AN IMPROVED INSTRUMENT FOR THE USE OF TAILORS, ALSO APPLICABLE FOR ASCERTAINING AND DENOTING THE HORIZONTAL, PERPENDICULAR, AND ANGLE OF PLANES GENERALLY."
Year: 1880

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by Joseph Hepple at the Office of the
Commissioners of Patents on the 14th May 1880.
JOSEPH HEPPLE, of Gateshead, in the County of Durham. "AN IMPROVED
INSTRUMENT FOR THE USE OF TAILORS, ALSO APPLICABLE FOR ASCERTAINING
AND DENOTING THE HORIZONTAL, PERPENDICULAR, AND ANGLE OF PLANES
GENERALLY."
The object of my invention is to secure in garment cutting all the cardinal
points by right angles, both in the process of measuring and draughting, so that
the confidence of fitting may no longer remain a question of uncertainty with
cutters.
Hitherto this has been a subject of great difficulty in the tailoring trade, inasmuch
as all rules and systems have more or less failed to secure the above desideratum
without the means of trying on and alterations, which are both troublesome
and expensive, and void of scientific data. My improved instrument, composed
of a flat rule or straight edge, properly graduated, and at its centre provided with
a metallic pendulum or plummet and graduated arch, obviates the said difficulties
by rendering easy and expeditious the marking off of certain horizontal and per-
pendicular lines upon a person's garment, before commencing to measure him for
the required garment, which said lines act as a true measuring bases, and procures
for a coat height of neck, depth of "seye," shoulder position, and waist locality,
also the seat line of trousers, with a nicety unprecedented.
I will now proceed to describe my Invention more fully by aid of the accom-
panying Drawing, reference being had to the letters and figures marked thereon.
Figure 1 is a front view of the instrument employed in making a vertical line,
and Figure 2 is the same instrument employed in making a horizontal line; Figure
3 being an end view of Figure 2.
Figure 4 is the same instrument employed in measuring the angle, inclination, or
dip of mineral strata.
In all these Figures, A. is the straight edge or rule provided with a plummet b,
loosely attached to a pin projecting from the centre of a semi-circle, graduated up
to and inclusive of 180 degrees. The edge of the said rule or straight edge may
be graduated into inches and parts, as shewn in Figures 1 and 2.
To use the instrument the back or plain part of the rule is placed or held in
a horizontal position against the back of the person intended to be measured, and

page_text: all horizontal lines are chalked thereon, the true horizontal lines being indicated
when the centre of the plummet points, or is in a direct line with, the cut marked
90 degrees, in the graduated semi-circle, as in Fig. 2. After the necessary horizontal
lines are found in a similar manner, and chalked on the back of the person to be
measured, perpendicular lines may be similarly found and produced by the rule or
straight edge A, Fig. 1, being turned round until the plummet points at zero, or to
180 degrees, and the said lines chalked on the back of the person in like manner.
The proper and necessary measurements may now be taken by aid of the tape
along the said horizontal and perpendicular lines, and these drafted or reproduced
on to the new material by aid of the common square.
By the proper use of my improved instrument the art of proportionate and
disproportionate cutting becomes both simple and easy to the merest tyro, besides
combining two of its most essential properties, viz., the accuracy of fitting and
quick despatch of business, and I anticipate that my Invention will overcome
many difficulties of this nature now felt in the trade.
Figure 5 is an elevation of the back of a deformed or disproportionate man; the
full lines represent the main seams and outline of the coat, and the dotted lines
the direction of the horizontal and vertical measurements.
My Invention is also applicable to other trades and professions, such as mining
engineering, and is shewn at Figure 4 employed taking the angle, inclination, or
dip of a mineral stratum. In this case the plummet 6 points to 60 degrees, and
denotes the angle of the slope; or the instrument may be graduated to show the
ratio of the horizontal distance to the vertical height.