IMPROVEMENTS IN BUTTONS AND OTHER DRESS FASTENINGS
Year: 1879

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by Andrew Lowman at the Office of the
Commissioners of Patents on the 3rd October 1879.
"
ANDREW LOWMAN, of Aston, near Birmingham, in the County of Warwick,
Commercial Clerk. "IMPROVEMENTS IN BUTTONS AND OTHER DRESS FASTENINGS.”
My Invention consists, first, of the following improvements in constructing
buttons, the principal object of iny said improvements being to attach the buttons
to the articles of dress in a simple, efficient, and rapid manner without sewing.
I make the button of three parts, namely, of a head or top which is situated on
the outside of the article of dress; a tubular shank and a fixing screw carried by a
disc, having at its periphery a series of points or teeth; this disc is situated at the
inside of the article of dress, and I will call it the back disc. In the axis of the head
or top of the button is a tube screwed internally with a concave screw to receive
the fixing screw carried by the back disc. The upper edge of the tubular shank is
furnished with inclined teeth, and the under face of the head or top of the button
is furnished with similar inclined teeth for the teeth of the shank to engage with,
so as to bind the shank and head or top together and prevent them turning on one
another. The lower edge of the shank has also points or teeth upon it for fixing it
to the inside of the garment.
In attaching the button to the garment a hole is pierced in the garment of a size
proper for the fixing screw of the back disc to pass through. The shank is placed
over the said hole at the outside of the garment, and its lower points made to enter
the garment so as to fix it thereto. Upon the shank thus fixed the head or top of
the button is placed, and the fixing screw is then inserted through the hole in the
garment, from the inside thereof, and screwed into the screwed tube in the head or
top. On fully driving home the fixing screw the points or teeth of its carrying
plate embed themselves in the material of the garment, and prevent the further
motion of the screw and at the same time fix it in its place. The head or top of
the button at the front of the garment is thereby fixed very securely in its place
and to the shank, the said head or top being prevented from rotating during the
screwing home of the fixing screw by the inclined teeth on its under face being
engaged with the inclined teeth on the shank, the teeth at the lower edge of which
shank are embedded in the material of the garment.

page_text: Besides giving facility for attaching buttons to garments without sewing, my
Invention has the further advantage that heads or tops of different kinds may be
used with the same fixing parts, and when the heads or tops are worn may be
replaced by fresh ones.
My Invention consists further of the following improvements in constructing
combined hooks and buttons, whereby they are readily attached to the garment
without sewing.
In carrying this part of my Invention into effect, I use a head or top, shank, and
fixing screw, as described with respect to buttons, but in place of the back disc
carrying the fixing screw, I use a hook which is engaged with an eye at the opposite
edge of the garment to that at which the hook is attached. The said hook may
either consist of a spring hook, that is, a closed loop having a spring tongue, which is
pressed back by and made to snap upon the eye; or of a plate having at one end
a hooked stud or head which is engaged with a contracted part of the eye; in either
case the hook is formed with teeth or points for fixing it to the inside of the garment
when the fixing screw is driven home into the head or top of the button outside
the garment. By constructing the parts as described the hooks and buttons are
attached at the same time, and the separate attachment which is necessary when the
hooks and buttons are constructed in the ordinary way is dispensed with.
The last described improvements are especially applicable to hooks and buttons
for ladies' dresses, jackets, mantles, and the like, but inay be used for fastening other
articles of dress.
I prefer to make the fixing screws used with the buttons or combined hooks and
and buttons described, from cylindrical wire having longitudinal depressions made
in it at opposite points. By the use of wire of this kind, there is no burr left on
the screw by the action of the screw impressing dies, as the edges of the said dies
in closing upon the wire enter the said depressions, and hence prevent the formation
of a burr where the edges of the dies meet.