An Improvement in the Manufacture of Buttons and of Ornamental Heads for Nails, Pins, and the like.
Year: 1898

page_text: An Improvement in the Manufacture of Buttons and of Ornamental
Heads for Nails, Pins, and the like.
We, JULES ALPHONSE THIERRY and ALFRED LEON THIERRY, both of No. 292,
Regent Street, in the County of London, Boot Makers, do hereby declare the nature
of this invention to be as follows:-
Our invention relates to the manufacture of buttons and of ornamental heads
for nails such, for instance as those used in upholstery, and for pins such, for
instance, as those used for securing hats, our object being to provide a cheap article
having a body of comparatively valuless material covered by a shell of celluloid
which may be of various colours, with surface either plain or embossed or other-
wise ornamented.
For this purpose, we prepare a pair of die plates, the one having a number of
recesses forming moulds for about half the depth of the button or head, the other
having a corresponding number of projections of dimensions less than those of the
recesses by the thickness of the celluloid, a sheet of which, softened by heat or by
impregnation with alcohol or other solvent, being placed between the plates and
subjected to pressure is moulded in all the recesses.
We prepare another pair of similar die plates having corresponding recesses
and projections to mould the other half of the button or head, but in this case in
the recesses there are holes through which the shanks of the buttons or of the
nails or pins can pass. A sheet of softened celluloid is moulded by pressure
between this pair of plates.
When the button or head has a flat underside, the second die plate has no
recesses but only holes for the shanks or pins.
The recesses formed in the celluloid sheet or sheets are then filled with cheap
material such as cement, coarse pulp, discs of paste-board, wood or other material
of little value, the heads of the nails or pins or the shanks of the buttons being
imbedded in the filling of one of the sheets. The faces of the two sheets are then
treated with solvent, and the two plates with the sheets on them are brought
together face to face and subjected to pressure which causes the sheets to cohere.
The coherent sheets now form one sheet with the nails, pins or buttons shanks
projecting on one side; this is passed under a revolving cutter which cuts the
buttons or heads out of the sheet and each of these has its edge then trimmed;
either by subjecting it to suitably shaped revolving cutter, or by softening the
celluloid and pressing it between finishing dies.
In order to facilitate the cutting out operation, all the moulds in the die plates
are arranged at equal distances apart in rows which are also equally distant, so
that the sheet to be cut from can be advanced by suitable mechanism step by step

page_text: each step bringing one of the moulded buttons or heads exactly up to the revolving
cutted.
That
el
ABEL & IMRAY,
Agents for the Applicants.
An Improvement in the Manufacture of Buttons and of Ornamental
Heads for Nails, Pins, and the like.
We, JULES ALPHONSE THIERRY and ALFRED LEON THIERRY, both of No. 292,
Regent Street, in the County of London, Boot Makers, 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:-
Our invention relates to the manufacture of buttons and of ornamental heads for
nails such, for instance as those used in upholstery, and for pins such, for instance,
as those used for securing hats, our object being to provide a cheap article having
a body of comparatively valuless material covered by a shell of celluloid which
may be of various colours, with surface either plain or embossed or otherwise
ornamented.
For this purpose we operate as we shall describe referring to the accompanying
drawings, which illustrate our process as applied to a nail head and to a button.
Fig. 1 is a section of the pair of dies first employed, Fig. 2 is a section shewing
the celluloid in the lower of the two dies. Fig. 3 is a section of the second upper
die holding a nail to be headed or a shank for a button. Fig. 4 is a section
shewing the die shewn in Fig. 3 applied to that shewn in Fig. 2.
Fig. 5 shows the dies modified to form nail heads or buttons round on both
sides. Fig. 6 is a side view of a nail with a head formed by employing the dies
shewn in Fig. 4, and Fig. 7 is a side view of a button formed by employing the
dies shewn in Fig. 5.
Between die plates A and B such as are shewn in Fig. 1 we place a thin sheet
of celluloid softened by heat or by impregnating it with alcohol or other solvent.
On pressing the dies together the celluloid C is moulded into the recesses of the
die B as shewn in Fig. 2. Wo provide another die D having holes to receive the
shanks N of nails or pins to be headed or the shanks S of buttons, these shanks
being placed in the holes after a thin sheet C of celluloid, which has corresponding
holes through it, has been placed on the face of the die D.
The hollows in the celluloid C being filled with cheap material M. such as
cement, coarse pulp, discs of paste-board, wood or other material of little value,
the faces of the celluloid sheets C and C¹ are brushed over with solvent and these
are pressed together as shewn in Fig. 4 causing the sheets to adhere as if they
formed one sheet of double thickness in all the parts between the moulds. The
drawings Figs. 1 to 4 inclusive are suited for flat sided nail heads such as are shewn
in Fig. 6, or for flat sided buttons. When round heads or round buttons as
shewn in Fig. 7 are required an upper die E Fig. 5 is employed having recesses
into which the celluloid C¹ is pressed and in this case the cheap material M is
filled partly into the recesses of both sheets of celluloid which are caused to cohere
as described with reference to Fig. 4.
Although, in order to simplify the drawings and description we have shewn discs
of comparatively small size, each for a single nail and a single button, it is to be
understood that these dies may be plates of considerable area with a number of the

page_text: recesses, and corresponding punches arranged in rows at equal intervals over the
surface of the plates. It is also to be understood that some of these die plates
may be adapted for nails or pins only and some for buttons only.
When the celluloid sheets have been caused to cohere as above described, each
pair forming a single sheet with the heads and buttons projecting on the one side
or on both sides, this sheet is subjected to the action of revolving cutters which cut
round the edges of the heads or buttons separating them from the sheets, and
these edges can be afterwards trimmed by subjecting the heads or buttons to
revolving polishers, or pressing them between suitable dies.
Having now particularly described and ascertained the nature of this invention
and in what manner the same is to be performed, we declare that what we claim
is:-
A head of a nail or pin or a button consisting of an internal body of cheap
filling material covered by a shell of thin celluloid, substantially as described.
Dated this 5th day of October 1898.
ABEL & IMRAY,
Agents for the Applicants.