A CERTAIN IMPROVEMENT OR CERTAIN IMPROVEMENTS IN THE CONSTRUCTION OF BOOTS AND SHOES
Year: 1835

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, WILLTAM
JOHNSON, of the Horseley Iron Works, in the Parish of Tipton, in the County
of Stafford, Gentleman, send greeting.
WHEREAS His present most Excellent Majesty King William the Fourth,
by His Royal Letters Patent under the Great Seal of Great Britain, bearing
date at Westminster, the Twenty-second day of August, in the sixth year of
His reign, and in the year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and thirty-
five, did, for Himself, His heirs and successors, give and grant unto me, the
said William Johnson, His especial license, full power, sole privilege and
authority, that I, William Johnson, my executors, administrators, and
assigns, or such others as I, the said William Johnson, my executors,
administrators, or assigns, should at any time agree with, and no others, from
time to time and at all times during the term of years therein expressed,
should and lawfully might make, use, exercise, and vend, within England,
Wales, and the Town of Berwick-upon-Tweed, my Invention of "A CERTAIN
IMPROVEMENT OR CERTAIN IMPROVEMENTS IN THE CONSTRUCTION OF BOOTS AND
SHOES;" in which said Letters Patent is contained a proviso, obliging me, the.
said William Johnson, by an instrument in writing under my hand and seal
particularly to describe and ascertain the nature of my said Invention, and in
what manner the same is to be performed, and to cause the same to be inrolled
in His Majesty's High Court of Chancery within six calendar months next
and immediately after the date of the said in part recited Letters Patent, as
in and by the same, reference being thereunto had, will more fully and at large
appear.

page_text: NOW KNOW YE, that in complianco with the said proviso, I, the said
William Johnson, do hereby declare that the nature of my said Invention, and
the manner in which the same is to be performed, is particularly described
and ascertained in and by the following description 'thereof, reference being
had to the Drawings hereunto annexed, and to the letters and figures marked
thereon (that is to say):-
My improvements in the construction of boots and shoes are designed to
afford simple, effective, and convenient means or modes of attaching and
detaching the tension straps of trowsers and gaiters, in place of the ordinary
straps employed for that purpose, which usually pass under the sole of the
boot or shoe, and in that situation are greatly exposed to wear, and collect
dirt, are inconvenient in the manner of their attachment to the trowsers or
gaiters, and unpleasant to the wearer by preventing the sole of the shoe or
boot being scraped clean, and from the liability of the strap getting behind the
beel.
The first mode which I employ to correct these evils is by forming a tube
through the narrow part of the sole of the boot or shoe, for the passage. of a
strap, cord, or chain, or for the reception of spring catches attached to tho
trowsers or gaiters.
The second mode is affixing metal studs or bars to the edges of the sole of
the boot or shoe, for the purpose of holding down the trowsers or gaiters by
means of hooks, loops, or clasps attached thereto.
The third mode is by affixing plates of metal to the sole of the boot or shoe,
or by passing a plate of metal either under or through the sole, having pro-
jecting ends bent upwards, with slots, openings, or sockets for the reception of
spring catches, clasps, or studs, attached to the trowsers or gaiters.
In the accompanying Drawing, Fig. 1 represents a boot constructed ac-
cording to the first modification of my improvement, having a tube a passed
through the narrow part of the sole. This tube may be of thin metal
quite through the sole, or it may merely have at the ends metal plates
or sockets b.
Through this tube a strap, cord, or chain of elastic or
non-elastic material may be passed, the ends of which may be attached
to the trowsers or gaiters in any convenient way. Thus, the trowsers or
gaiters may be held down, and some of the inconveniences above alluded
to avoided; but I prefer to attach to the lower parts of the trowsers or
gaiter spring catches with elastic straps, which catches I connect to the boot
or shoe by passing the catches into the tube a, and holding them fast by
shoulders bearing behind the plate in the sockets b. Fig. 2 represents one
form of spring catch c, with the elastic strap d supposed to be connected to the

page_text: lower part of the trowsers or gaiter, by sewing, buttoning, or in any other
convenient way, but I do not intend to confine myself to this particular form
of spring catch. The catches c being pressed into the sockets 6 on each side
of the sole, will by means of their springs hold the shoulders of the catch fast
in the tube, and thereby afford the means of keeping down the trowsers or
gaiter with the desired tension.
The second modification of my Invention is shewn at Fig. 3, and consists in
inserting into or affixing to the edges of the soles of boots or shoes on each
side a metal stud c, which may be done by driving or screwing a pin with a
knobbed or enlarged head firmly into the edge of the sole, or by rivetting a
stud into a plate, and affixing these plates and studs firmly to the sole on each
side. Small staples, loops, catches, or hooks,-as f, Fig. 4, or in any other con-
venient form, being attached to the lower parts of the trowsers or gaiters by
straps d (which I should prefer to be of elastic material), these catches f may
be readily hooked on to the studs at each side of the sole, and will then keep
down the trowsers or gaiters with suitable tension. The mode of attaching
tension straps to a boot or shoe by means of a bar, is shewn at Fig. 5, g being
the bar affixed to the side of the sole by any convenient means. Fig 6
represents a catch or hook h, with a spring i; this must be connected to the
trowsers or gaiters by a strap d, as Fig. 4, and being hooked on to a bar g on
each side of the boot or shoe, it will hold down the trowsers or gaiter securely.
This bar g may be affixed to the sole of the boot or shoe, or it may be made
moveable and be attached to the strap of the trowsers or gaiter in order to be
connected to the boot or shoe when occasion may require for the purpose of
attaching the tension straps. The connection of the bar g to the boot or shoe
may be variously effected, one mode is shewn at Fig, 7, in which the end of
the bar at k is bent down and inserted into a socket in the heel, the reverse
end having a spring catch will hold it fast when pressed into a socket in the
sole, as at 7; or the bar may be made in the form of a staple, as Fig. 8, which
being attached to the strap of the trowsers or gaiter, its ends may be inserted
into sockets or a socket in the sole, as b, Fig. 1, and by a spring and catches
be made to hold fast when so connected to the boot or shoe.
metal which I propose to pass through or under the sole of the
is shewn detached at Fig. 9; it is to be made fast to the sole by pins or other-
wise. The ends of the plate are turned up at b, b, and slots are cut in them
for the introduction of the spring catches, and to form the bearings against
which they shoulder, as before described, portions of the sole leather being of
course removed, or a recess formed through the sole for the reception of the
spring catches. To these plates, at their turned-up ends, may be affixed the
The plate of
boot or shoe,

page_text: AND BE IT REMEMBERED; that on the Twentieth day of February, in
the sixth year of the reign of His Majesty King William the Fourth, the
said William Johnson came before our said Lord the King in His Chancery
and acknowledged the instrument aforesaid, and all and every thing
therein contained and specified, in form above written. And also the instru-
ment aforesaid was stamped according to the tenor of the Statute made
in the fifty-fifth year of the reign of His late Majesty King George the
Third.