provements in Socks for Boots and Shoes.
Year: 1892

page_text: Date of Application, 30th Mar., 1892
Complete Specification Left, 23rd Dec., 1892-Accepted, 28th Jan., 1893
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION
Improvements in Socks for Boots and Shoes.
I JAMES RUSSELL JEAFFRESON, of No. 5 Clarendon Square, Leamington,
in the County of Warwick, Surgeon do hereby declare the nature of this invention
to be as follows:-
My invention has for its object to preserve the natural or normal shape of the
arch or inside waist of the human foot and thereby to prevent the deformity called
flat footedness and when that deformity exists to afford relief to persons suffering
from it.
My said invention consists in constructing in the manner hereinafter described,
Bocks to be worn in the boot or shoe after the manner of ordinary cork socks.
By the use of my invention the feet of young persons are prevented from
becoming flat, and in the case of adults in whom flat footedness already exists my
invention affords great relief by restoring, more or less, the arched form of the
waist of the foot.
In making a sock according to my invention I cut preferably from thin sheet
steel a sock or blank of the size and configuration of the bottom of the boot or
shoe in which it is to be worn; but instead of making the said blank flat I shape it
to the configuration of the underside of the normal foot. The said blank is so
hardened and tempered that while capable of the required yielding in the act of
walking it will not take a permanent set by use but when the foot is at rest will
resume its normal shape and afford such support to the foot as to check any tendency
in the foot to flatten.
Although I prefer to make the blank of hardened and tempered sheet steel yet I
do not limit myself thereto as other elastic metal or alloy, or clastic non-metallic
material may be employed. The said blank is rounded or smoothed at its edge aud
coated with a varnish or coating impervious to water.
In order to preserve the warmth of the foot the said blank may be covered on
the upper side or lower side or both on the upper and lower sides with cork, felt or
other imperfect conductor of heat.
Besides the advantages hereinbefore pointed out, socks made according to my
invention prevent the passage of damp or moisture from the soles of the boots or
shoes to the feet of the wearer.
Dated this 30th day of March 1802
W. T. WHITEMAN,
Agent for the Applicant.
COMPLETE SPECIFICATION.
Improvements in Socks for Boots and Shoes.
I, JAMES RUSSELL JEAFFRESON, of No. 5 Clarendon Square, Leamington, in
the County of Warwick, Surgeon, do hereby declare the nature of my invention
and in what manner the same is to be performed to be particularly described and
ascertained in and by the following statement :-
My invention has for its object to preserve the natural or normal shape of the
arch or inside waist of the human foot and thereby to prevent the deformity called
flat footedness and when that deformity exists to afford relief to persons suffering
from it
My said invention cousists in constructing in the manner hereinafter described,

page_text: socks to be worn in the boot or shoe after the manner of ordinary cork socks. By
the use of my invention the feet of young persons are prevented from becoming flat,
and in the case of adults in whom flat footedness already exists my invention affords
great relief by restoring, more or less, the arched form of the waist of the foot.
In making a sock according to my invention I cut preferably from thin sheet
steel a sock or blank of the size and configuration of the bottom of the boot or
shoe in which it is to be worn, but instead of making the said blank flat I shape it
to the configuration of the underside of the normal foot. The said blank is so
hardened and tempered that while capable of the required yielding in the act of
walking it will not take a permanent set by use but when the foot is at rest will
resume its normal shape and afford such support to the foot as to check any
tendency in the foot to flatten.
Although I prefer to make the blank of hardened and tempered sheet steel yet I
do not limit myself thereto as other elastic metal or alloy or elastic non-metallic
material may be employed. The said blank may be rounded or smoothed at its
edge and coated with a varnish or coating impervious to water.
'
In order to preserve the warmth of the foot the said blank may be covered on
the upper side or lower side or both on the upper and lower sides with cork felt or
other imperfect conductor of heat.
Besides the advantages herein before pointed out, socks made according to my
invention prevent the passage of damp or moisture from the soles of the boots or
shoes to the feet of the wearer.
Figure 1 of the accompanying drawings represents in longitudinal section and
Figure 2 in plan, a sock for a boot or shoe made according to my invention;
Figure 3 represents a cross section of the same taken on the dotted line a, a Figure 2
at the waist part of the sock and Figure 4 represents a cross section of the same
taken on the dotted line b, Figure 2 at the widest part of the sole of the sock.
The said sock consists of a hardened and tempered strip or blank of steel
marked in Figures 1, 3 and 4 and in several of the other figures of the drawings,
the said strip or blank of steel p having the size and shape of the bottom of the
boot or shoe in which it is to be worn and having the configuration of the underside
of the normal human foot. That is to say, the portion or waist e of the metallic
body p of the sock, between the sole and heel parts d, e, has the arched form of the
inside waist of the foot, the said arched or waist part e passing into the sole and
heel parts of the sock by curves as seen in Figure 1. The metallic body p of the
sock is also made slightly curved in the direction of its breadth across the waist
and sole as seen in Figures 3 and 4; but the said waist and sole parts may be flat
in the direction of the breadth of the sock.
The steel sock or foundation p is so elastic that it yields in the act of walking,
but when the foot is at rest will resume its normal shape and afford such support to
the foot as to check any tendency in the foot to flatten.
Where there is a great tendency to the lateral spreading of the foot at the waist
'part this may be counteracted or relief afforded to persons suffering from it by
making the sock at and near the waist part wider than that represented in
Figures 1, 2, 3 and 4, and bending upwards one side of the said wider waist part of
the sock.
This modified sock is represented in side elevation in Figure 5; plan in Figure 6
and cross section on the line a, a, Figure 6, in Figure 7, where the wider and turned
up waist part of the sock is marked f.
Or in extreme cases the turned up waist part of the sock may be made wider
than that shown in Figures 5, 6 and 7 and have the shape and position represented
in side elevation in Figure 8; plan in Figure 9 and cross section in Figure 10, the
wider and turned up part of this sock being marked g, the heel part e and the
sole part d.
In the several socks represented, the steel strip or blank p is covered on its upper
and lower sides (or it may be covered on one side only) with leather, cork, felt or
other imperfect conductor of heat marked h, h the said coverings being a little

page_text: wider than the strip or blank p, which is enclosed between them by sewing the
edges of the said coverings.
Instead of covering the metallic sock on its upper or lower side, or on both sides,
with an imperfect conductor of heat, the sock may be used without any covering.
In this case, the metallic sock is rounded or smoothed on its edge and coated with
a varnish or coating impervious to water. And instead of making my improved
socks of steel or metallic strips or blanks covered or not with a non-metallic
covering, the said socks may be made of hard and elastic non-metallic material
such as ebonite, vulcanite celluloid and the like.
I have represented and described only those forms of my invention which in
practice I have found to be most generally required, but I wish it to be understood
that I do not limit myself to the particular forms represented and described but
adopt such modifications thereof as the requirements of special cases of deformity
or tendency to deformity in the foot suggest.
Having now particularly described and ascertained the nature of my inven-
tion and the manner in which the same is to be performed I declare that I claim as
my invention of "Improvements in socks for boots and shoes":―
Making the said socks, or the bodies of the said socks, of strips or plates of
hardened and tempered steel or other hard and elastic metal or alloy, or of hard
and elastic non-metallic material, the said socks or bodies of the socks being
curved or shaped substantially in the ways hereinbefore described and illustrated
in the accompanying drawings: that is, shaped to the configuration of the underside
of the normal human foot for the purpose of preventing or relieving the deformity
called flat footedness: whether the said socks or bodies of the socks be covered on
their upper or lower sides or on both upper and lower sides with leather, cork, felt
or other imperfect conductor of heat or be used without any covering.
Dated the Twenty-first day of December 1892.
JAMES RUSSELL JEAFFRESON