Improvements in Garment Supporters.
Year: 1894

page_text: Date of Application, 5th Nov., 1894-Accepted, 19th Jan., 1895
COMPLETE SPECIFICATION.
Improvements in Garment Supporters.
I, ELLA NEILSON GAILLARD, a citizen of the United States of America
residing at No. 48 St. Felix Street, Brooklyn, in the County of Kings and State
of New York, U.S.A., Lady, do hereby declare the nature of my invention for
Improvements in Garment Supporters and in what manner the same is to be
performed to be particularly described and ascertained in and by the following
statement:-
This invention relates to that class of garment supporters which engage the
garment by some clamping device without the aid of a buttonhole therein. When
Buch devices are provided with sharp metallic edges to engage the garment they
are liable to cut a hole therein, especially in the finer grade of garments such as
silk hose or stockings, and it is well known that when a single thread of such
delicate knit goods becomes broken and the garment continues in service thereafter
the knitting will be ravelled resulting in a large hole. To avoid this objection is
the object of my invention, and I attain it by forming one or both jaws of the
engaging device of my garment supporter of soft, cushion-like material, such as
soft rubber, as will be hereinafter fully described and claimed, reference being had
to the accompanying drawing in which
Fig. I is a face view of a garment supporter according to the principal form of
my invention.
Fig. II shows portions of the same in longitudinal section, and
Figs. III, IV, and V show modifications of parts thereof.
No. 6 represents a button of soft rubber or any other material which has
sufficient stability to maintain its general form like a button in service and yet is
flexible enough to be like soft rubber, readily indented by a little pressure. This
button may be attached in any usual manner such as by sewing through holes 7, to
a strap 8.
9 represents a keyhole-shaped loop which is large enough at its upper end to
receive the button head with a portion of a stocking or other garment placed over
the button, and is reduced along its body and lower end to a breadth of opening
less than the width of the width of the head and a little greater than the neck of
the button to hold the stocking under the button head when drawn close up.
The button and loop thus serve to grasp between them a portion of the stocking
and to hold on to it. The loop may be attached to a strap 10, which with the
strap 8 may be suspended from a waist band by any usual means such as the
strap 11 whereby the stocking hung upon the button will be supported. The loop
should be made of some material having sufficient stiffness to maintain its loop form
in service, and the body of it should be round and smooth on its inner edge to
prevent wearing the garment.
To further carry out my idea in this respect the loop may be made of common
metal wire 12, Fig. III, provided with a cover 13 of soft rubber. The button need
not be wholly of soft rubber but it may be a blank or frame 14, Fig. V, of metal
covered over all its wearing or contact region with soft rubber 15, and in that case
I think that a loop of smooth metal wire of the form shown in Fig. IV, would
obtain nearly as good results as if both button and loop were faced in the contact
region with soft rubber. By the contact region I mean those portions of the loop
and button upon and between which the stocking will be firmly pressed when held
by them, and if this region of either member, the button or the loop, be faced on
the contact side with a cushion of soft rubber and the opposite member entirely

page_text: smooth and without any cutting angle in the contact region I think there will be
no cutting of the stocking and no appreciable wear thereof in service, even if the
said opposite member were of any hard material. I do not think that a facing of
cloth, I mean either woven or knit goods would be an equivalent of soft rubber
because the threads of the cloth resting upon a hard backing would act like a file
to wear through the stocking held by it; and I do not know of any equivalent to
soft rubber for this purpose, but as other material may be discovered I will
distinguish between a rubber cushion and a cloth covered cushion by designating
the rubber as a cushion of homogeneous flexible material.
I do not think the form of the loop nor the button shown is new, and I do not
limit myself to the exact form of either, nor do I claim such as my invention.
Having now particularly described and ascertained the nature of my said inven-
tion and in what manner the same is to be performed I declare that what I
claim as my invention is
The combination in a garment supporter, of a loop of stiff material and a button,
the two being freely held and connected by supporting straps; the loop being
shaped near one end to receive the button freely and at the other end reduced in
size to receive the neck and hold the head of the button; the said button and loop
being adapted to coact as a garment holder and one of them being faced in its
contact region with a cushion of homogeneous flexible material, substantially as
specified.
Dated this 5th day of November 1894.
WHEATLEY & MACKENZIE.