IN THE MANUFACTURE OF BUTTONS."
Year: 1881

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by George Phillips at the Office of the
Commissioners of Patents on the 24th August 1881.
GEORGE PHILLIPS, of Clehonger, in the County of Hereford.
IN THE MANUFACTURE OF BUTTONS."
"IMPROVEMENTS
The object of this Invention, which relates to improvements in the manufacture
of buttons for use in fastening together parts of trousers, boots, and other articles
of wearing apparel or of utility, is to provide a facility which does not appertain
to any kind or description of button as hitherto made, of being safely and easily
secured or fixed in position without the aid of thread or of any separate fastening
appliances, and of being as easily removed when required, and thus to provide
self-fixing buttons applicable for any use, which can be immediately adjusted or
adapted to any article without any preparation and by any one, and without the
need or aid of separate appliances or other means than those which appertain to
and form part of the button itself.
The improved buttons are constructed of two parts, which in fixing the button
in position are united together as hereinafter mentioned. The top or head of the
button constitutes one of these parts, and it may be made of metal or of any
suitable material and of any desired conformation; it is however provided with an
exterior groove to accommodate the brace end, or the flap of a boot, or an
equivalent part of any other wearing apparel or article of utility to which the
button is adapted for the purpose of fastening parts thereof together. If the button
is used merely for purposes of ornamentation, it is not necessary that this groove
should be made. The bottom or base of the top of head of the button is tapped or
screw-threaded internally. The bottom or shank of the button constitutes the
other part thereof, and its base is extended or flattened out so as to press against
the opposite side of the material to that against which the head presses, and the
shank of the button is screw-threaded externally, and when being fixed in position
it is simply passed through a hole in the material and screwed tightly into the
tapped hole in the head, and the material to which the button is adapted is thus
forcibly compressed between the two parts of which the improved button is com-
posed, and upon which they have an extended and good hold, so that there is not
the usual liability to tear the material as there is with the usual sewn-on buttons,

page_text: and there is no possibility of the improved button wearing or coming away from
the material as there is with buttons as usually made and secured.
To facilitate the screwing together and unscrewing of the parts composing the
improved button, and the application of which principle constitutes the characteristic
feature of this Invention, the flattened or extended end of the shank may be made
with a notch or through hole, in which anything handy which will catch therein
may be inserted to obtain a better leverage. This however is merely a matter
of comparative convenience, and is not dependent upon the principle of this
Invention.
In lieu of or in addition to this notch or hole, the inner side of the extended or
flattened base may be made with raised projections, of which two (and opposite
each other) would be sufficient, their purpose of utility being to obtain a better
hold upon the material compressed between the parts of the button, and to prevent
the shank from turning round while the head is being screwed up or unscrewed.