IMPROVEMENTS IN ATTACHING SHANKED BUTTONS TO BOOTS AND OTHER ARTICLES OF DRESS
Year: 1871

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to James Haddon White and Charlotte White,
both of No. 73, Baker Street, Portman Square, West, in tho
County of Middlesex, for the Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN
ATTACHING SHANKED BUTTONS TO BOOTS AND OTHER ARTICLES OF DRESS."
Scaled the 2nd February 1872, and dated the 15th August 1871..
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said James Haddon White
and Charlotte White at the. Office of the Commissioners of Patents,
with their Petition, on the 15th August 1871.
We, JAMES HADDON WHITE and CHARLOTTE WHITE, both of No. 78,
Baker Street, Portman Square, West, in the County of Middlesex, do
hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN
ATTACHING SHANKED BUTTONS TO BOOTS AND OTHER ARTICLES OF DRESS," to be as
follows:-
i .
Our Invention relates to the attachment of shanked buttons to boots
and other articles of dress. This is ordinarily effected-by-sewing, which
mode of attachment is attended by the defect that in course of wear the
buttons become-detached either by the thread breaking, or the fabric
giving ways!

page_text: The objects of the present Invention are to obviate this defect, and to
effect the ready attachment of the said buttons to and their detachment
from the article of dress with which they are used.
In attaching a button to an article of dress, according to one of the
arrangements constituting our Invention, we proceed as follow:-We
take a flat disc or button of metal, mother of pearl, or other suitable
material and pierce therein two holes through which we pass a wire the
ends of which we bend so as to form a ring or loop, portions of the said
wire overlapping and lying parallel with one another somewhat after the
fashion of a split ring; we make an eyelet-hole in the leather or fabric
to which the button is to be attached, and pass the ring or loop aforesaid
through the said hole from the under side or back of such leather or
fabric; we then pass the shank of the button first on to one end of the
wire, and then over to the other side of the ring or loop on to the other
end of the said wire, and thereby securely attach the said button to the 1
article of dress. The pull or strain of the button being mainly borne by
the disc at the back or under side of the fabric or leather the latter
cannot give way as it is apt to do where the button is attached by
sewing.
In order to remove the button all that is necessary is to pass its?
shank between the overlapping portions of the ring or loop aforesaid, so
as to disengage the said shank from the ends of the wire in a manner
similar to that in which a key is taken off a split ring. When the
fastening above described is to be used with boots, a diso of metal or
other suitable substance may be affixed to the under side of the button 2
or disc herein-before referred to, in order to keep the wire passing
through the said button from pressing on the foot of the wearer.
According to another arrangement we take two short wires and make
in each wire near one and thereof a bend or loop of an inverted “U”
form, and we solder or otherwise affix that end of each wire which is 3
furthest from the said bend or loop to a metal plate (by preference of
an elliptical or circular form) in such a manner that the free ends of
the said wires shall point in opposite directions, and the loops formed
near the said ends as aforesaid shall be parallel to one another and stand
at right angles to the metal plate at the middle thereof. We place the 3
fastening thus made at the under side or back of the leather or fabric,.
and pass the shank of the button through the, eyelet-hole in the said
leather or fabric, and then first on to the free end of one of the wires.

page_text: aforesaid, and along that wire until it comes opposite the free end of the
other wire, when we pass the said shank on to that wire also, and then
move the said shank towards the middle of the metal plate until the
said shank enters the loops or bends in the wires, and thus securely
attach the button to the article of dress.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent,
filed by the said James Haddon White and Charlotte White in the
Great Seal Patent Office on the 15th February 1872.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, we, JAMES
HADDON WHITE and CHARLOTTE WHITE, both of No. 73, Baker Street,
Portman Square, West, in the County of Middlesex, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Letters Patent, bearing date the Fifteenth day of August, in the year
of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and seventy-one, in the thirty-
fifth year of Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give
and grant unto us, the said James Haddon White and Charlotte White,
Her special licence that we, the said James Haddon White and
Charlotte White, our executors, administrators, and assigns, or such others
as we, the said James Haddon White and Charlotte White, our
executors, administrators, and assigns, should at any time agree with,
and no others, from time to time and at all times thereafter during the
term therein expressed, should and lawfully might make, use, exercise,
and vend, within the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, the
Channel Islands, and Isle of Man, an Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN
ATTACHING SHANKED BUTTONS TO BOOTS AND OTHER ARTICLES OF DRESS," upon the
condition (amongst others) that we, the said James Haddon White and
Charlotte White, our executors or administrators, by an instrument in
writing under our or their hands and seals, or under the hand and seal of
one of us or them; should particularly describe and ascertain the nature
of the said Invention, and in what manner the same was to be performed,
and cause the same to be filed in the Great Seal Patent Office within six
calendar months next and immediately after the date of the said Letters
Patent.

page_text: in what manner the same is to be performed, to be particularly
described and ascertained in and by the following statement thereof,
that is to say :-
.
Our Invention relates to the attachment of shanked buttons to boots
and other articles of dress. This is ordinarily effected by sewing, which
mode of attachment is attended by the defect that in course of wear the
buttons become detached, either by the thread breaking or the fabric
giving way.
The objects of the present Invention are to obviate this defect, and to
effect the ready attachment of buttons to and their detachment from the
article of dress with which they are used.
.
In attaching a button to an article of dress, according to one of the
arrangements constituting our Invention, we proceed as follows:-We
take a flat 'disc plate or button of metal, mother of pearl, or other
suitable material, and pierce therein two holes through which we pass
a wire, the ends of which we bend so as to form a ring or loop, portions
of the said wire overlapping and lying parallel with one another, some-
what after the fashion of a split ring. We make a hole in the leather.
or fabric to which the button is to be attached, and pass the ring or
loop aforesaid through the said hole from the under side or back of such
leather or fabric. We then pass the shank of the button first on to one
end or hook of the wire, and then over to the other side of the ring or
loop and on to the other end or hook of the said wire, and thereby
securely attach the said button to the article of dress. The pull or
strain of the button being mainly borne by the disc at the back or ?
under side of the fabric or leather the latter cannot give way as it is
liable to where the button is attached by sewing.
In order to remove the button all that is necossary is to pass its shank
between the overlapping portions of the ring or loop aforesaid, so as to
disengage the said shank from the ends of the wire in a manner similar
to that in which a key is taken off a split ring.
a
According to another arrangement we take two short-wires and make
in each a bend or curve, and we solder or otherwise affix one end of each
wire to a plate of metal or other material (by preference of an elliptical
or circular form) in such a manner that the free ends of the said wires a
shall overlap and be parallel to one another, and point in opposite direc-
tions, the loop thus formed standing at right angles to the metal plate.

page_text: We place the fastener thus made at the under side or back of the leather
or fabric, and pass the shank of the button through the hole in the said
leather or fabric, and then first on to the free end of one of the wires
aforesaid, and along that wire until it comes opposite the free end of the
other wire, when wo pass the said shank on to that wire also, and thus
securely attach the button to the article of dress.
According to another modification of our Invention we bend a pieco
of wire into a loop or split ring, the "split" being in this instance trans-
verse to the axis of the wire, and we solder or otherwise affix the said
loop or ring to the disc or plate at right angles thereto. A shanked
button of an ornamental form may be passed on to this loop or ring
which is then closed. The button thus attached to the fastener consti-
tutes in effect a stud or solitaire, and may be passed through button holes
in the article of dress as is done with studs or solitaires of the ordinary
form.
Instead of the fasteners being made of discs or plates and wires as
herein-before described, the said fasteners may be made from blanks of
sheet metal so cut and shaped as to allow of portions of the blank being
bent into the form described with reference to the wires (i. e. a loop or
ring), the ends of the bent portions overlapping and lying parallel to one
another. The mode of using these fasteners is the same as that herein-
before described with reference to the other fasteners.
Having now described the nature of our Invention, we will proceed to
describe the manner in which the same is to be performed, reference
being had to the accompanying Sheet of Drawings, in which we have
represented on an enlarged scale various arrangements of fasteners for
attaching buttons according to our Invention.
Figures 1, 2, 8, and 4 represent the first of the arrangements herein-
before described. Figure 1 is a plan of a disc a through holes b, b, in
which the wire o is passed, the said wire being bent into a loop or ring d,
as shown in plan in Figure 2, side elevation in Figure 3, and perspective
in Figure 4, the hooked ends of the said wire lying parallel to one
another as represented.
Figure 5 represents in side elevation the manner in which we attach a
button to an article of dress according to our Invention; fis the fabric
of the said article in which we make at f¹ a circircular hole or a slit like
a button hole equal in diameter to the width of the loop or ring of the

page_text: fastener to be used, which fastener may be made in any of the ways
herein described. We pass the said loop or ring through the said hole,
and then pass the shank of the button e successively on to the ends of
the wire c, and thus attach the said button to the fabric.
Figures 6, 7, and 8 represent another of the arrangements herein-before
described. According to this arrangement we take two bent wires g, 9,
Figure 6, and affix them by soldering or otherwise to the disc a, as
represented in plan in Figure 7, and in side elevation in Figure 8.
Figures 9 and 10. represent another of the arrangements herein-before
described. According to this arrangement we bend a piece of wire into
a loop or split ring, as represented in Figure 9, and we solder the said
loop or ring to the disc a, as represented in side elevation in Figure 10.
In this case we prefer to solder the ends of the ring together after the
shank of the button has been passed on to the said ring. The said ends
may however be left unsoldered.
"
1
Figures 11 to 20 (both inclusive) represent various modes of making
our improved fasteners wholly of sheet metal, cut and shaped as herein-
before described, by means of suitable cutting and pressing tools worked
in a press. Figures 11 and 12 represent in plan and side elevation
respectively a sheet metal blank / having tongues i, i, which we bend 2
up so as to make a fastener of the form represented in plan in Figure 13,
and in side elevation in Figure 14. In order to give sufficient strength
to the hook shaped portions i, i, of the fastener we prefer to make them
thicker than the rest of the said fastener.
.Figure 124 is a plan of a blank from which a fastener, represented in 2
Figure 12 of a size and shape suitable for boots and gloves, is made by
bending the tongues, t, one over the other, as shown.
According to another mode we make in a circular blank j (represented
in plan in Figure 15) curved cuts j, j³, and bend up the portions of the
blank which lie outside the said cuts into a plane at right angles to the 3
body of the said blank, as represented in plan in Figure 16, and in side
clevation in Figure 17, and thus form them into hooks parallel to one
another.
According to another mode we take a sheet metal disc k, represented
in plan in Figure 18, and make therein a cut of the form shown, and
raise the tongues 1, 2, included in the said cut into the form of hooks, as
represented in plan in Figure 19, and in side elevation in Figure 20.
3

page_text: That portion of the blank Figure 18 from which the hooks are formed
may if desired be made of greater thickness than the rest of the blank,
in order to gain strength in the said hooks. The fasteners described
may be used with such solitaires as are or may be made with shanks
3. similar to those of the buttons herein-before referred to..
Having now described the nature of our Invention, and the manner
in which the same is to be performed, we claim as our said Invention,-
Firstly. The mode herein-before described of attaching or fastening
shanked buttons to boots and other articles of dress by means of discs or
plates and wires affixed thereto, and bent so as to be capable of receiving
and holding - the shanks of the said buttons after the manner of split
rings, or by means of discs or plates, portions of which are cut and
bent as described for the same purposes.
And, secondly. The several forms of fasteners herein-before described
and illustrated in the accompanying Drawing.
In witness whereof, we, the said James Haddon White and
Charlotte White, have hereunto set our hands and seals, this
Fifteenth day of February, in the year of our Lord One thousand
eight hundred and seventy-two.
Witness.
B. WILLCOX,
Clerk to H. H. Murdoch,
7, Staple Inn,
W. O.
JAS. HADDON WHITE. (L.S.)
CHARLOTTE WHITE.
(I.S.)