# United States patent 803685

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UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.
CHARLES M. FROST, OF JACKSON, MICHIGAN.

# CORSET AND OTHER ARTICLES OF COUNTERPART CONSTRUCTION.

No. 803,685. Specification of Letters Patent. Patented Nov. 7, 1905. Application filed April 30, 1904, Serial No. 205,841.
* To all whom it may concern:
* Be it known that I, CHARLES M. FROST, a
* citizen of the United States, residing at Jackson,
* in the county of Jackson and State of
* Michigan, have invented new and useful
* Improvements in Corsets and other Articles of
* Counterpart Construction, of which the
* following is a specification.
* This invention relates, to wearing-apparel
* of counterpart construction, and has for its
* object to provide means for maintaining the
* shape of such articles or overcoming their
* inherent tendency as ordinarily constructed to
* draw out of shape by reason of the fact that
* the construction of the cloth used in one half
* of the garment is the same, instead of being
* the counterpart or opposite of that used in
* the other half, both as to the twist of its
* component yarns and the pattern or design
* exhibited on the face of the cloth.
* The invention will first be hereinafter more
* particularly described with reference to the
* accompanying drawings, which form a part
* of this specification, and then pointed out in
* the claims at the end of the description.
* One of the chief obstacles in the way of the
* manufacturer of corsets and other articles of
* wearing-apparel of counterpart construction
* and one of the most annoying features
* presented to the consumer has been the tendency
* of the corset to "set crooked"--that is, when
* the corset is hooked up and laid on a table
* with the back and front clasps parallel one
* shoulder stands higher than the other, and
* when such a corset is laced on the person or
* figure it will be found that the clasp assumes
* a more or less diagonal position, one bust
* standing higher than the other, thus rendering
* the corset thoroughly uncomfortable to
* the wearer and unsightly. The major
* portion of factory-made corsets develop this
* tendency in a greater or less degree, dependent
* upon the "style" or "cut" of the corset,
* the quality of material, and on the measures
* adopted to prevent or counteract this tendency
* during the process of manufacture.   A
* large per cent. of corsets sold and which
* appear to be "straight" before being worn
* soon develop the same "crooked" tendency,
* and after a short period of use the wearer
* finds that the clasp is beginning to "twist."
* On account of this ever-present evil
* corsetmakers have resorted to various methods of
* construction in order to have the right and
* left halves of the article put together under
* the same or what may be termed "balanced"
* conditions; but they have failed to get at the
* root of the evil and the trouble has not been
* overcome, so that even with all known
* precautions nearly every corset-factory still has
* its "straightening-table," where expert
* operators examine each corset and see that it is
* made to set straight before passing it on to
* the later operations. An added trouble arises
* from the fact that in bias-seamed corsets which
* run crooked in the making one half is almost
* always larger than the other half, which calls
* for the efforts of an expert operator to bring
* them to proper size without destroying the
* shape of the article.
* Nearly all domestic goods are woven of
* lefttwist yarns, while many of the imported
* materials are of right-twist yarns, and upon
* investigation I have ascertained that corsets
* made from such domestic goods are crooked
* in exactly the opposite way to those made
* from snch imported materials, so that by using
* a left-twist or a right-twist material for both
* sides of the article when it is completed the
* right half is not the counterpart of the left,
* the yarns composing the cloth are twisted the
* same way in each half, and the design or
* pattern brought out on the face of the cloth in
* weaving is the same in both halves of the corset
* instead of being counterparts or right and
* left, respectively, and any tendency in one
* half to draw out of shape by reason of the
* construction of the cloth is accentuated by a
* similar tendency in the other half.   In my
* improvement these objectionable features are
* eliminated, and to accomplish this I use what
* may be termed "right and left hand cloths"
* for the right and left halves of the corset,
* respectively, so that in the completed article
* whatever unnatural stretching tendency
* develops in one half will be counterbalanced or
* counteracted by an opposing tendency in the
* other half.
* Fig. 1.
* Referring to the drawings, Figure 1 represents
* a crooked corset, the letter a denoting
* the right half and the letter b the left half.
* Figs. 2 and 3 represent design-cards of right
* and left hand twills, respectively.   Figs. 4
* and 5 represent a right-twist yarn and a
* leftwist yarn, respectively.
* In constructing the corset or other article
* of counterpart construction I cut the right
* half preferably from "left-twist" goods and
* the left half from "right-twist" goods, and
* thus produce a corset in which one half is
* truly the opposite of the other, whereby a
* perfectly-balanced effect is secured and the
* corset is permanently straight.
* Having thus described my invention, what
* I claim as new, and desire to secure by Letters
* Patent, is--
* 1. A corset or other article of counterpart
* construction having the right half thereof
* made of cloth whose component yarns or
* threads are spun or twisted in the reverse
* direction to that of the yarns or threads
* composing the cloth of the left half, substantially
* as described.
* 2. A corset or other article of counterpart
* construction having the right half thereof
* made of cloth whose component yarns or
* threads are spun or twisted in the reverse
* direction to that of the yarns or threads
* composing the cloth of the left half, and whose
* loom pattern or design is the reverse or
* opposite of the loom pattern or design of the
* cloth used in the left half, substantially as
* described.
In witness whereof I have signed my name to this specification in the presence of two subscribing witnesses.  CHARLES M. FROST  Witnesses:  DRURY FAIRBANKS GEORGE,  JOSUAH B. FROST.