IMPROVEMENTS IN AND CONNECTED WITH ABDOMINAL, GESTATIVE, BACK SUPPORTING, RESTRAINING MEDICAL AND SURGICAL BELTS, ALSO APPLICABLE TO AND CONNECTED WITH ORCHITIC AND DRESS SUSPENDER BELTS, STAYS, CORSETS, TRUSSES, AND SIMILAR APPLIANCES."
Year: 1881

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Henry Willington, of Earl's Court Road, London, for
an Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN AND CONNECTED WITH ABDOMINAL,
GESTATIVE, BACK SUPPORTING, RESTRAINING MEDICAL AND SURGICAL
BELTS, ALSO APPLICABLE TO AND CONNECTED WITH ORCHITIC AND DRESS
SUSPENDER BELTS, STAYS, CORSETS, TRUSSES, AND SIMILAR APPLIANCES."
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Henry Willington at the
Office of the Commissioners of Patents on the 15th September 1881.
HENRY WILLINGTON, of Earl's Court Road, London. "IMPROVEMENTS IN AND
CONNECTED WITH ABDOMINAL, GESTATIVE, BACK SUPPORTING, RESTRAINING
MEDICAL AND SURGICAL BELTS, ALSO APPLICABLE TO AND CONNECTED WITH
ORCHITIC AND DRESS SUSPENDER BELTS, STAYS, CORSETS, TRUSSES, AND SIMILAR
APPLIANCES."
The principal objects and purposes of my Invention are to render abdominal
belts and similar appliances more specifically and vitally steadfast regional
supporters and restrainers of the abdominal walls in their weaker regions, and the
viscera within them against undue dilation and projection, depression, and jolting
during walking and riding exercise; more steady fixtures to their situations and
purposes without employing thigh straps or other similar agencies to keep them in
place; more free to dilation forwards and side ways to the breathing expansion of
the abdominal walls and the bending movements of the wearer; more intermittent
and dispersive of their pressure on the harder parts of the sides and the back, and
whero employed for gestative support or that of abdominal delapse or tumour,
more restrictive and supporting and less constrictive and compressive of these
tumors, and where employed for a strengthening support to the back and the
sciatic joints, more specific regional bearers on the parts of the sacro-sciatic region
which are susceptible to sprains and sciatic weakness.
These qualifications I obtain for belts, &c., by means of a metallic or wire work
skeleton frame rendered in pelvic form, the general outlines of which correspond

page_text: to the pelvic outlines, while the lines of its parts or sectional elements do the same
more or less to those of the regions to which they are severally destined to be
applied.
This Invention takes for its principal points of bearing and purchase the flat
hard region of the back behind, commonly called in anatomy the sacro sciatic
region, and the lower end of the rectus muscle of the abdomen in front, commonly
called its straight muscle over and above the pelvis, this being the harder part of
the abdominal wall, employing for that purpose two or more arched wires on each
side which extend from the wire construction which rests over these regions, over
and above the hip bones, and round the waist in corresponding lines to the ridge
lines of the pelvis, thus connecting them in such manner that the projection of the
abdominal part of the belt by the abdominal force becomes a locking principle of
the saddle or back part of the belt on the sacro-sciatic region, and a steadfastening
principle to the whole belt.
By these means I obtain also from belts a restrictive set of actions instead of
constrictive ones, and a lifting support to the abdominal walls and the viscera
within them instead of a compressive one, in a truss principled hypo-gastric cradle
or wire pouch which is formed to its sides by the terminal scrolls of the girth wires
and in front by their hypo-gastric connection, which may consist of small stays
which lace over the hypo-gastrium or of other connecting elements, and by these
means I also render belts more tolerable while making them more efficient
abdominal sustainers and restrainers; also more specifically vital sustainers and
replacers of the viscera as against displacement, depression, and jolting during
riding or walking, consequences which follow these exercises in all abdominally
enlarged persons to a vitally exhaustive extent.
I also obtain by these means an automatic and easier means of hypogastric
expansion of belts to the expanding breathing movements of the abdomen during
respiration, expulsion, in both a forward and lateral direction, without lessening in
any degree their abdominal purposes.
Where employed for gestative support and replacement, or for the purpose of
support to other tumors of the abdomen, or to abnormal dilation of its walls or
super-abundant fat, I obtain by these means a buttressing power of support which
replaces without compressing the gestative or other tumor.
Metallic orchitic suspenders may be used in connection with my improved belt,
so as to afford to the orchitic organs a gradual and elastic means of obtaining
support in all directions without the usual risks of their slipping-out-from-the-
purse of the suspender. The scrolled wire principle prevents over heating of the
enclosed organs, prevents crushing of them, and more readily adapts itself in the
wearer's dress to the situation required for these organs. These suspenders obtain
their attachment by means of boxes fitted to my belt Invention, in which their side
supporting wire or other supporting metallic element can be slided and to which it
can be secured as occasion requires.
Dress suspenders can be used in connection with my improved belt in virtue of
its having bearings on the more insensible parts of the pelvis, and forming a better
basis for their dress supporting purposes by its steadfastness and its metallic
construction.

page_text: SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent filed by
the said Henry Willington in the Great Seal Patent Office on the 15th March
1882.
HENRY WILLINGTON, of Earl's Court Road, London. "IMPROVEMENTS IN AND
CONNECTED WITH ABDOMINAL, GESTATIVE, BACK SUPPORTING, RESTRAINING
MEDICAL AND SURGICAL BELTS, ALSO APPLICABLE TO AND CONNECTED WITH
ORCHITIC AND DRESS SUSPENDER BELTS, STAYS, CORSETS, TRUSSES, AND SIMILAR
APPLIANCES."
These improvements consist generally in constructing belts with skeleton sections
composed of strong steel or other wire work singly, or wire in combination with
any other form of metal or material, the skeleton principle being observed for the
purposes of elasticity, ventilation, and a more convenient means of adapting belts
to give special regional support to the weaker regions of the abdomen and those of
the lower part of the spine, more particularly to its junctions with the two hip
bones.
Such sections comprise one to the back that is more or less lozenge shaped after
the manner of the lower or sacral region of the back, two, one on each side of the
belt-side sections and an hypogastric one, and an umbilical one when required in
the case of the simple abdominal belt.
But in the case of the orchitic suspender belt when the suspender is not formed
by a continuation and extension of the side wires down from the pubic region it will
consist of two suspender sections for forming a purse or pouch for the testes, and
will be employed as part of my Invention.
In the case of the uterine suspender belt, also when the suspenders are not con-
tinuations of the side wires downwards from the pubic part of the belt, the
suspenders and the pessary will form separate sections or parts to my Invention.
In the case also of dress suspenders when the suspenders are not a continuation
upward of the two extremities of the wires which form the side sections of the belt,
front and back, the four suspender sections, two to the front, two to the back, will
be employed and be deemed so many other sections or parts to the belt, such
sections and principles, whether additional ones or otherwise to the orchitic
suspender belt, to the uterine suspender belt, or the dress suspender belt, being in
all case claimed as improvements.
The back or saddle section is more particularly constructed and composed of an
outside or marginal wire, which after taking the outside limit and form of the
lower or sacral region of the back makes on each side a recurve inwards upon itself,
and downwards until its two ends touch itself where its curves commenced at
bottom, whereby it includes in two open intervals the two sacro iliac joints without
pressing. on them. The wire or any other metallic principle of which this back
section may be formed will by observing these lines and forms rest on the liga-
mentous binders of those joints, and give support in a specific manner more or less
to those joints without injuriously pressing them; an improvement in belts as back
supporters claimed by my Invention.
The interval between these two side loops of wire is filled in with a more or less
arched elastic metal plate which serves to span the central spines of the sacrum
and fix the loops, as well as to form sockets in which the side sections of the belt
can slide upwards and downwards to the motion of the wearer's body, and for
regulation of them to any difference in size and height that may exist in the
wearer's two sides or hips. But this interval may be fitted with leather or any
other material, or the sliding principle may consist in first fixing the side sections

page_text: (or if they be composed out of one continuous wire from a central recurve) to a
metal plate in common by sockets or hinge or otherwise, which moves and slides in
sockets that are fixed on the former plate.
The two side sections may be formed of one wire or other metallic form in
common, and starting from a central and depressed recurve behind, or be comprised
of separate and distinct wires or other metallic form, and may be severally composed
of one, two, or more wires or other metallic form for that purpose.
These improvements to belt construction consist in such side sections comprising
two side arches, the feet of which will rest more or less on a level, and which in
being curved inward will on being pressed outward by the force of the abdomen
cause the back set to antagonize the front set in such a way that a fixed point of
common purchase is formed for the belt (on the two side sections being secured
over the pubic region), which becomes at the same time a fulcrum, from which the
hypogastric part or section of the belt can operate in an upward or elevating
direction against the viscera and the hypogastrium from the two inguinal and pubic
regions.
The antagonistic action which the forces of the abdomen set up between the
front and back parts or sections of the belt practically locks the belt to its
situation, and will do so in stronger force the more as the abdominal faces are
rendered stronger by any forcing motions of the body and the viscera in
walking, &c.
By this improvement the belt fixes itself against riding upwards the more
securely as the rotundity, size, and weight of the wearer's abdomen are greater
without needing the aid of any thigh bands or straps to keep it in place, whereas
the more ordinary belts ride the more readily, as those conditions of body are
greater, requiring stronger and more intolerable thigh bands to keep them down to
their places.
Whatever visceral or abdominal supports such belts give they obtain more from
their constrictive forces than from direct elevation, whereas by means of the fulcrà
power secured to this belt at its junction over the pubic direct elevation and
restriction of them obtains, rendering this belt an indirect elevator of the liver and
the arch of the diaphragn, without at the same time interfering with respiratory
expansion of the abdomen.
The side sections undergo curves and recurves over the sides of the hypogastrium
sufficiently extended as to include the two iliac regions-as-high-as-the-umbilicus,
their top recurves being brought together in the region of the latter and braced by
cross braces which are brought round the waist of the wearer from the back, where
by means of annex to the back section of the belt they have a fixed point. The
left brace crosses over in front to the right side section, and the right brace, vice-
versa, over to the left, to which they are secured, and which they make a fixed stay
of to the whole hypogastrium and the umbilical region.
The hypogastric section of the belt may consist of small stays or a loose part or
section which is kept in position by the side sections when braced together.
The improvements in suspender belts and to orchitic suspenders consist in
applying the wire principles of this belt to the suspension of the testicile pouch or
purse, whereby the thigh strap is dispensed with, more steadiness to the position
and purposes of the purse is given, and facilities for employing a scroll wire formed
purse or pouch obtained. For this purpose wire rendered in two oval flat scrolls of
equal size and of fitting shape are joined together at bottom and a trifle front and
back, at top being open so wide as may be necessary; when suspended from the
belt the testes press them outwards and from their own pouches and become
suspended in a give and take sling, which never can heat or sweat or crush them
together, though it readily adapts itself in its free elasticity to the wearer's position
and dress.
When made as additions to the abdominal belt these suspenders are secured by
slides and watch spring suspenders to the belt, which move in boxes when it is
desirable to shorten or lengthen the suspender.

page_text: The uterine pessary suspenders takes for their fixed basis the same wire belt
principle. After bending backwards to the sides of the vulva they come together
in the vagina, where they form the basis of support, and the fixed points to a
spiral wire formed pessary.
The improvement in respect of this suspender and its pessary consist in affording
a more steadily fixed basis for supporting uterine pessaries with steadiness and
without inconvenience to the vulva, and in affording the opportunity of composing
pessaries of wire on more elastic principles, and giving to the wearer better
means of cleanliness and better facility of removal and application by the
wearer.
The improvement in dress suspenders consists in the belt principle affording a
firm and steady basis for carrying the weight of the dress, and making it bear on
the least sensitive regions of the sides of the wearer.
The improvements consist in carrying the front and back terminals of the side
wires composing the side sections of the belt upwards and at proper height, giving
to them such double recurves or other curves as will make their fixed points to
hang the wearer's dress to.
But these suspenders may be additional fixtures and composed of any form of
metal.
The accompanying Drawing will serve to illustrate convenient and practical
modes of carrying my Invention into effect.
Figure 1 is a front view of the abdominal elevator stay; Figure 2 being a back
view of same; Figure 3, two modified arrangements of same kind of stay; Figure 4,
back view of this modification; Figure 5 represents a mode of arranging supports,
being front view; Figure 6, another mode of arranging front supporting wire;
Figure 7, a back support plate with dress suspenders a, a, attached; Figure 8, front
view of dress suspenders; Figure 9, testacle suspenders with sliding boxes;
Figure 10, view of a modified mode of obtaining support by one wire converted
into two side parts; Figure 11, light wire support and testacle suspenders in one
piece; Figure 12, pessary; Figure 13, testacle support; Figure 14, light wire
suspender with pessary attached; Figure 15, pessary; Figure 16, hypogastric
plate; Figure 17, back view modification sacral plate.
I prefer to make the various parts so far as the framework is concerned of metal,
and if needed cover it with gutta percha or other suitable covering; padding may
be added where necessary and made of any convenient material.
In witness whereof, I, the said Henry Willington, have hereunto set my hand
and seal, this Fifteenth day of March, A.D. 1882.