WW 1 BUTTON STICK ?

[OLD ROBIN HOOD]

Greetings from Sunny Sherwood Forest

     Here is a button stick that I have had for a number of years.  As can be seen it has the Patent Number 116972 / 17.

Would I be correct in assuming that the 17 is 1917?  All help gratefully received.

                                        Old Robin Hood

 

                          

[mark holden]

17 is the patent date I think there is some doubt that this pattern saw much if any use during late WW1.

[Pete_C]

As Mark states this design is unlikely to have seen service before the end of the war. The patent was filed on 28 August 1917 by Bodill Parker & Co Ltd, of Birmingham. The complete patent was accepted on 4 July 1918 in the names of the designers, Joseph Parker and Lance Corporal Thomas Cooke. The patent drawing differs slightly from the production model, most notably the omissions of the smaller hole for cleaning the male part of the fastener and the scallop for cleaning the one inch brass tips. The design, under the nomenclature, “Brass, cleaning” was accepted by the War Office as standard issue and was still listed in stores in the 1980’s. Manufacture continued up until at least the 1970’s - see 1971 production below. The Bodill Parker 1917 patent didn’t change to accommodate the 1937 Pattern Equipment design even though the brass fittings were a different size.
I’ve seen examples made from steel and Bakelite, most likely WW2 production.  Further evidence that they never saw service before November 1918 is that battlefield relics never seem to turn up, whereas relics of the simpler forked design are always popping up on eBay - happy to be proven wrong on this if anyone’s found one.

 

Pete

 

.....much of the above taken from research by the late Roger Dennis.
 

 

 

 

 

Edited 20 July , 2020 by Pete_C

[OLD ROBIN HOOD]

Greetings from still Sunny Sherwood Forest

 

Thanks Mark & Pete , my question well answered .

 

           Robin