AN IMPROVEMENT IN THE MANUFACTURE OF BUTTONS."
Year: 1862

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to John George Nutting, of Regent Street, in the
City of Westminster, Button Manufacturer, for the Invention of "AN
IMPROVEMENT IN THE MANUFACTURE OF BUTTONS."
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said John George Nutting
at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on
the 27th August 1862.
I, JOHN GEORGE NUTTING, of Regent Street, in the City of Westminster,
Button Manufacturer, do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for
"AN IMPROVEMENT IN THE MANUFACTURE OF BUTTONS," to be as follows:-
may also
My Invention of an improvement in the manufacture of buttons, relates
more particularly to the metal buttons used for soldiers' clothing, but
be adapted to buttons suitable for ordinary clothing purposes.
The Invention consists in making the shank loose in the back of the button
instead of soldering it rigidly thereto as usual. By this means the shank
may be pushed back into a recess made in the back of the button. The
button is made hollow as usual, and the shank when pushed in will not project
out from the body of the button, and will not therefore be liable to cut the
clothing when the latter is tightly compressed as is usual when required to be
'packed for transport on ship board to distant countries.

page_text: SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said John George Nutting in the Great Seal Patent Office
on the 27th February 1863.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, JOHN
GEORGE NUTTING, of Regent Street, in the City of Westminster, Button
Manufacturer, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Twenty-seventh day of August, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and sixty-two, in the twenty-sixth year of Her
reign, did, for Herself, Her beirs and successors, give and grant unto me,
the said John George Nutting, Her special license, that I, the said John
George Nutting, my executors, administrators, and assigns, or such others as I,
the said John George Nutting, my executors, administrators, and assigns,
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 "AN IMPROVEMENT IN THE MANUFACTURE OF BUTTONS," upon the condition
(amongst others) that I, the said John George Nutting, by an instrument
in writing under my hand and seal 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 John George Nutting, do hereby declare
the nature of my said Invention, and in what manner the same is to be
performed, to be particularly described and ascertained in and by the following
statement, reference being had to the Drawing hereunto annexed, and to the
letters and figures marked thereon (that is to say) :-
My Invention of an improvement in the manufacture of buttons relates
more particularly to the metal buttons used for soldiers' clothing, but may also
be applied to buttons suitable for ordinary clothing purposes.
The Invention consists in making the shank loose in the back of the button
instead of soldering it rigidly thereto as usual. By this means the shank may
be pushed back into a recess made in the back of the button. The button is
made hollow as usual, and the shank when pushed in will not project out from
the body of the button, and will not therefore be liable to cut the clothing

page_text: when the latter is tightly compressed as is usual when required to be packed
for transport on shipboard to distant countries.
In the accompanying Drawing Fig. 1 represents a vertical section of a
button made according to my Invention; Fig. 2 is a plan or back view of the
same; and Fig. 8 is a side view or elevation shewing the button complete.
It will be seen on referring to Fig. 1 that the button is formed of three
parts, viz. 1, the concavo-convex front part a; 2, the perforated back
plate 6 shewn detached in plan and section at Figs. 4, and 5, and 3. The
shank c shewn detached at Fig. 6. In manufacturing the button, the front
and back plates a and b are stamped up in any convenient and well-known
manner in the form shewn in the Drawings. Two holes are made in the
back plate b as shewn in Fig. 5 to receive the loose shank c, and in order to
prevent the latter from unnecessarily projecting beyond the back plate the
central part of the latter is counter-sunk or hollowed out. When the
moveable shank c is inserted in the holes of the back plate, the ends of the
shank are bent back as indicated by dots in Fig. 6 and shewn in Figs. 1 and 7.
The shank having been secured in the back plate b, the latter is placed on the
shoulder of the front plate as shewn in the sectional view, Fig. 7, and is secured
therein by bending back the projecting edges of the shoulder as shewn at Fig. 1.
It will now be understood that as the shank c is loose it may be pushed back
into the hollow of the button as shewn in Fig. 7, and by dots in Fig. 1, or it
may be drawn out and made to project beyond the back plate as shewn by
black lines in Fig. 1.
Having now described my Invention of an improvement in the manufacture
of buttons, and having explained the manner of carrying the same into effect,
I claim as the Invention secured to me by Letters Patent as aforesaid con-
structing or manufacturing metallic buttons with loose or moveable shanks as
berein set forth.
In witness whereof, I, the said John George Nutting, have hereunto
set my hand and seal, this Twenty-sixth day of February, in the year
of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and sixty-three.
Witness,
J. W. MOFFATT,
66, Chancery Lane.
J. G. NUTTING. (L.S.)