IMPROVED COVERS FOR UMBRELLAS, PARASOLS, OR SUNSHADES
Year: 1863

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by William Alexander Lyttle at. the
Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the
14th November 1863.
I, WILLIAM ALEXANDER LYTTLE, of No. 5, Priam Place, Albion Road,
Hammersmith, London, in the County of Middlesex, Gentleman, do hereby
declare the nature of the said Invention for "IMPROVED COVERS FOR UMBRELLAS,
PARASOLS, OR SUNSHADES," to be as follows:-.
For the purpose of being enabled to dispense with the greater part of the
sewing now necessary in the manufacture of bags or envelopes for umbrellas,
parasols, and sunshades, and thus to produce such envelopes at a lower price,
I adopt the following arrangements:-
1st. I manufacture the bags of the present cylindrical or conical shapes,
but instead of stitching the edges of the material together in order to form the
side seam, I produce the necessary seam by causing the edges to adhere one to
the other by means of any desirable adhesive matter. The narrow end of the
bag or the end worn nearest to the umbrella point I contract if necessary either
by a similar adhesion, or by binding it to a ring as at present, or by any
other
desirable means. The materials which I use are such as may be found
suitable for such seaming by adhesion of the joining edges, but I specially
claim the manufacture of all umbrella covers or cases made of paper or of
paper combined with a textile fabric.
2nd. Without making such covers or envelopes in the shape of a bag or
cylinder, I escape the stitching of the side seam by forming them of merely a

page_text: band of any of the ordinary materials now used generally for such covers or
any of the other materials above referred to. Such band is formed with its
smaller or point end as a cylinder or otherwise ready shaped so as to slip on
the umbrella stick, and being then wound throughout the remainder of its
length spirally around the umbrella it serves as a perfect cover, one of its edges
only (if of proper size) being exposed to view. It can, lastly, be secured by
means of a sliding ring or with any other convenient fastening.
3rd. This band can also, if desired, be permanently connected to the
umbrella by being attached to it along one of its edges (in the construction of
the umbrella) in such a manner that when the umbrella is wound up in the
usual way,.
the flap or band intended for the cover may overlie and envelope
the whole, the winding being completed precisely as if merely one of the
segments of cloth forming the umbrella were wider and so overlapped
the rest.
4th. The advantage of these plans is cheapness of manufacture which is the
primary object of this Invention, with superior neatness and facility of appli-
cation by the wearer.
5th. I claim (as springing necessarily from the contrivance herein-before
described for avoiding the stitched side seam) all bags or covers not being
boxes made of paper or papered fabric for umbrellas, and also all flat band
covers (as already specified) no matter of what material produced. By the
umbrellas herein-before named, I mean not only umbrellas properly so called,
but also sunshades and parasols.