IMPROVEMENTS IN BOOT AND SHOE LASTS
Year: 1878

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by William Robert Lake at the Office of
the Commissioners of Patents on the 7th February 1878. A communication from
abroad by William Young Edwards, of Brooklyn, New York, United States
of America.
WILLIAM ROBERT LAKE, of the Firm of Haseltine, Lake & Co., Patent Agents,
Southampton Buildings, London. "IMPROVEMENTS IN BOOT AND SHOE LASTS."
[A communication from abroad by William Young Edwards, of Brooklyn, New York,
United States of America.]
This Invention relates to a sectional last, the several parts of which are so con-
structed and combined that one and the same last may be used in the fabrication of
a dozen or more different shapes and sizes of boots or shoes, thereby enabling the
manufacturer of boots or shoes to dispense with by far the greater number of the
lasts hitherto required in the trade of boot and shoe making.
The several specific features or combinations embraced in the said Invention are
herein-after fully set forth.
It is to be premised. that the said improved.last is made of iron or other suitable
metal, and that the external form or configuration of the last is varied by the
attachment to the body or main portion of the same of sections herein-after
described, which moreover within certain limits provide for varying the size and
proportions of the last. The shape, size, and proportions of the last being thus
capable of variation it follows that one last thus constructed may be used in the
fabrication of as many different shapes and sizes of boots and shoes as there are
modifications in the shape and configuration of the last, and as a consequence the
number of lasts employed in the manufacture of any given number of different
shapes and sizes of boots and shoes is proportionally diminished.

page_text: In carrying the said Invention into practice the body of the said improved last
has at its rear or heel portion the general configuration of an ordinary last, but at
its middle and front or toe portions the form is modified to admit of the attachment
of the sections herein-after set forth. It is hollow, and may be open at the bottom.
The lower edges of this body however extend inward in order that guides may be
formed upon them, these guides extending longitudinally.
The rear sole section is provided on its inner surface with longitudinal flanges,
which slide longitudinally upon and interlock with the aforesaid guides of the body,
so that the said rear sole section being brought into position with the other sections
forms the rear portion of the sole of the last when the latter is complete and fitted
for use.
The forward end of the aforesaid rear sole section is recessed, and the
lateral edges of this recess have in them a deep groove, the purpose of which will
herein presently appear. A wooden plug is passed snugly through an orifice in the
aforesaid rear sole section into a recess or socket in the heel end of the said body,
this wooden plug serving the double purpose of bracing the said rear sole section
against any tendency to slip from its place, and of providing for the use of tacks
commonly employed for attaching the shoe or boot to the last while undergoing
manipulation thereon.
I provide also a central sole section, which is furnished on its upper or inner
surface with flanges identical in character and purpose with the flanges on the rear
sole section herein-before described, the said central sole section being slid or passed
upon the aforesaid guides in the same manner as the said rear sole section, and
when thus brought into position forming the central part of the sole. The front end
of this central sole section is recessed and grooved in the same manner as the front
end of the rear sole section, the rear end of said central sole section being moreover
formed with a projection, the edges of which are tongued so that the central and
rear sole sections being brought into place, as herein-before set forth, a tongue on
the said projection will fit in the groove of the recess formed in the said rear sole
section, so that the two sole sections herein-before named will mutually support each
other.
I provide also a front sole section, which is constructed to be passed upon the
said guides in the same manner as the central and rear sole sections, and when
brought into place forms the front portion of the sole of the last when put together
and fitted for use. The rear end of this front sole section, like the rear end of the
said central sole section, has a tongued projection, which fits into the recess in the
forward end of the said central sole section in the same manner that the projection
of the latter fits into the recess of the rear sole section. A wooden plug passed
snugly through a hole in the front sole section into a socket in a cross bar at the
front portion of the body prevents the said front sole section from slipping from its
place, and also permits the use at that portion of the last of the usual tack for
temporarily affixing the insole of the boot or shoe upon the last.
The upper portion of the toe of the body is cut away or recessed to permit the
application of a toe section, the edges of the recess thus formed being grooved in the
same manner as the recess of the rear sole section herein-before described. The said
toe section has the external contour desired for the exterior of that portion of the
last, and is slipped into place with its rearwardly extending tongued projection
fitted into the part of the recess provided for it in the upper part of the toe of the
body.
A knob is provided of rounded external contour, designed to give that shape to
any part of the last which may be desired to afford relief for bunions or the like in
the use of the boot or shoe shaped upon the last. It is simply screwed into a
threaded socket provided at any suitable part of the body.
It will be seen from the foreging description that the shape and relative propor-
tions of the last depend upon the size and configuration given to the several sections
attached thereto; therefore, by having various sizes and shapes for each section,
the size and form of that portion of the last constituted by each section may be

page_text: varied or modified to any desirable extent, so that one and the same last, with each
of its sections duplicated as it were in various shapes and sizes will serve the
purpose of the large number of separate lasts ordinarily required in the manufacture
of different sizes and shapes of boots and shoes, a very great economy in the manu-
facture of boots and shoes being by this means secured.