IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MANUFACTURE OF PURSES, POCKETBOOKS, AND SIMILAR ARTICLES MADE OF LEATHER
Year: 1878

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by Oscar Schölzig at the Office of the
Commissioners of Patents on the 8th October 1878. A communication from
abroad by Wilhelm Leisler, of Offenbach-on-the-Maine, Germany.
OSCAR SCHÖLZIG, of Queen Street, Cannon Street, in the City of London.
"IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MANUFACTURE OF PURSES, POCKETBOOKS, AND SIMILAR
ARTICLES MADE OF LEATHER." [A communication from abroad by Wilhelm Leisler,
of Offenbach-on-the-Maine, Germany.]
This Invention relates to purses, pocketbooks, and similar articles made of
leather, and in which separate compartiments are provided to receive and hold
money, papers, or the like, the said compartments being arranged to fit closely
together when empty so as to take up but little space.
The said Invention is designed to improve in several respects such purses and
like articles, that is to say, I am thereby enabled to construct the same in such a
manner that they will be more durable, hold more, close within a smaller compass,
present a more elegant appearance, and be generally moro convenient for use than
purses and similar articles as heretofore made.
In carrying the said Invention into practice 1 provide a number of separate
pockets or compartments, each one of which is constructed of only one piece of
leather which is joined at its two opposite outside ends by sewing. This con-
struction enables me to dispense with any sewing at the bottom of the said compart-
ments or pockets for the reason that the bottom is formed by folding the piece of
leather of which the pocket is made, the only parts requiring to be sewn, to form
the pockets being the two outside ends as above mentioned. The absence of any
join at the bottom of the pockets provides considerable strength at a part of the
purse at which there is much wear, and moreover the pockets are thereby permitted
to open wider than they can when part of the material is taken up by a seam.
am aware that purses have been heretofore made with compartments having
seamless bottoms, but with this disadvantage, namely, that their construction has
rendered necessary divisions made of separate pieces to form the middle walls of
the compartments, whereas according to my said Invention I form each pocket
with one single piece, thereby ensuring great strength and durability.
I

page_text: After having cut the pieces of the proper shape and size to form the separate
pockets I sew together as many of them as the purse is desired to have such pockets,
and this must be done when the said pockets are open, that is to say, before the
ends are sewn together. The separate pockets may be sewn together to form the
purse in any convenient manuer, but I prefer to effect this so as to leave small
openings between each pocket for postage and receipt stamps or the like. To the
series of compartments or pockets so constructed and united I attach outside
compartments of somewhat thicker or harder leather, and which form the outer
portions of the purse. These may be of any ordinary construction and are usually
provided with flaps secured by some device for keeping the purse together.
In purses made as above described I avoid the necessity of folding inside cach
end of the compartments a portion of the leather when the purse closes as is done
with many purses as heretofore constructed.
Another improvement consists in lining with one piece of deer skin all the side
and bottom folds of a leather purse in which these folds are made of one piece and
with separate partition pieces as ordinarily constructed, which lining has the effect
of rendering the purse more elastic and of much greater strength than purses the
lining of which is made of several pieces of a different material, and the deer skin
lining gives the purse an elegant appearance inside.
I also propose to line with deer skin, purses and similar articles, the compartments
of which are made of single pieces as first herein described, as this material provides
great strength combined with elasticity.