US550604A - Island - Google Patents

Description

(No Model.)

No. 550,604. Patented Dec. 3, 1895.

ada zam, w f/gw% 7M m hmlL,

UNTTED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

CLINTON IV. EASTINOOD, OF PROVIDENCE, RIIODE ISLAND.

RUBBER BOOT-LEG.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 550,604, dated December 3, 1895.

Application filed February 20, 1894:- Serial No. 500,921. (No model.)

To aZZ whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, CLINTON W. EAST- WOOD, a citizen of the United States, and a resident of the city and county of Providence, in the State of Rhode Island, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Rubber Boots, of which the following is a speci fication.

In the manufacture of rubber boots the proper degree of thickness or rigidity that should be given to the boot-leg has always been a matter of uncertainty. On the one hand, it should not be made too thick, for this occasions difficulty in putting on or off the boots and folding down the leg portion, and, moreover, necessitates unnecessary weight and expense in manufacture. It is therefore desirable that the leg portion of the boot should be made as thin and flexible as possible. A limit in this direction, however, in rubber boots as customarily constructed is set by the fact that if made too thin or yielding the folds will sag down one past the other, occasioning great discomfort and annoyance.

The object of my invention has been to permit the leg portions of rubber boots to be made of material much thinner than has hitherto been the custom, while at the same time avoiding the sagging down of the outer folds around the foot of the wearer that would otherwise ensue from such excessive thinness.

In the accompanying drawings, Figure l is a side elevation of the boot when folded with the upper portion in section, showing the device in operation. Fig. 2 is a front view, and Fig. 3 a side view, of the attachment detached, which serves to hold the folds together.

It will first be expedient to consider the nature of the change of shape which would be undergone by a boot-leg of excessive thinness not provided with any device for op posing such change. Supposin g that the bootleg is folded into the shape shown in Fig. 1 and is not provided with any such locking device, the legwill give way at its weakest parts. These are the folds, upper and lower. The walls or laps themselves of the leg will be sufficientl y consistent or unyielding; but the up per fold, for instance, will yield in what may be termed a vortex motion-that is,the inner lap will remain stationary, the intermediate lap will sink alongside of the same, and the line of fold will move downwardly on the innor lap, the upper portions of this lap passing the line of fold and becoming part of the intermediate lap. Now the device for preventing this movement comprises a fork, the members of which embrace the inner and intermediate laps so closely that this rolling motion of the material past the line of fold is prevented, the edges of the laps at the fold being brought so close together that the weight of the depending material will not change the line of fiexure. Furthermore, I attach the outer member of said fork or hook to the outer lap at any desired portion thereof, preferably near the top, to permit of the boot being lowered as much as possible. Thus the outer lap is supported on the inner lap.

In the drawings, A represents the locking device, fork, or hook, the members of which embrace the edges of the inner and intermediate laps so closely as to permit no change in the line of flexure, and 13 represents the boot-leg, to the upper portion of which the hook A is attached on the inside of said leg.

It will be seen that when the boot-leg is folded into three laps and prevented from further folding by the device above described the three laps constitute substantially a single lap of increased thickness and consistency.

I am aware that rubberboots havingleg portions of excessively-thin material, provided with means for attachment to the leg orbody of the wearer, have been devised, such construction being shown in the United States patent granted to John J. Williamson, No. 296,495, dated April 8, 1884. The said patent discloses a boot-leg of this character provided at the top with a strap for strapping it, when fully extended, around the leg of the wearer. This patent, however, discloses no device suitable for sustaining the leg portion in the position shown in Fig. 1 of my drawings, nor was the object of this patentee to make the leg portion self sustaining in the trebly folded form above referred to, but merelyto supportit when fully extended. Williamsons rubber boot has its leg portion of such exceeding thinness that it would when not sustained fall into numerous folds.

My improvement is not intended to substitute gossamer material for the ordinary stiff inflexible rubber leg, but merely to reduoe the thickness of the latter to such an extent that a three-fold thickness of the same,- When held together, would be self-sustaining, and to provide convenient means for holding the three folds together.

Having thus fully described my invention, what I claim, and desire to secure by Letters Patent, is

A rubber boot having a leg portion of thin flexible material but of suflicient thickness, that three laps of the san1e,When held together, will be self sustaining, the same being provided With a locking device, secured on the inside of the outer lap, and comprising a fork, the members of Which closely embrace the edges of the inner and intermediate laps at the upper fold, whereby change in the line of flexure thereat is prevented, substantially as described.

CLINTON W. EASTWOOD.

Witnesses WILLIAM M. BROWN, DEXTER M. SMALL.

Images