Improvements in or applicable to Boots and other Articles Closed or Tightened by Lacing.
Year: 1891

page_text: Date of Application, 26th Mar., 1891
Complete Specification Left, 23rd Dec., 1891-Accepted, 23rd Jan., 1892
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION.
Improvements in or applicable to Boots and other Articles Closed
or Tightened by Lacing.
We JOHN HAWTHORN of the firm of John Hawthorn & Company of Newtown
New Mills in the County of Chester Engineers and FREDERICK HAWTHORN of
Newtown, New Mills aforesaid Salesman do hereby declare the nature of this
invention to be as follows:-
Our invention relates principally to laced boots and shoes and other laced feet
coverings and has for its object to provide means whereby such coverings may be
more readily applied to and removed from the feet of the wearers. In ordinary
laced boots the laces are passed to and fro through eyelet holes and are secured by
tyeing after having been drawn tight. In some cases the upper part of the boot
is provided with hooks to facilitate the application and removal of the boot but in
all cases it is necessary when putting on the boot to lace it up and to tie or secure
the lace. In our invention we provide means whereby the laces can be slackened
or tightened without untying.
We pass the laces or the two ends of each lace through levers which are hinged
to plates or parts which are secured upon each side of the front opening in the
upper. When these levers are turned inward they relax the lace and when turned
outward they tighten the lace. These levers may be applied throughout or be used
in conjunction with ordinary eyelet holes.
The lace may to some extent be confined by passing through an eye at the outer
end of the lever or it may have some freedom to move along a slot in the lever.
In either case the lace is tightened when the lever end is turned outward and
away from the centre line of the boot. Each lever may be kept in its outward
position by means of a spring or the lever may be so formed with relation to the
position of its fulcrum as that the tension of the lace will impart to the lever a
tendency to close down upon the boot. The levers applied to a single boot may be
all of the same length or may be graduated or otherwise shorter levers may be used
for the lower part of the opening which does not require so much relaxation of the
lace to permit the boot to be removed from the foot as is required at the upper
part of the opening. The plates or feet to which the levers are hinged may be
secured to the boot or article by means of fangs or of screws, rivets or eyelets or
by suitable means and in the cases of fasteners specially adapted to be applied to
boots already provided with eyelet holes we may provide the inner end of each
plate or foot with a hook fang or peg which may be passed through an eyelet hole
and be clenched or secured.
Our invention may be found to be applicable with advantage to other articles
such for example as corsets and bodices.
Dated this 25th day of March 1901
DUTTON & FULTON,
1, St. James' Square, Manchester, Agents,

page_text: COMPLETE SPECIFICATION.
Improvements in or applicable to Boots and other Articles Closed
or Tightened by Lacing.
We JOHN HAWTHORN of the firm of John Hawthorn & Company of Newtown,
New Mills, in the County of Chester, Engineers, and FREDERICK HAWTHORN of
Newtown New Mills aforesaid, Salesman do hereby declare the nature of this
invention and in what manner the same is to be performed to be particularly
described and ascertained in and by the following statement and accompanying
drawings:
Our invention relates principally to laced boots and shoes and other laced feet
coverings and has for its object to provide means whereby such coverings may be
more readily applied to and removed from the feet of the wearers.
In ordinary laced boots the laces are passed to and fro through cyelet holes and
are secured by tyeing after having been drawn tight. In some cases the upper
part of the boot is provided with hooks to facilitate the application and removal of
the boot but in all cases it is necessary when putting on the boot to lace it up and
to tie or secure the lace. In our invention we provide means whereby the laces
can be slackened or tightened without untying. We pass the laces or the two ends
of each lace through eyes or slots in levers which are hinged to plates or parts
which are secured upon each side of the front opening in the upper. When these
levers are turned inward they relax the lace and when turned outward they tighten
the lace.
Our invention is illustrated by the accompanying drawings. In the said
drawings
Fig. 1 represents a front view of the upper part of a boot provided with our lace
tightening appliances.
Fig. 2 represents a horizontal section of the boot front when closed
Fig. 3 being a view of the same parts and illustrates the action of the parts when
the boot is loosened.
The remaining figs. illustrate modified formations of tighteners.
In Figs. 1, 2, and 3 a a are our lace tighteners is a boot upper c is the tongue
and d is the boot lace. The edges of the boot upper at the lower part of the
opening are drawn together in the ordinary manner by passing the lace through
eyelets e e. Above these eyelets the upper is provided with six lace tighteners
made in accordance with our invention.
One of these fasteners is separately represented by Figs. 4 and 5. Each tightener
consists of three parts hinged together namely a base or foot a' which is secured to
the boot upper a link a which takes hold of the lace and an intermediate link a
which is hinged both to the base a¹ and the link a the two links forming together a
jointed lever. The outer end of the link a is formed with an eye a³ as seen in
Figs. 2 and 3. Through this eye the lace is passed. The base or foot al is adapted
to attach the tightener to the boot. This base may be secured to the boot upper
by means of eyelets or may be adapted to be secured by stitching or by means of
fangs formed upon the base or by suitable means. The intermediate link a' forms
with the base and the link a a double hinge so that when the two links are folded
together as in Figs. 1 and 2 the eye a³ is brought near to the joint at a' in Fig. 2 but
on the contrary when the links are unfolded the said eye is removed some distance
from the said joint as in Fig. 3. The link u is in the form of a wire shackle having
hooked ends which pass through eyes in lugs formed in the base. The base would
be stamped out of sheet metal with projecting pieces which would be turned up to
constitute the said lugs.
The space at fbetween the hooked ends of the link is made a little narrower than
the link a at g so that when the two links are folded into the positions represented
in Figs. 1 and 2 the link a springs into its closed or folded position by thrusting

page_text: In Fig.
apart the said hooked ends as it passes between them
the link a is
represented as passing between the hooked ends of the link a². When the link a
has passed into its folded position the hooked ends spring back and help to keep the
link a in its folded position.
When the links are so folded the strain of the tight lace tends to keep the links
folded so that the fastening remains secure. This will be apparent when Fig. 2 is
examined. It will be seen that a strain acting in the direction of the dotted line />
tends to draw the two eyes together and that the line of this strain falls within the
lines which are drawn through the joint and hinge of the links so that the strain
of the lace tends to keep the links folded against the boot. When the boot is laced
up the lace is drawn through the eyes a³ in the manner indicated in Fig. 1 and the
laces are tied or secured. When the boot is to be removed it is unnecessary to
untie the ends of the lace. It is only necessary to draw the ends a³ outward from
the boot. When these ends have passed the line h the strain of the lace draws them
further away so that they fly open and the lace becomes quite slack so that the boot
can be readily removed from the foot. When the boot is applied upon the foot it
is only necessary to turn back the tighteners right and left into the folded positions
indicated in Figs. 1 and 2 when the lace will become tightened and the boot be
secured without further trouble. It will be obvious that as it is not necessary to
untie the lace ends each time the boot is removed the ends may be tied into a
secure knot and the superfluous lace ends be cut off so that a neat fastening is
obtained and the tendency of the lace to become untied is obviated. In the modifi-
cation illustrated by Figs. 6 and 7 the link a is shorter than the link a² so that the
one can fold within the length of the other. One end of the link a² is hinged to a
part a which projects from the base plate which is attached to the boot and the
said end is cranked or bent so as to permit the main part of the link to lie close to
the boot.
In Fig. 8 the link a² is shorter than the link a and is formed with an opening to
clear the joint at a*.
Other modifications may be made in the lace tighteners so long as the laces are
drawn tight by turning lever tighteners outward right and left and slackened by
turning the tighteners inward in the manner set forth. We may apply two of
our improved tighteners or any suitable number of tighteners to a single boot or
article.
The tighteners applied to a single boot may be all of the same length or may be
graduated or otherwise shorter tighteners or levers may be used for the lower part
of the opening which does not require so much relaxation of the lace to permit
the boot to be removed from the foot as is required at the upper part of the
opening.
Our invention may be found to be applicable with advantage to other articles
such for example as gloves corsets and bodices.
Having now particularly described and ascertained the nature of our said inven-
tion and in what manner the same is to be performed we declare that what we
claim is :-
1. The appliances for application to foot coverings for tightening and slackening
the laces without untieing the same substantially as set forth and indicated.
2. An appliance for application to a boot shoe or other article for tightening
and slackening the lace consisting of a lever hinged to a part which can be secured
to the boot shoc or article and provided with an eye or slot for the lace the lever
tightening the lace when turned outward from the opening in the boot shoe or
article and slackening the lace when turned inward substantially as set forth.
3. The lace tightener having an eye a³ and connected with a base or foot by
means of a joint at the parts being so constructed as that the strain of the lace gives
the tightener a tendency to remain folded in position to keep the lace tight substan-
tially as set forth and indicated,

page_text: 4. The lace tightener consisting of the compound or jointed lever a a² hinged to
a part which can be secured to the boot or article substantially as set forth and
indicated.
Dated this 22nd day of December 1891.
DUTTON & FULTON,
1, St. James' Square, Manchester, Agents.