Improvements in Attaching Buttons.
Year: 1893

page_text: Date of Application, 25th July, 1893
Complete Specification Left, 13th Apr., 1894-Accepted, 9th June, 1894
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION.
Improvements in Attaching Buttons.
A communication from HENRY HAVELOCK CUMMINGS, of Malden, in the State
of Massachusetts, one of the United States of America, Machinist.
I, ALFRED GEORGE BROOKES, of 55 & 56 Chancery Lane in the County of
London, Chartered Patent Agent do hereby declare the nature of this invention
to be as follows:-
Much attention has been given to attaching buttons to shoes or other material or
fabric and this has been done automatically by threads manipulated by a needle or
needles in a sewing machine, the thread used being extended from button to button
at the inner side of the shoe.
Buttons have also been secured to shoes by means of staples clinched at the inner
side of the leather.
I have aimed to improve and simplify the method of applying shanked buttons
to shoes or other material or fabric by means of a thread, and I have succeeded in
doing this by means of a single thread which is tied in a knot at the inner side of
the material.
In accordance with the invention as communicated to me by my foreign corre-
spondeut the material is bent into the groove of a trough or plate, having a throat
and the eye of the button is placed in the bend in the material in the groove.
I then take a hooked needle, thrust it through the material and the eye of the
button, and supply the hook of the needle with a suitable thread, and the free end
of the said thread, taken from a suitable spool or guide, is drawn through the
material and the eye of the button.
After this the free end of the thread at the right of the button is carried across
under the material, say to the left, and the part of the thread coming from the
spool is carried across under the material to the right, and this part of the thread
is twisted to form two loops or coils.
The needle is then thrust forward from the starting position through the two
loops, and through the material and the eye of the button, and the free end of the
thread carried, as stated, across under the material, is caught by the hook of the
needle, and the said free end is again drawn through the material and the eye of
the needle in the same direction, and also through the two loops and then while
the free end of the thread is held below the material and button, the main body
of the thread and the free end thereof are drawn upon until the loops are drawn
into a hard knot, after which the material is removed from the groove and permitted
to resume its normal flat condition, leaving the button fastened to the material by
two passages of thread through the eye of the button and the material, the ends of
the thread being drawn into a hard knot at the inner side of the material.
With a proper sized thread this method of joining the button to leather may be
quickly and economically practised, the junction being very secure.
The needle may be of the curved variety, in which event the material need not
be as much bent as when the needle is straight.
Dated this 25th day of July 1893.

page_text: Improvements in Attaching Buttons.
A communication from abroad by HENRY HAVELOCK CUMMINGS, of Malden,.
in the State of Massachusetts, one of the United States of America,
Machinist.
I ALFRED GEORGE BROOKES of 55 & 56 Chancery Lane, in the County of
London, Chartered Patent Agent 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 :-
Much attention has been given to attaching buttons to shoes or other material or
fabric and this has been done automatically by threads manipulated by a needle or
needles in a sewing machine, the thread used being extended from button to button
at the inner side of the shoe.
Buttons have also been secured to shoes by means of staples clinched at the inner
side of the leather. My correspondent has aimed to improve and simplify the
method of applying shanked buttons to shoes or other material or fabric by means
of a thread and he has succeeded in doing this by means of a single thread which
is tied in a knot at the inner side of the material.
Figs. 1 to 8 shew a piece of material, and a button, the different views shewing
the different steps of my method.
Fig. 9 is a view shewing the throat plate detached.
In accordance with the invention the material a is bent into the groove b of a
trough or plate &', having a throat 62 and the eye c of the button c' is placed in the
bend in the material in the groove b as in Fig. 1.
I then take a hooked needle as d, thrust it through the material and the eye of
the button, as in Fig. 2, and supply the hook of the needle with a suitable thread,
as e, and the free end of the said thread, taken from a suitable spool or guide, not
shewn, is drawn through the material and the eye of the button, as in Fig. 3.
After this the free end of the thread at the right of the button Fig. 3 is carried
across under the material, as in Fig. 4 say to the left, and the part of the thread
coming from the spool is carried across under the material to the right, as also
shewn in Fig. 4, and this part of the thread is twisted to form two loops or coils 2, 3.
The needle d is then thrust forward from the position Fig. 4 through the two
loops 2, 3, and through the material and the eye of the button, as in Fig. 5, and
the free end of the thread carried as stated, across under the material, as shewn
in Fig. 4, is caught see Fig. 5 by the hook of the needle, and the said free end is
again drawn through the material and the eye of the button in the same direction,
as in Fig. 3, and also through the two loops 2, 3, as in Fig. 6, and then while the
free end of the thread is held below the material and button, the main body of the
thread and the free end thereof are drawn upon until the loops 2 and 3 are drawn
into a hard knot see Fig. 7, after which the material is removed from the groove
and permitted to resume its normal flat condition, as in Fig. 8, leaving the button
fastened to the material by two passages of thread through the eye of the button
and the material, the ends of the thread being drawn into a hard knot at the inner
side of the material.
With a proper sized thread this method of joining the button to leather may be
quickly and economically practised, the junction being very secure.
The needle may be of the curved variety, in which event the material need not be
as much bent as in Fig. 1 where the needle is straight.
The means for forming the double loop for threading the needle and for
tightening the knot being in themselves known devices do not separately considered
constitute essential parts of the present invention and therefore I make no claim
thereto.

page_text: Having now particularly described and ascertained the nature of the said inven-
tion, and in what manner the same is to be performed, I declare that what I
claim is :-
The method of attaching shanked buttons to leather and other material or fabric,
which consists in bending the material about the shank of the button, drawing the
free end of a thread through the material and the eye of the button, crossing the
free end of the thread and its main body under the material, making two loops or
coils in such body of the thread and drawing the free end of the thread through
the material and the eye of the button and also through the two loops or coils and
then drawing the thread thus passed through the loops or coils into a hard knot
under the material, substantially as described.
Dated the 13th day of April 1894.
WM. BROOKES & SON,
55 & 56, Chancery Lane, London, Agents for the Applicant..