US796650A - Button-fastener. - Google Patents

Description

1%.. 796,650. PATENTED AUG. 8, 1905. G. A. HOLMES.

BUTTON FASTENER.

AP$LIOATION rum) ArB.7,1904.

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UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

GEORGE A. HOLMES, OF NEWTON, MASSACHUSETTS, ASSIGNOR, BY MESNE ASSIGNMENTS, TO UNITED STATES FASTENER COMPANY, OF BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS, A CORPORATION OF MAINE.

BUTTON-FASTENER- Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented Aug. 8, 1905.

Application filed April '7, 1904. Serial No. 201,961.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, GEORGE A. HoLMns, a citizen of the United States, residing at Newton, in the county-of Middlesex and Commonwealth of Massachusetts, have invented a new and useful Improvement in Button-Fasteners, of which the following is a full specification, reference being had to the' accompanying drawings, wherein like letters represent like parts.

My invention relates to button-fasteners, so called, composed of a male or button memher and a female or buttonhole member; and it consists in an improved form of male or button member embodying certain new and improved features of construction whereby after the said member has been riveted to the article on which it is to be used by suitable pressure in a manner common to fasteners of its class it can, if desired, be by simple and inexpensive means removed from the article without material injury to itself or the article, after which it can be reset upon the articles as desired.

In order to use snap-fasteners successfully on certain classes of articles, such as shoes, it is desirable to have a fastener which can be applied to the article inthe manufactory by a machine and dies in as simple and quick a manner-as is customarily employed in setting fasteners. At the same time it is often desirable to alter the position of the fastener in order to adapt the shoe or other article to the needs oft). purchaser, and on this account it is desirable to make the stud member of the fastener removable, so that its position may be changed. Furthermore, the fastener must preferably be attached in such a manner that when its position is changed it will not leave an unsightly holein the material. With these objects in view I have invented my improved removable male or button member which consists of a button or ball having on its under side a convex perforated nut-forming bottom plate, preferably of soft metal, and an attaching-rivet having a threaded shank which will just pass easily through the perforation in the convex nut-forming bottom plate of the stud when it is in its normal position. In this way I successfully accomplish the object already stated of providing a screw-attached fastener which may be originally applied in as quick and simple manner as ordinary rivetfasteners and obviously much more quicklythan screw-fasteners having preformed male and female screw-threads in the respective parts, requiring many turns to effect attachment, and yet I retain the advantage of removability and readjustment inherent in screw-attached fasteners.

In my improved button or ball member I simply insert the threaded shank of the screw through the material and then through the unthreaded hole in the convex nut-forming bottom plate of the stud and press the two parts together by any suitable or common means with the material between them. The result of this pressure is that the convex bottom plate is flattened, contracting the central perforation about the threaded shank so tightly that the thread of this shank is pressed into the soft metal of the bottom plate, holding the ball firmly onto the material and at the same time transforming it into a nut or screw button or ball which can be readily unscrewed from the shank, and thus be removed and placed in a new location. The diameter of the screw-shank may be such as to necessitate only a very small hole in the material, so that the appearance of the shoe or other article is not materially injured by changing the position of the stud.

Referring to the accompanying drawings, Figure 1 shows in section my improved ball member with the two parts placed in juxtaposition with the material between them. Fig. 2 shows the same with the threaded screw passed through the material and the convex nut-forming bottom plate before pressure is applied. Fig. 3 shows the same after the pressure is applied, riveting the two parts together onto the material and transforming the convex bottom plate into a threaded nut. threaded screw, showing holes for use of a wrench or spanner. Fig. 5 shows in section the convex nut-forming bottom plate before attachment without threads. Fig. 6 shows in section the convex. nut-forming bottom plate after attachment with threads.

In the drawings, A is a button or ball, B the material, and C the attaching-screw. The button or ball may be of any common form having a head. It is preferably hollow and may or may not be non-resilient, depending upon whether the opposed socket member Fig. 4 is a plan of the under side of my is resilient or non-resilient. In the particular ball member herein shown the -outer edge of the flange (0 I preferably turn down and under to embrace the outer edge of the convex nut-forming bottom plate (4 having the central perforation a. The attaching-screw O has the threaded shank 0 and the head 0, having the perforations 0 by which it may be engaged bya suitable wrench or spanner in order to turn it. As shown in Figs. 3 and 6, after the operation of setting the material of the washer a is forced around the screwshank 0 and embedded into the thread thereof, so that it forms a nut to cooperate with the said screw-shank.

I have shown the material of the shoe or other article as perforated prior to attaching the fastener; but by pointing the screw slightly and holding the two parts in proper alinement when they are pressed together the screw may be made to pierce its own hole and rivet into the stud, as before.

For convenience of manufacture I preferably make the nut-forming bottom plate, as shown, in the form of a separate washer secured by its periphery to the turned-under edge of the flange of the ball; but it is evident that this and many other details of mere form and workmanship may be modified or changed for equivalents without departing from the spirit of my invention. I

The ball or stud is preferably hollow, or at least sufficiently so to permit proper engagement of the parts, some portion of the screwshank passing into the interior of the ball. The ball may be used in conjunction with a resilient female member or otherwise.

I claim 1. A hollow male or stud member of a separable snap-fastener provided with a convex nut-forming bottom plate which may be flattened by pressure, in combination with a headed attaching-screw, whereby said member may he removably attached to the material by pressure between the stud and the attaching-screw.

2. A ball or button member for attachment to a shoe or like article comprising the ball, a convex, centrally-apertured unthreaded, nutforming plate secured to the ball, and a screw having a head or flange adapted to bear against the material of the shoe, and a threaded shank adapted to be passed through the material and inserted loosely into the aperture in said plate,

the said plate adapted to be flattened by pres-- sure against said head or flange to contract the aperture in said plate and form a screwthread therein by reason of the metal being embedded in the threads of said screw; whereby the ball or button member may be removably attached to the shoe or other article.

3. A balllor button combined with an attaching part having a shank of relatively hard metal and a wide flat head or flange, the hall or button having a part of relatively soft metal; the hard shank having screw-threads for substantially its entire length, and the soft metal part so constructed as to engage with said screw-shank, and to become embedded in the threads of said shank when simple nonrotative pressure is applied between the two, whereby the same are firmly secured together and at the same time the said soft-metal part is converted into a threaded nut from which the attaching part may be removed by un screwing, substantially as and for the purposes set forth.

In testimony whereofIhave signed my name to this specification, in the presence of two subscribing witnesses, on this 1st day of April,

GEORGE A. HOLMES. Witnesses:

FRED JOY,

A. H. FLANNERY.

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