A NEW METHOD OF MAKING AND MANUFACTURING GILT AND PLATED COAT AND WAISTCOAT BUTTONS, BY UNITING OR AMALGAMATING WITH OR BY MEANS OF TIN, OR TIN AND LEAD MIXED,. GILT AND PLATED METAL BUTTON SHELLS, BOTH COLOURED, PLAIN, AND FIGURED WITH BOTTOMS OF COPPER, BRASS, IRON, MIXED AND COMPOUND METALS
Year: 1787

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, ROBERT
HICKMAN, of the Parish of Edgbaston, in the County of Warwick, Button
Maker, send greeting.
WHEREAS His present Majesty King George the Third, by His Royal
Letters Patent under the Great Seal of Great Britain, bearing date at West-
minster the First day of February instant, in the twenty-seventh year of His
reign, did give and grant unto me, the said Robert Hickman, His special
licence, that I, the said Robert Hickman, during the term of years therein
expressed, should and might use, exercise, and vend, within England, Wales,
and the Town of Berwick-upon-Tweed, my Invention of "A NEW METHOD OF
MAKING AND MANUFACTURING GILT AND PLATED COAT AND WAISTCOAT BUTTONS, BY
UNITING OR AMALGAMATING WITH OR BY MEANS OF TIN, OR TIN AND LEAD MIXED,.
GILT AND PLATED METAL BUTTON SHELLS, BOTH COLOURED, PLAIN, AND FIGURED
WITH BOTTOMS OF COPPER, BRASS, IRON, MIXED AND COMPOUND METALS;" in which
said Letters Patent there is contained a proviso, obliging me, the said Robert
Hickman, under my hand and seal, to a cause a particular description of the
nature of my said Invention, and in what manner the same is to be performed,
to be inrolled in His Majesty's High Court of Chancery, within one calendar
month after the date of the said recited Letters Patent, as in and by the same,
relation being thereunto had, may more fully and at large appear.

page_text: NOW KNOW YE, that in compliance with the said proviso, I, the said
Robert Hickman, do hereby declare, that my said new Invention of Making
and Manufacturing Gilt and Plated Coat and Waistcoat Buttons, by Uniting
or Amalgamating with or by means of Tin, or Tin and Lead mixed, Gilt and
Plated Metal Button Shells, both Coloured, Plain, and Figured, with Bottoms
of Copper, Brass, Iron, Mixed and Compound Metals, is described in manner
following, that is to say :-
I make the buttons of copper and mixed metal shells, either gilt, plated,
or coloured, with bottoms of an equal and exact size, made of copper, brass,
iron, mixed and compound metals, which bottoms may be either plated, gilt,
or silvered, and to which the shanks are either first soldered or rivetted by
means of Bath metal solder and borax mixed, in the same manner as the
.shanks are fixed to other metal buttons, or the shanks may be fixed after the
bottoms and shells are united and amalgamated. When the shanks are thus
fixed to the bottoms, I fit the bottoms, to the shells, and I cover the shank side
of the bottoms with glue and whiting mixed, in order to prevent the tin
adhering to it; I then tin the other side of the bottoms on which the shells are
to be laid, by first heating them in an earthenware pot over a stove, and then
by putting them in an iron pot over a stove, in which pot is mixed tin and sal
amoniac in such usual proper quantities as are used in the tinning of metals;
which tin will adhere to such part of the bottoms as is not covered with the
glue and whiting; I then, while the bottoms are hot, put them into cold water,
for the purpose of getting off the sal amoniac; I then put the bottoms with the
shanks uppermost upon a plate of iron over a stove, and the shells in the same
manner, and I put a small quantity of sal amoniac in the shells, which, from
their being rolled so thin and cut out by means of a punch or press, turn up a
little at the hedges; and from an iron pot over a stove, in which is put tin or tin
and lead mixed, of a proper heat, I pour a quantity thereof, sufficient to, cover
the whole surface of each button, into each shell, and then slide the bottoms
upon them, by which means the bottoms and shells become united and amal-
gamated. When they are thus become solid and united, I put them under.a
stamp in clams or split dies, in each of which there is a cavity to receive the
shanks, and by which the shape of the shanks are preserved, and in which
stamp they may be made of any shape, whatsoever, and may also be inlaid with
gold, silver, or any other metal, or other ornaments, as other buttons are. I
then put them in a press in order to take off the superfluous metal from their
hedges, and I afterwards turn them in a lathe for the purpose of taking out
the marks which stamping them in clams or split dies give them; when the