Improved Fastening Device.
Year: 1895

page_text: Date of Application, 24th Sept., 1895-Accepted, 21st Dec., 1895
.
Improved Fastening Device.
I, CHARLES ARTHUR ALLISON, Patent Agent, of 52 Chancery Lane, London,
do hereby declare the nature of this invention (which has been communicated to
me from abroad by Spencer Cone Cary, Manufacturer, of 5 and 7 Elm Street, in
the City of New York, County and State of New York, U.S.A.) and in what
mauner the same is to be performed, to be particularly described and ascertained
in and by the following statement :--
My object is to produce a spring fastening device which shall be acceptable to
the user in that it shall fasten easily, hold well and present a neat appearance,
and to the trade in that it shall be simple in construction, of few parts,
easily applied and shall cost but very little, either for material, construction, or
application.
The conditions of such a device are quite stringent and while a number of
devices have been heretofore constructed which fulfil one or more of them, no
previous one meets them all.
In the accompanying drawings forming part of this Specification,
Figure 1, is a plan or top view of one form of the blank I employ in making my
fastener;
Figure 2, is a perspective view of the bottom plate used therewith ;
Figure 3, is a perspective view of the button part of the fastening applied to a
glove, a part being shown in section to illustrate the manner of securing the parts
of the button together;
Figure 4, is a sectional view taken through the parts as they are being
engaged;
Figure 5, is a sectional view through the eyelet employed as a button hole ;
Figures 6, 7, 8 and 9, are views of other forms of blanks I sometimes use; and
Figures 10-12 represent possible modifications, though they are not quite so
acceptable as the other forms.
In my device, C, is the central portion of the top plate and E, E, the extremities.
The central portion is bent or pressed, preferably into the form of a globe, or head,
as shown in Figure 3, with slits or division lines 8, on the sides, to permit a spring
action, (or entirely across the head,) the extremities remaining flat, as shown, in a
plane at substantially right angles to a plane passing through the vertical axis of
the glove or bent portion. These extremities must be large enough to hold a
clamping device and to extend over a sufficient portion of the material to be
fastened, to take a firm hold. Tangs or points that merely pass through the
material and are fastened upon the other side, are not sufficient to hold the
material as is desired. With them the cut through which the tang extends has
immediately against it, a raw edge entirely unprotected. The manipulation of the
fastening in catching and uncatching it, stretches this edge and there soon appears
a hole adjacent to the tang, which at least presents an objectionable appearance
and frequently permits the clinched part of the tang to be drawn through it back-
wards and the device to be thereby detached and lost.
This I avoid by using the enlarged extremity which permits the clamping device
to be formed on, or secured to it, and extends sufficiently beyond the cut edges of
the fastened material to prevent their working back and forth and stretching as.
described. This being still further prevented by the special form I give to
the edge of the extremities, that is, a slightly dished shape, as plainly shown in

page_text: I then provide an underlying plate, forming the other member of the clamp and
the support for the top plate. Its form is substantially that of the plain end of a
flattened cylinder, the ends being preferably so proportioned as to just fit within
the line of the dished portion of the extremities of the top plate that when they
are clamped together it may cause such edges to slightly bite into, but not through,
the material, thus effectually preventing the stretching of the material at the cut
made for the passage of the shank of the eyelet or equivalent part of the clamp.
Such eyelet I usually strike out of the under plate from the central part of its
extreinities, so spaced that when the upper plate is laid upon it the upper part of
the eyelets will register with apertures formed for them, substantially at the center
of the extremities of that plate.
The parts being formed as described, they are very readily applied. The under
plate is laid upon the under side of the material, the shanks of the eyelets forced
through it, or through holes in it cut for their insertion, the upper plate placed so
that the eyelets pass through its holes and the eyelets then spread over and upon
said upper plate, the edges of the extremities of the two plates meanwhile making
a most efficient clamp to hold the material.
The eyelet, which answers as a button hole, may of course be of any known form,
its diameter being very slightly less than the greatest horizontal diameter of the
globe head of the button part, to ensure its remaining in place after being fastened;
but I prefer to use one in which I attain the same edge clamping action which !
have mentioned in describing the clamping of the button part. This end
may be attained by having both flanges of the eyelet quite large proportionately,
one dish shaped at the edge and the other slightly smaller that it may to a degree,
fit within the edge of the dish; but as it is frequently impracticable to have such
large flanges on both sides of the eyelet, 1 accomplish the desired result by forming
what I intend for the outside face of the eyelet with the dished flange f, and
putting a washer w, of suitable size over the other end e, after that has been
passed through the material and then turning the end e, over upon the washer and
pressing it down to produce the requisite clamping action.
I am thus enabled to produce a fastening of great strength and holding capacity,
with but two pieces, necessarily, in the button part and one in the button hole part,
though as stated, I may make the latter part of two pieces and I might also make
the eyelets of the button part separate from either plate without departing from
the spirit of my invention.
The action of the two parts when engaged is manifest.
The aperture of the eyelet of the button hole part being placed over the globe
part and pressure applied, that part will elongate slightly, vertically, and decrease
in size horizontally, (the slits permitting such action) and thus permit the eyelet to
be forced beyond the greatest diameter of the stud on to what may be termed the
neck, when the spring action of the globe part having caused it to resume its normal
form, the eyelet is held thereon against all pressures of ordinary usage.
I do not desire to limit myself to a device in which the upper plate of either
button or button hole is dished, the dishing might be altogether omitted and yet
leave the central thought of the invention, which is a top plate in the form of
extensions on two or more sides of the projecting stud, as it takes a very firm hold
of the material and acts as a brace to the stud and while I prefer the style of
dishing shown, its special clamping action could be attained in a device in which
the dished edge was upon the opposite part. Nor do I limit myself to a device in
which the eyelets of the button part are part of the under plate, they may be part
of the upper plate or independent of either.
When a very strong fastening is desired I make the upper plate of a blank such
as is shown in Figure 6, that is with four extremities for clamping the material, the
globe being formed of the intermediate portions and having of course, when bent
up into form, four slits in it. Figure 7 shows its bottom plate.
Sometimes I use a form like Figure 8, when the globe will be formed of the part
joining the extremities and the two wings, the lower end of which wings when bent

page_text: into shape will be free to spring in, being unattached, or I may dispense with the
wings too and use a form like Figure 9, when the button will not have a strictly
globe shape but will be more in the form of a loop narrower at the bottom, or neck,
than just above that point.
The extremities will however be preserved and the firm clamping of the material
and the spring action of the button will be present in each of these modifications.
The form shown in Figure 10 is exactly such as is shown in Figures 3 and 4 and
the parts in Figures 1 and 2 with this exception, that the part shown as one piece
in Figure 1, is severed along a line from s to s thus making two parts, each of
which comprises a plate E, and one half of the globe portion C, but as the two are
used together and both joined to one underlying plate such as is shown in Figure 2,
the completed device will be firm and as the cut extends entirely across the head
the spring action of the globe, as a whole, will be increased.
In Figure 11, I have illustrated a form of blank I use when I desire to have
three plates such as E, extend from the globe portion, instead of the two shown in
Figure 1.
When bent up into a finished form the globe is similar to that shown in Figure 2
but with three slots s at substantially equal intervals in the sides and three extended
plates E, for fastening it to the article. This makes a very strong fastening as
there is a holding from strain in substantially every direction. Such a globe
portion could not of course be entirely held by a bottom plate having but two rivets
(such as Figure 2) so I provide a three rivet plate as shown in Figure 12, of such
size that when the blank of Figure 11 is drawn up into a finished form, the holes
in its plates E, will register with the rivets of the three rivet bottom plate of
Figure 12 and the parts may be firmly secured together.
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. In a fastening device a central spring stud or button having a head in two or
more sections with slots which at least partially separate one section from another,
and provided with two or more extremities, each integral with some division of the
stud, bent at substantially a right angle to its axis, and each expanded into a plate
adapted to rest upon one face of the material to be fastened, and an under plate
adapted to rest upon the opposite face of said material, and to extend across under
two of the plates of the upper member, together with a fastening device adapted
to hold said plates together, substantially as set forth.
2. In a fastening device a button composed of one plate having a central portion
formed into a spring stud, with slots at the sides and two or more extremities in the
form of plates, adapted to rest upon one face of the material to be fastened, and
the second plate adapted to rest upon the opposite face of said material, and to
extend across under two of the plates of the upper member, together with a
fastening device for each of the plates of the upper member, adapted to hold said
plates together, all substantially as set forth.
3. In a fastening device a central spring stud or button having a head in two or
more sections with slots which at least partially separate one section from another,
and provided with two or more extremities each integral with some division of the
stud, bent at substantially a right angle to its axis, expanded into a plate "E,”
adapted to rest upon one face of the material to be fastened, and to be secured to
an under plate by a clamping device, all substantially as set forth.
Dated this 24th day of September 1895.
ALLISON BROS.,
Agents for the Applicant.