An Improvement in Under-garments.
Year: 1890

page_text: COMPLETE SPECIFICATION.
An Improvement in Under-garments.
I, PHILO HAMLIN LEE, a citizen of the United States, residing at the City of
Binghampton, County of Broome, State of New York, United States of America,
by occupation a Merchant, do hereby declare the nature of this invention and in what
manner the same is to be performed, to be particularly described and ascertained in
and by the following statement :-
My invention relates to under-garments made of completely or partially tanned
skins of animals, firmly united to a more porous material suitable for clothing, and
being firmly attached to the skin completely about and near to the apertures.
The object of my invention is to obtain an under garment, constructed mainly of
the partially tanned skins of animals, which will protect the person of the wearer, or
any selected part of the person from cold or currents of air, and, at the same time,
afford adequate means for the passage of air outwardly through the garment, to carry
out perspiration and other moisture, which shall be flexible and enduring, not liable to
shrink and draw out of shape, and which shall at once keep the person of the wearer
uniformly warm and dry.
To these ends my invention consists in an under-garment of which the main
material is the partially or completely tanned skin of an animal, the subsidiary
material being any fabric suitable for clothing and being more porous than the
principal material, the two being securely united, so that the entire thickness of the
garment at all other points shall be exclusively of such skin, or shall be partly of
such skin and partly of the more porous material, the more porous material being
firmly inserted between the skin portions of the garment, and extending from end to
end of the body or limbs, or of both body and limbs, of the garment; and my inven-
tion further consists in firmly securing to the skin portion of the garment coverings
for apertures made therein, such coverings being constituted of the more porous
material.
In the drawings accompanying the application, Fig. 1 represents an under-shirt,
and Fig. 2 a pair of drawers, constructed in accordance with my invention.
A, represents pieces of skin, in this instance buckskin. B B indicate pieces of
more porous material, in this instance, cotton cloth.
In Fig. 1, the pieces of cotton cloth are interposed between the back and one
front piece, along each entire edge of the main part of the shirt, and also between
the edges of the piece or pieces of skin which constitute the main portion of each
sleeve.
In Fig. 2 the cloth is interposed between the edges of the piece of skin which
mainly forms each leg of the drawers. Thus the pieces of more porous material are
interposed where the seams of under-garments usually occur, and extend the entire
length of the body of the under-garment, and, it may be, of one or more of its limbs.
By this construction the bodies and limbs of skin under-garments are made more
yielding to the stress laid upon them by the body or limbs of the wearer, when in a
sitting or bending posture, (or when the limbs of the person are bent). The stress on
the garment, in such postures of the wearer, is crosswise of its body or limbs, and
nearly at right angles to its seams. In a garment entirely of skin, the thread, having
to hold two thicknesses of bulky and unrelaxing material, is apt to break, whereupon
the pieces of skin part. Furthermore, two pieces of skin overlapping each other
render the garment cumbersome, rigid, and abrasive, at the places where the greatest
stress on the garment and compression on the person are liable to occur; also, when
two pieces of skin overlap and are sewed together, the grain of the pieces of skin is
liable to run in different directions, and they, therefore, strain and shrink in different
directions, and, consequently, strain the seam, and also twist and draw the garment

page_text: out of shape. The pieces of more porous material securely interposed between pieces
of skin remove these defects from the garment.
The more porous material may be securely interposed over or under, or both over
and under, apertures made in the skin, as shown at B in Fig. 1, and at C in Fig. 2,
as well as interposed laterally between pieces of skin, as shown at B.
In locating the more porous material, it is advantageous that the different kinds of
material should be relatively so arranged as respects each other and the person of
the wearer, that the parts of the body covering vital organs, or those naturally or
by reason of abnormal weakness, needing protection from cold, shall be covered by
the skin, while the less sensitive parts of the body, or those which more freely
exude perspiration, will be covered by the more porous material of the garment.
I mention as valuable for the more porous material any knit, woven, felted, or piled,
(cut or not) or other fabric or cloth suitable for clothing; but I do not confine
myself to any subsidiary material, but include as within my invention, as subsidiary
material any material suitable for clothing and more porous than the partially tanned
skin of an animal, which is the principal material of the under-garment.
I am aware that skin garments have been apertured, and gored with cloth at the
arm-pits and groin only, and that cloth garments have been lined with perforated
skin, unattached at the perforations; but in these latter structures the body of the
wearer is directly or indirectly exposed to contact with cold and currents of air.
Neither of these constructions touches my invention.
Having now particularly described and ascertained the nature of my inven-
tion, and in what manner the same is to be performed, I declare that what I
claim is :
1. In a skin under-garment, the combination of apertures B, such as are described,
with coverings for the apertures, the coverings being made of a material more porous
than skin, and being firmly secured to such skin, near to and completely about the
several apertures, for the purpose described.
2. In a skin under-garment, constructed as above described and claimed, the
additional apertures B, covered by more porous material, and interposed between the
skin portions throughout the longitudinal seams of the body or limbs of the garment,
as described and shown, whereby the person is protected from cold and abrasion,
and the garment is ventilative and relieved from draw and strain as set forth.
TRA
T
LUE,
PHILO HAMLIN
Witnesses:
NERI PINE.
NETTIE HILTE.
H. D. Fitzpatrick,
70, Wellington Street, Glasgow, Agent.