments to Ladies' Ornamental. Dress Buttons
for Converting Buttons Temporarily into Brooches.
I, WILLIAM DODSHON, of 124, Camden Street, N.W., in the County of London,
Jeweller, do hereby declare the nature of this invention to be as follows:-
My invention relates to a means, device, or attachment, by which ladies orna-
mental dress buttons may be fixed or worn as brooches, the attachment will allow
of valuable buttons being readily transfered to different dresses, one form of the
invention is suited to the larger kinds of buttons, but the attachments are to be
made in various sizes to suit buttons of different sizes.
In carrying out my invention, in one form, I proceed as follows:-A piece of
flattened wire is turned up edgeways into a form somewhat resembling the capital
letter N, writing letter, the letter N being somewhat smaller than the button, to
the last stroke of the letter N I fix the joint catch and tongue of the brooch
arrangement the catch being on the tail of the N, the second, or down, stroke
with the first stroke, formed to fit the shank of the button, make a snap, or spring,
which passes partly through the shank of the button, a nick is made in about
the middle of each of these wires into which the wire of the shank of the button
clicks when the spring is pushed into position, and thereby the device is held
securely to the button, the first scroll of the N forms the thumb-piece of the spring,
by pressing the thumb-piece the device can be removed from the button, the
front scroll and the last stroke of the N serves to keep the device from oscillating
in the shank of the button: part of the last scroll or tail of the N may be removed
if thought desirable.
Instead of the joint catch and tongue being added to the N to form the brooch,
the brooch arrangement may be made by removing the end of the last stroke of
the N and uniting the N to the back wire of a safety pin, or, nursery pin, by
means of a split tube fixed with soft solder, the tube may be applied in two or
three different ways, also split and unsplit.
In some cases, where alloyed gold is used, for instance, the two parts may be
united without a tube and with hard solder, and further the above mentioned
two parts may be united in a variety of ways, such as by twisting the last stroke
the N spirally round the back wire of a safety pin, or part of the
back wire of a safety pin formed into a spiral and the last stroke
of the N passed through the spiral and the two parts in both the above
cases fixed with soft solder, and again, the safety pin and spring combination
may be formed of one piece of wire, the spring being formed of double wire
united with soft solder.
Buttons of various sizes may be used as ornaments to safety pins of various
lengths, that are fitted with my improvements, and the buttons can be made
to appear centrally mounted on the safety pins by suitably bending the back
wire of the safety pins.
The metals usually employed for safety pins are suitable for my improvements,
such as alloyed gold, hard silver, brass, or German silver, for instance.

page_text: I may modify the safety pins before mentioned by making them with various
kinds of catches safety and non safety.
For uniting the two parts, before mentioned, two or three wire rings fixed with
soft solder may be used instead of a tube.
Dated this 8th day of November 1807
Improvements in Attachments to Ladies' Ornamental Dress Buttons
for Converting Buttons Temporarily into Brooches.
I, WILLIAM DODSHON, of 124, Camden Street, N.W., in the County of London,
Jeweller, do hereby declare the nature of this invention and in what manner
the same is to be performed, to be particularly described and ascertained in and
by the following statement:-
My invention relates to a means, device, or attachment by which ladies orna-
mental, or fancy, dress buttons may be fixed, or worn, as brooches, the attach-
ment will allow of valuable buttons being readily transferred to different dresses.
The invention is suitable for the larger kinds of buttons, the attachments are to
be made in various sizes to suit buttons of different sizes and makes, but, speaking
generally any one size of the attachment will fit buttons of more than one size,
if the buttons are of a similar make, the chief point being the size of the shank.
On the accompanying sheet of drawings the various forms of the attachment
are shown, the letters refur to the same, similar, or corresponding parts in the
different figures.
In carrying out my invention, in one form, I proceed as follows:-A piece of
flattened wire is turned up edgways into a form somewhat resembling the capital
letter N, writing letter, this is shown in Fig. 1, the letter N, a, b, c, c¹ being
smaller than the button g¹, to the last stroke c¹ of the letter N I fix the joint d,
the catch e, and the tongue f, of the brooch arrangement, the pin or tongue is
shown turned back, the catch being on the tail of the N, the second or down
stroke b with the first stroke a, the two together, formed to fit and slip into the
shank of the button make a snap or spring which passes partly through the shank
of the button, a nick is. indented with a punch and die in or about the middle
of each of these wires, into which the wire g of the shank of the button clicks
when the spring is pushed into position, and thereby the device is held to the
button, the first scroll of the N forms the thumb piece of the spring, by pressing
the thumb-piece the device can be removed from the button, the first scroll and
the last stroke of the N serve to keep the device from oscillating in the shank of the
button, the catch may be turned up out of the end of the wire c¹.
By another part of this invention, instead of the joint catch and tongue being
added to the N to form the brooch, the brooch arrangement may be made by
removing part of the last stroke of the N and uniting the remaining portion of
the N to the back wire of a safety or nursery pin, by means of a split tube fixed
with soft solder, as at k Fig. 2, the tube may be applied in two different ways as
shown in Fig. 2 and at 7 Fig. 3, if an unsplit tube is used it must be put on the
wire of the safety pin before the safety pin is made.
When the device is made of alloyed gold the two parts may be united as in
Fig. 3 with hard solder, without the tube, and further the above mentioned two
parts may be united in a variety of ways, such as by twisting the last stroke
of the N spirally round the back wire of a safety pin as at m Fig. 4, or part of
the back wire of a safety pin formed into a spiral and the last stroke of the N

page_text: passed through the spiral, or two wire rings can be used as at n and o, Fig. 5
instead of the tube before mentioned, and the two parts in all the above cases
fixed with soft solder; and again by another part of this invention the safety pin
and spring combination is formed out of one peice of wire, the spring being
formed of double wire as shown at a, b, c, Figs. 6 and 8. Fig. 7 shows an end
view along the line A, B Fig. 6, in my Provisional Specification I spoke of soft
soldering the double wire, that was with the object of stiffening the spring, as
it seems possible for the spring to become compressed and the button to become
loose in the act of putting on, or fixing, the brooch, on account of the leverage
on the spring especially in the case of buttons with small shanks, because the
wire of the springs would have to be thin.
Soldering the double wire together at the part S Figs. 6 and 8 would tend to
stiffen the spring but, the soldering soon becomes fractured in use and is therefore
of little importance, I consider the form of the attachment. shown in Fig. 8
should be used for buttons with rather large shanks, that is for shanks with
rather large openings, it will be noticed that in the other forms of the attachment
the action of the button holding spring is independant of the brooch, or safety
pin, action therefore in the forms shown in Figs. 6 and 8 the springs should be
as strong as is practicable.
The tongues, or pins, of the safety pins cross the buttons above the centres in
3, 4, 5, 6, this allows the buttons to set better on the dress, and in the case of
Fig. 6, the pin should be somewhat near the spring at t, by this means the fasten-
ing is much more secure, as a further security, I turn up the ends of the springs
into the form of a hook shown at S Figs. 5, 6, 7; 8. A convenient way to fix
and remove the attachment from the buttons is to pull by the safety hook to fix,
and to push the hook to remove. Fig. 1 is shown without a hook, to form the
hook in the case of Fig. 1 the wire should be filed square where the hook is to be
formed, before the hook is turned up.
The attachments are to be made out of round wire, and the wire is to be rather
thin so that it may be springy, and it is useful in the case of small shanks to
allow the indented parts of the spring to pass one under the other, when passing
into the shank of the button, except in the case of Fig. 1 when it is made out of
flattened wire, but, Fig. 1 may be modified by uniting the bar brooch portion to
a round wire button holding spring, after the manner described for the safety pins.
The safety hook S Fig. should be near the pin as shown, that is it should be
longer than in the forms of the attachment and I maké the safety pin part of
thicker wire than the spring portion, this I can effect in two ways, first, by
making the pin portion of the wire just as thin as would be servicable, and then
reducing the two sides of the spring after it is formed, with a file, till the spring
is thin enough to pass into the shank of the button, secondly, by filing the wire
thinner at the part out of which the spring is to be formed before the spring is
made.
The attachments should touch the backs of the buttons at three points, that is
at V, W, and X, in the figures.
Buttons may be used as ornaments to safety pins of various lengths, that is to
say longer than the diameter of the buttons, that are fitted with, or made accord-
ing to my improvements, and the buttons can be made to appear centrally mounted
on the safety pins, by suitably bending the back wires of the safety pins, as shown
at Q Q Fig. 2, and P. P¹ Fig. 8.
Fig. 2 might be made with a joint and tongue after the manner of Fig. 1.
The metals usually employed for safety pins are suitable for my improvements,
such as alloyed gold, alloyed silver, German silver, and brass, the wire should be
drawn a little hard, not too hard, if a hard alloy of gold is used the wire will not
require to be drawn hard, or only very slightly drawn, if at all, after being
annealled.
The pins herein described as safety pins may be modified by making them wich
various kinds of catches, safety and non safety, a non safety catch, or ordinary

page_text: brooch catch, is suitable for the attachment shown in Fig. 6, and could be used
for Figs. 3, 4, 5.
Figs. 5, 6, and 8 show the attachment with the button shanks removed.
I would have it understood, that, I do not confine myself to the exact details
described, and, that the form of some of the parts may be varied without depart-
ing from the invention, for instance, there are other kinds of safety pins than
those shown in the accompanying drawings, and again some buttons have staple
shanks, and some domed and others concave backs, I would also remark that, in
the following claims reference is made to the accompanying drawing, but, I
make no claim in respect of the safety hook portion of the device shon in the
drawings, in any of the claims.
Having now particularly described and ascertained the nature of my said
invention and in what manner the same is to be performed I declare that what
I claim is:-
1. The methods, devices, or attachments for temporarily converting buttons
into brooches, substantially as herein before described and shown in the accom-
panying drawings, this claim having no reference to the safety hook.
2. The combination of a brooch bar and a button holding spring, substantially
as herein before described, and shown in Fig. 1.
•
3. The combination of a safety pin, either with a straight or bent back wire,
and a button holding spring, united with a tube, spiral, or rings, and soft soldered,
substantially as herein before described and shown in Figs. 2, 3, 4, 5.
4. The combination of a safety pin with a button holding spring, united with
hard solder without a tube substantially as hereinbefore described.
5. The combination of a safety pin with a button holding spring, made out of,
or from one piece of wire as shown in Figs. 6 and 7, substantially as herein before
described.
6. The combination of a safety pin with a bent back wire and a button hold-
ing spring made out of, or from, one piece of wire as shown in Fig. 8 substan-
tially as herein before described.
7. The combination of what I have called a safety pin with a button holding
spring made out of, or from, one piece of wire modified by making it with an
ordinary brooch catch substantially as described.
8. The combination of pins and springs as hereinbefore described and shown
in Figs. 3, 4, 5 but, modified by making the pins with ordinary brooch catches.
Dated this 8th day of August 1898.
WILLIAM DODSHON.