Year: 1888

page_text: Date of Application, 18th Sept., 1888
Specification Accepted, 16th Nov., 1888
1, ETIENNE REVOL, of 22 Chaussée d'Antin, Paris, France, 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:
My invention relates to improvements in that kind of buttons at present in use for
lacing boots and shoes, gaiters, corsets, gloves, cart-sheets, sails, military outfits &c.
The chief objection to the articles now in use for that purpose is that they rapidly
wear out the lace and also the parts of the clothing brought contact with them, on
account of the sharp edges or roughnesses on their surfaces. In order to obviate
this defect, I manufacture a lacing button or eyelet in the following manner:
.
I cut out from sheet brass, zinc, iron, or other suitable metal, a blank of such shape
that when stamped, it forms a capsule or button in one piece without any soldering,
and perfectly smooth outside; I then pierce the said capsule or button, and thus
obtain a lacing button or eyelet, the lacing hole of which resembles a continuous tube
without any burr or sharp edge of any kind.
Such are the essential points of my improvements, which I shall now fully describe,
referring at the same time to the accompanying drawings in which
Fig. 1 represents a plan view of a blank of the desired shape; fig. 2 a perspective
view of the button after the first stamping; fig. 3 the definite form of button obtained
by the second stamping; fig. 4 a sectional view of fig. 3 shewing the interior of
the lacing hole before it is quite finished; fig. 6 a front elevation of the piercing
machine, partly in section; and fig. 7 is a side view of the lever of said machine and
connections of the same; it also gives a section of the metal table, showing the groove
in which the puppets slide.
The same letters of reference indicate corresponding parts throughout.
I proceed as follows: after having punched out the blank to the shape shown in
fig. 1, I stamp it in the usual way and obtain a capsule or button as in fig. 2,
perfectly smooth outside. I then pierce such capsule to form an eyelet or lacing
button, by means of a machine represented in fig. 6, and which works as follows:
I place the capsule or button A on a short metal rod C sliding in a block B and

page_text: intended to prevent the button A from getting too far down into the block B.
When pressure is brought to bear on said button by means of a piston D worked
by a lever E, the piston D (whose lower end is hollowed out) is forced down upon
the teeth of the button and stamps the button to the form shewn in fig. 3. When
the button is completely forced down into the block B by the downward movement
of the piston D, I turn the crank G working the shaft L upon which are mounted
two cams M M¹; these cams work the puppets N N' intermittingly by means of
rods 00'. These puppets carry round-pointed punches P P which may be regulated
by screws QQ¹. When the crank G is turned, the puppets N N¹ advance towards
each other by the action of the cams M M¹, and the punches pass through small
holes contrived in the block B; they are thus brought against the surface of the
button and make recesses in its surface, see fig. 4, at two opposite points. As the
movement of the crank G continues, the cams bring back the puppets to their former
positions, and set the button A free. The lever E fig. 7 is then released, and as it is
pivoted at a and furnished at its other end with a balance weight b, it rises, carrying
with it the piston D pivoted at c upon the lever E; this movement brings down the
lever E whose extremity S passes through the block B, and raising the small rod O
throws off the button A. I then complete the perforation by passing the button to
another machine, similar in every respect to the one above described, except that
the puppets carry sharp-pointed punches, and thus I obtain a continuous tube as
shown in fig. 5.
I have thought proper to describe the machine by means of which I pierce my
hollow lacing buttons in order that my invention might be more fully understood,
but I am quite aware that the same result may be obtained by other means, I
therefore do not desire to claim such mechanism or process of manufacturing my
lacing buttons, but what I claim and desire to secure by letters patent is :
1. In the manufacture of hollow perforated lacing buttons, the cutting out of blanks
from sheet metal, of such shape that when stamped they form capsules or buttons in
one piece without any soldering, and perfectly smooth outside, substantially as
described.
2. In the manufacture of hollow perforated lacing buttons, the formation of an
eyelet or lacing hole, the inside of which resembles a continuous tube without burr or
roughness of any kind.
Dated this Eighteenth day of September 1888.