Improvement in Button Fasteners
Year: 1887

page_text: Date of Application, 6th June, 1387
Specification Accepted, 28th Oct., 1887
A communication from ELEAZER KEMPSHALL, of the City of New Britain, in the
State of Connecticut, and United States of North America, Manufacturer.
1 ALFRED JULIUS BOULT of 323 High Holborn in the County of Middlesex,
M.I.M.E. 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 :-
This invention relates to an Improvement in Button Fasteners, such as are used
for fastening buttons on shoes and other similar articles.
In the accompanying drawings, Figure 1 is a side view, somewhat enlarged, of a
button fastener embodying this improvements. Fig. 2 is an edge view of the fastener.
Fig. 3 shows the fastener set into a shoe or fabric, F, for holding thereto a shank
button, D. Fig. 4 is an enlarged diagrammatic view of the fastener as shown in
Fig. 1. Fig. 5 is a similar view of the saine as shown in Fig. 3.
Similar characters designate like parts in all the figures.
:
In the drawings, B denotes the head or base of the button fastener, and P the
puncturing prong thereof. One end 2, of said base is longer than the other end, 3,
thereof; so that when the prong is bent over to form a button-holding loop or
hook, 4, as in Fig. 3, the button shall draw about equally on each of said ends, in
proportion to their respective lengths. The prong consists (see Figs. 4 and 5) of
three parts, the base part 5, which is not bent in the operation of setting the
fastener the apex or puncturing point, 7, which stands (projects) over the lower
end, 2, of the base, and which is also not bended in setting operation; and, the
middle or bending portion 6. In the operation of setting the fastener, the prong P,
in Fig. 4, is formed into the hook in Fig. 5, by the bending of only the middle
part 6; since the part 7 when in its original state, has also its final form. The said
respective parts of the prong are similarly indicated as to their extent by the dotted
boundary lines a ei, which, in Fig. 5, all meet in the center, Y, of the hook or
loup C.

page_text: In using these improved button fasteners, the same instruments and machines are
employed, which are now commonly employed for setting the button fasteners that
are described in the specification to letters patent granted to me No. 6038 dated May
4th 1886.
These improved button fasteners herein described and claimed belong to that class of
fasteners which are known as "one-prong" button fasteners, and which are intended
to make only a single puncture in the leather or shoe upper in which they are set.
To attain this result, however, it is in practice necessary that the hook shall be fully
and properly forined, so that the point 7 shall lie on, and not re-enter the leather.
Prior to the present invention, said result has been attempted to be obtained by
means of precision of workmanship in the construction of the setting appliances, but
the dies would soon wear, or the prongs vary in their proportion or temper, so that
the results were not uniform or wholly satisfactory. All these objections are met by
the present improvements. As the point 7, while still in the blank form of fastener
(Fig. 4) has its final shape, it does not require to be bent at all, and the setting die,
and the appliances for using the same, may therefore be much less accurate in
construction and arrangement, and still produce substantially uniform results.
Having now particularly described and ascertained the nature of my invention as
communicated to me by my foreign correspondent, and in what manner the same is
to be performed, I declare that what I claim is :-
"
A sheet-metal button fastener, consisting of a narrow head or base having an
edgewise bearing surface, and having an integral puncturing prong projecting from
said bearing surface at a point to one side of the center of said surface and in the
same plane with the head or base, said prong being adapted in its tapered middle
portion to be bended over to form a button-holding loop or hook, and having at its
apex a short lateral curve or bend projecting over the longer end of said head or base,
and coinciding in shape with the curve of the finished loop or hook, the whole being
adapted to be struck from a sheet of metal in its finished forin, all substantially as
described, and for the purpose specified.
Dated this 6th day of June 1887