IMPROVEMENTS IN BUTTON TRIMMINGS
Year: 1886

page_text: Date of Application, 9th June, 1886.
Complete Left, 7th Mar., 1887.
Complete Accepted, 15th Apr., 1887.
I, CARL SEEL, sole owner of the firm of Gebrüder Seel of Barmen in the German
Empire Button Manufacturer do hereby declare the nature of my invention for
IMPROVEMENTS IN BUTTON TRIMMINGS to be as follows:-
The object of my invention is to fix an indefinite number of buttons of any suitable
material, & of any convenient shape in such a manner on a cord, string, a piece of
binding wire etc. that by this combination a new article of trimmings is produced,
which may be made and sold in any length same as ordinary trimmings.
With this new
button trimming" buttons of peculiar make are used, by which
the article gets some special and characteristic qualities, distinguishing it materially
from other articles for similar use.
The buttons used are made so, that the piece of cord on which they are filed
is never longer, nor can it be shorter in length than exactly the sum of the diameters
of the buttons contained in a row or file. From this it results secondly that the
butions must always touch each other on the circumference, that there is neither
an open space from one button to the other, nor do they lap one over the other. This
condition again ensures thirdly that the string or cord on which the buttons are filed
will never be visible from the top side, but will always pass exactly through that point
where two adjoining buttons touch each other.
The new trimming is however not only intended to be put on a dress in straight
lines but it shall be able to be laid down in any curved or ornamental figure.
answer
The buttons applied must therefore be so constructed that they can
the conditions named already: the cord must pass through the centre and must have
latitude enough at the edges to be able to be bent one way or the other so for
instance that 4 buttons may be placed close to each other forming a square, or 6 to
form a regular hexagon, or in other words: the centres of the buttons must lie in the
corners of a square or a regular hexagon resp. of such sides that the circles described
round these centres with a radius of half the diameter of a button will exactly touch
each other.
The figures 24, 25 & 26 of the accompanying drawing show such ornamental
designs

page_text: The figures 1-8; 9-20 & 11-21 resp. show three different constructions of
buttons used.
The button shown by fig. 1-8 resembles an ordinary staff button, but it has
no bunch; instead of this the central part is pressed inwards forming a little cup and
the edge is provided with slits in two opposite places. Through these slits & the
cup which is bored for that purpose the filing cord or wire is passed as shown
by figs. 8, 22 & 23.
Figures 9 & 10 show a variation of a button suitable for the new trimming article.
Instead of the slits made in the edges there are two pieces of wire fixed to the
underside of the button forming two slits similar as before and the depression made in
the underside instead of standing inwards, in the present case projects outwards; it is
also pierced through so that the buttons can be filed on a string in a similar manner.
Figures 11-21 represent a third variety of a button for the same purpose. In this
case an ordinary button with a staff bunch is used, but this button is provided with a
second bottom piece with slits in the edge as shown at first and in the middle
this bottom piece is provided with a hole for the stuff bunch to pass through. It will
be seen that this button can be filed on a cord etc. in a similar manner as the others
described above and the manner of its construction guarantees that if a number
of them is filed on a cord they can not overlap one over the other, nor will the
cord be visible from the top & they can be brought in any desired straight or
curvilinear figure.
Dated this 25th day of May 1886.
KARL T. MAYER,
Agent for Mr. C. Seel.
COMPLETE SPECIFICATION.
Improvements in Button Trimmings.
I, CARL SEEL sole owner of the firm of Gebrüder Seel of Barmen in the German
Empire, Button Manufacturer 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 :-
The object of the present invention is a new sort of trimming to be used for
decorating dresses and other articles.
It consists of single buttons of any of the forms shown by fig. 1-12 of the
annexed drawing & made of any material and which may be solid (fig. 1-7)
or put together of various parts (fig. 8-12), covered with stuff or not and which are

page_text: filed on a wire or on a thread ect., in such a manner, that every button touches
the neighbouring one at its circumference, as shown by figs. 13 & 14. The new and
peculiar construction of the buttons used gives the new trimming article-button
trimming its characteristic qualities, i.e. that the button trimming may be put on the
object which it is intended to decorate in a straight or in a curved line without
the wire or thread on which the single buttons are filed gets visible at the
front side.
'
This peculiar quality of the new trimming is based on the fact, that every single
button of a whole row or file is capable of moving along the circumference of its
neighbours as far as is necessary to form a curvilinear figure without it being required
that one button mounts upon the other and covering it partly or wholly, or that one be
separate from the other.
Therefore the length of the wire of thread on which the buttons are filed will
always be equal to the length of the sum of the diameters of all the buttons of
a complete file and the points of deflection from one direction to the other of the line
will always be in the vertical centre line, or practically so, of the respective button.
In order to be able to answer these indispensable conditions, I pass the thread
through a slot made in the circumference or cut in the edge of the bottom piece
of a button and which allows that the required angular motion of the thread
may be made, and thence further through a passage in the centre and finally through
a slot similar to the first and placed exactly diametrically opposite to that one.
In filing any number of buttons in such a manner on a thread, the length of
this will be the sum of the geometrical centre lines from button to button, whatever
may be the relative position from one button to the other and it will always pass
through the points of contact of the buttons and therefore it will never be visible
at the front.
It is selfevident, that according to the requirements for curvilinear figures of larger
or smaller radius which are to be formed by my new trimming the slots may take up
a larger or shorter part of the circumference of the buttons, that the angular motion
of the same may be larger or shorter.
It is also evident that the slots along the circumference and also the central passage
may be made in various manners, dependent upon the material of which the buttons
are made. They may be cut, moulded or cast into the material of the button,
if the same is solid. If the button is hollow and put together of various pieces
the slots may be formed under a punching machine. The same may be said of
the central passages which are also made in various manners and of various material.
The passage may be like an ordinary eye of a button, or like a bunch or tail as with
stuff buttons or like ball or bulb, formed by pressing down the sheet metal, of which
the bottom part of a button is made and bored through.
The slots in the circumference will form hollow spaces in the material of the buttons
if the same is solid as with those made of metal, wood, horn, ivory nut, ivory, mother
of pearl, papier mache, glass etc.-They start from the outer circumference and
converge towards the centre where they meet or only allow a free passage for
the thread; they may be covered wholly or partly and are made as near the bottom of
a button as possible; they may be made by means of a boring, cutting or filing tool or
by any other manner; in case of glass and metal buttons the slots may be moulded
and left free in casting the button.
With buttons composed of several parts and with a specially made bottom piece,
such as those made of sheet metal with or without a stuff covering, the slots are made
in the bottom piece by cutting it through in two concentric lines near the circumference
and in two diametrically opposite places.
The strip of plate between each two cuts is then depressed either towards the
outside or towards the inside, forming a sort of strap or bow and thus forming
the slots which are partly covered by the remaining part of the bottom piece.
Of cours such a separate bottom piece with slots made as described, may be fastened
in any convenient manner to a solid button and the slots so received answer the same
purpose as if made by one or the other means named above.

page_text: The same object will be obtained when the straps are made separately and fixed to
the bottom of a button by rivetting, pasting or by any other manner.
Now as to the diametrical passage in the centre of the buttons, its object is to carry
the thread or wire, or other flexible filing piece through the centre of the bottom piece
of the button, to guide the button on the filing thread or wire and to enable the same
to be bent in the centre or near there. For that purpose an ordinary eye or a
staff tail or bunch, as they are used with ordinary buttons is fixed to the button,
or the lower part of the button is provided with a ball shaped depression, downwards or
upwards which is bored through diametrically, or even a small opening only is made
in the bottom piece allowing the passage of the filing thread in the desired manner.
Every one of these arrangements answers the purpose and may be selected for any
sort of the buttons named.
The annexed drawing shows in the figures 1-12 a series of the buttons from
the bottom side and side elevations from which it will be seen how the means described
above are applied to arrive at the desired end.
The figures 13 & 14 show a piece of trimming from the top & bottom side
with variously constructed buttons filed on the string and bent in various directions,
explaining at the same time the manner of using my new frimming article.
I beg to add that other combinations than those shown in the drawing and
described above may be made, but as long as they answer the same purpose only,
¡.e. to form a trimming composed of single buttons with those caracteristic qualities
set forth above, they would fall under my invention.
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:
"The new trimming article described above and shown in the drawing serving for
trimming or decorating dresses and other objects consisting of single buttons filed on
a string, wire or other flexible band of any suitable material, having at the bottom
side in the centre a diametrical passage—(eye, tail, hole)-and at the circumference or
at its edge two diametrically opposite slots converging towards the centre, which may
be covered wholly or partly and which slots allow such an angular motion to the
single buttons that the trimming may be fixed to a dress in various positions, straight
and curvilinear without the filing wire thread etc. getting visible from the top,
but that rather cach button just touches always its neighbouring one at the
circumference."
Dated this 5th day of March 1887
KARL T. MAYER,
Agent for Mr. C. Seel.