IMPROVEMENTS IN STAYS OR CORSETS, AND IN THE MANUFACTURE OF STEEL EMPLOYED THEREIN AND APPLICABLE TO OTHER ARTICLES OF DRESS
Year: 1858

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Samuel Fox, of Stocksbridge Works, Deepcar, in
the County of York, Umbrella Manufacturer, and James Chesterman,
of Sheffield, in the same County, Manufacturer, for the Invention of
"IMPROVEMENTS IN STAYS OR CORSETS, AND IN THE MANUFACTURE OF STEEL
EMPLOYED THEREIN AND APPLICABLE TO OTHER ARTICLES OF DRESS."
Sealed the 30th September 1858, and dated the 5th April 1858.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Samuel Fox and James
Chesterman at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with their
Petition, on the 5th April 1858.
We, SAMUEL Fox, of Stocksbridge Works, Deepcar, in the County of York,
Umbrella Manufacturer, and JAMES CHESTERMAN, of Sheffield, in the same
County, Manufacturer, do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for
"IMPROVEMENTS IN STAYS OR CORSETS, AND IN THE MANUFACTURE OF STEEL
EMPLOYED THEREIN AND APPLICABLE TO OTHER ARTICLES OF DRESS," to-be as
follows:-
We make a complete bust or frame for the human body with two or more
steel ribs or hoops surrounding the body in a hoop form; we then fasten
upright ribs wherever necessary, to afford an easy. but effective support to the
body.
We make steel for the stays or corsets, which is. applicable also to other
articles of dress by corrugating a thin ribband or plate whereby we obtain
great strength without increasing the weight of the steel; or we form the
steel into a tube or trough; or, we bend the steel edgeways; or, we give it

page_text: one or more twists. The edgeway of the steel serves where strength or
prominence in the article of dress is necessary, and the flatway or part
where the article of dress is required to lie flat and close to the body; or,
again, we employ flat steel bent in spiral or worm form.
Our Invention consists also in hardening the steel by a blast furnace, in
which we use separately or conjointly gas, coal, or coke as fuel. The steel is
passed through the furnace enclosed in a metal or clay tube, and in its heated
state is passed through cold plates, or oil or water, aided by a current of steam
or cold air, after which it is passed through acid for the purpose of cleaning it,
and then simultaneously through melted tin to temper and at the same time
tin it.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said Samuel Fox and James Chesterman in the Great Seal
Patent Office on the 5th October 1858.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, we, SAMUEL
Fox, of Stocksbridge Works, Deepcar, in the County of York, Umbrella
Manufacturer, and JAMES CHESTERMAN, of Sheffield, in the same County,
Manufacturer, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Fifth day of April, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and fifty-eight, in the twenty-first year of Her
reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto us,
the said Samuel Fox and James Chesterman Her special licence that we, the
said Samuel Fox and James Chesterman, our executors, administrators, and
assigns, or such others as we, the said Samuel Fox and James Chesterman,
our executors, administrators, and assigns, should at any time agree with,
and no others, from time to time and at all times thereafter during the
term therein expressed, should and lawfully might make, use, exercise, and
vend, within the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, the Channel
Islands, and Isle of Man, an Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN STAYS OR CORSETS,
AND IN THE MANUFACTURE OF STEEL EMPLOYED THEREIN AND APPLICABLE TO
OTHER ARTICLES OF DRESS," upon the condition (amongst others) that we, the
said Samuel Fox and James Chesterman, or one of us, our executors, or
administrators, by an instrument in writing under our or their, or one of our or
their hands and seals, should particularly describe and ascertain the nature of
the said Invention, and in what manner the same was to be performed,
and cause the same to be filed in the Great Seal Patent Office within six

page_text: calendar months next and immediately after the date of the said Letters
Patent.
NOW KNOW YE, that we, the said Samuel Fox and James Chesterman, do
hereby declare the nature of our said Invention, and in what manner the same
is to be performed, to be particularly described and ascertained in and by
the following statement thereof, reference being had to the Drawings hereunto
annexed, that is to say :-
We make a complete bust or frame for the human body with two or more
steel ribs or hoops surrounding the body in a hoop form. We then rivet or
otherwise fasten upright ribs, wherever necessary, to afford an easy but effective
support to the body. Examples of this mode of construction are represented
in Figures 1 and 2 of the annexed Drawings. Frames thus constructed
afford support and ease to the wearer, and they may either be entirely covered
with a suitable fabric like ordinary stay frames, or the hoops and upright
pieces only may be separately covered.
We make steel for the stays or corsets, which is applicable also to other
articles of dress by corrugating a thin ribband or plate, as illustrated in
Figure 3, whereby we obtain great strength without increasing the weight of
the steel; or we corrugate the ribband or plate of steel transversely, as illus-
trated in Figures 4 and 5, the former being a flat view and the latter an edge
view; or we form the ribband or plate with corrugations forming any angle
with the edge, as illustrated in Figures 6 and 7; or, again, we employ flat
steel bent into a spiral or worm-like form, so as to form a hollow tubular spring,
as illustrated in Figure 8.
Our Invention consists also in hardening the steel by a blast furnace, here-
after described, in which we use separately or conjointly gas, coal, or coke, as
fuel. The steel is passed through the furnace enclosed in a metal or clay tube,
and in its heated.state is passed through cold plates, or through oil, or through
water, or through any two or more of these conjointly; after which it is passed
through acid for the purpose of cleansing it, and then simultaneously through
melted tin to temper and at the same time tin it. We build the furnace, say
eight or nine feet long, in the middle of a room with a fire-brick opening, say
nine inches square, running from one end of the furnace to the other, open at
each end; through this opening is put a clay or iron tube, and the remainder
of the square opening is then filled with coal or coke surrounding the said
tube. When the furnace is thus ready for lighting, we fix a long iron tube
on the outside of the furnace having a tue iron every few inches through
holes in the brickwork, each reaching to the coal or coke. A strong blast of
air being sent into this tube, either separately or in connexion with gas, and

page_text: regulated by taps or cocks, the coal or coke is ignited, and the centre clay
or iron tube made red hot. We then pass the steel through the centre clay
or iron tube, and subsequently harden, cleanse, and temper it by the means
and in the manner before described; or, instead of the foregoing arrange-
ments, we sometimes take a number of these short pieces of steel and put
them into an iron or other kind of tube, either round or square, having collars
round it; this tube we put into a furnace wide enough to receive it lengthwise
and long enough to receive eight, ten, or more of them side by side. The
furnace has a door at each end, one for putting in the tubes and the other for
taking them out. As these tubes get hot they are taken out and their con-
tents (the pieces of steel) thrown into oil or water. The empty tube is then
filled again and put into the receiving end of the furnace, the others having
been pushed forwards to the other end; these tubes are for protecting the
steel from injury, as the tubes only are acted upon by the fire.
And having now described the nature of the said Invention, and in what
manner the same is to be performed, we declare that we claim,-
First, the manufacture of frames or busts of steel for affording support
and ease to the human body, as herein-before described.
Secondly, the manufacture of corrugated steel ribbands or plates or tubes in
the manner and for the purposes hercin-before described and illustrated in
Figures 3 to 8 of the Drawings hereunto annexed.
Thirdly, the construction of furnaces for hardening steel in the manner
herein-before described.
Fourthly, the employment of clay or metal tubes for hardening short lengths
of steel in the manner and for the purposes herein-before described.
Fifthly, the methods of hardening, cleansing, tempering, and tinning steel,
hercin-before described.
In witness whereof, I, the said James Chesterman, for myself and on
behalf of the said Samuel Fox, have hereunto set my hand and seal,
this Twenty-eighth day of September, One thousand eight hundred
and fifty-eight.
JAMES CHESTERMAN. (L.S.)