CERTAIN IMPROVEMENTS IN MANUFACTURING SHOES AND OTHER COVERINGS FOR THE 'FOOT
Year: 1856

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by Pierre Ernest Aimont at the Office
of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the 12th May
1856.
I, PIERRE ERNEST AIMONT, Manufacturer, of Paris, in the French Empire,
do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for "CERTAIN IMPROVEMENTS
IN MANUFACTURING SHOES AND OTHER COVERINGS FOR THE 'FOOT," to be as
follows:-
My Invention consists in an improved method of manufacturing boots,
shoes, and other coverings for the feet, in which I form the sole, quarter, and
upper in a single piece, or in two pieces, by splitting or dividing the leather,
and also in an improved machine by which the splitting is effected.
I take a piece of leather, of the shape, represented in Figure 1, and make
a cut a, b, therein, extending to about half the thickness of the leather, more
or less. The cut slits the leather without entirely dividing it. I then placo it
on my improved splitting machinery, which is mounted on a frame, and is set
in motion through a pulley mounted on a shaft, which carries a toothed wheel
in gear with a pinion, the axis of which, through the intervention of an
adjustable screw, takes into the teeth of a lever and paul, which gears into a
ratchet wheel. The shaft of this wheel is in gear with the threaded end of

page_text: a shaft which actuates the driving wheel, or the lower of two cylinders
mounted on tlie framework of the machine. To the shaft of a pinion, in gear
with the before-mentioned toothed wheel, is connected a slotted arm, in which
slides the stud of another arm, connected at or near its further end by another
stud to a similar arm; the position of the arm is regulated according to that
of its studs. The last-mentioned arm works a shaft, at one end of which is
mounted a plate, on to which the rod which carries the splitting knife is fixed
by a screw, the plate thus regulating the stroke of the knife according to the
position of the screw. The leather to be split, which is placed on a frame
and kept in position by templets, is taken between the two cylinders before
referred to, the lower of which is regulated by wedges, and the upper by
screws, actuated by a toothed wheel. The leather is thus cut to the thickness
desired, and while it is being split, the cylinders being moved by the same
action as the knife, advance with every stroke of the knife, that is to say, with
every revolution of the driving wheel. The knife thus forms a pocket or gap
a, e, d, b, in which a last is inserted to form the foot, the smooth side of the
leather forming the upper, and the rough side the sole. On spliting the edges
a, g, f, to a, h, c, b, the lower part of the rough side is brought down or cut
away, and may serve for the heel piece, &c. The part 2 is brought up and
bent into shape to form the quarter and sides of the shoe, the smooth surface
being on the inside. The part a, b, h, i, t, remains whole to form the the seat for
the heel, which is secured by screws or otherwise. The quarters are fixed to
the upper by sewing, or in any other suitable manner. Or, instead of only one
piece of leather, two may be employed, one being of the 'shape a, b, c, d, and
the other of the shape a, b, f, g, e, and the two are united by sewing. To
raise the upper, I introduce a rounded conical blade, rest it on a bearing point,
and impart to it a movement in a horizontal semi-circular direction, while the
plate on which the leather is fixed is gradually lowered till it comes to the
proper distance; or the upper may be still further raised by splitting it, so
that it may be wider than the sole, and bending back in the thickness and the
sides, the part between the point where the splitting of the upper stops, and
that on which the binding is placed. The two parts are then raised on the
last and form a ridge on the sides and length of the upper, which may be
removed by pressure, cutting, or otherwise; the quarter being split, they are'
raised again, and the parts A, C, and A, B, joined.
To form the bend, I perforate the part A, G, and D, E, leaving a short
space unsplit along the sides G and E, and I insert a strip of leather into
this pocket through the opening A. To line the shoe, I split the part between-
A, G, and D, E, raise it and insert enough skin to form the lining for the

page_text: quarters and the heel. I then turn down the split part A, G, and D, E, and
fix the lining to the sole by rivets or screws.
To increase the thickness of the sole, I split a piece in the sole (under the
upper) similar to the upper, and I insert therein through the opening Da
piece of leather of the shape of the sole. The quarters and upper are joined
by the ordinary methods, or by means of the tool shewn in Figure 3, the
point A of which pierces the two parts of the upper; the hook B takes hold
of a thread on the inside of the shoe, brings it over the upper and forms a
loop, into which a thread outside the shoe is inserted.