IM- PROVEMENTS IN BINDINGS POR SKIRTS
Year: 1868

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to George Tomlinson Bousfield, of Loughborough
Park, Brixton, in the County of Surrey, for the Invention of "IM-
PROVEMENTS IN BINDINGS POR SKIRTS." -A communication from abroad
by Thomas De Forest, residing at Birmingham, Connecticut, in the
United States of America.
Sealed the 15th January 1869, and dated the 1st August 1868.
COMPLETE SPECIFICATION filed by the said George Tomlinson Bous-
field at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition
and Declaration, on the 1st August 1868, pursuant to the 9th
Section of the Patent Law Amendment Act, 1852.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, GEORGE
TOMLINSON BOUSFIELD, of Loughborough Park, Brixton, in the County
of Surrey, do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for
"IMPROVEMENTS IN BINDINGS FOR SKIRTS," communicated to me from abroad
by Thomas De Forest, a person resident at Birmingham, Connecticut,
in the United States of America, and in what manner the same is
to be performed, to be particularly described and ascertained in and
by the following statement thereof, that is to say :-
. This Invention relates to the binding of ladies' dresses, and consists

page_text: of a binding material that presents an edge of india-rubber or other
flexible material impervious to water below the edge of the skirt to
protect the same from wear by contact with the floor or ground. The
manner in which the new binding is by preference formed is to attach
the india-rubber to a strip of textile binding, either woven or braided,
of the ordinary kind, and to secure the two by the process of vul-
canization, the attachment being previously made by pressure while
the india-rubber is in the plastic condition preliminary to vulcanization.
The accompanying Drawing represents various forms of binding in
which the Invention is embodied.
In that represented at Figure 1 a represents the textile binding, and d
the strip of rubber secured to the textile binding by vulcanization.
In that represented at Figure 2 two strips of textile binding a, a,
are attached to the opposite sides of the strip of rubber d.
In the form represented at Figure 3 the strip of rubber d is applied
to the middle of a strip of broad textile binding and the whole is curved
so as to present the rubber at the lower edge, and two edges a, a,
of the textile binding to be sewed to the opposite sides of the edge
of the skirt.
In the form represented at Figure 4 the india-rubber d has a circular
section enclosing the lower edge of the textile binding within it.
In the form represented at Figure 5 the strip of india-rubber has
the section of a parallelogram enclosing the lower edge of the textile
binding within it. In place of applying the gum to the textile binding
while the former is in the plastic state a strip of native gum or of
vulcanized gum may be secured to the textile binding by means of india-
rubber cement, and if found expedient the whole may be consolidated
by vulcanization so as to vulcanize the cement. Or a strip of vulcanized
gum may be secured to the textile binding by interposing between the
two a thin layer of the plastic compound of india-rubber ready for
vulcanization, and then the whole may be consolidated by vulcanization
or producing the change in the character of the gum by the action
of sulphur. The rubber has thus far been described as connected with
the textile binding by direct, attachment. The attachment may how-
ever be made by stitching the strip of india-rubber d, Figure 6, to
the textile binding which may first be doubled as at a, Figure 6, the
stitches will then form the connection between the rubber strip and

page_text: the textile binding. In such a case the textile binding may if pre-
ferred be first coated with a thin coating of india-rubber which should
be vulcanized upon the textile binding.
In all the foregoing examples of the Invention the new binding
produced presents a strip of india-rubber d to protect the textile material
from wear by contact with the ground or with floors.
The Invention is not confined to the use of india-rubber as some
equivalent material at the same time flexible and impervious to water
may be used in its place.
What is claimed as the Invention to be secured by Letters Patent
is, the new binding presenting an edge of india-rubber or similar flexible
impervious material substantially as herein-before described.
In witness whereof, I, the said George Tomlinson Bousfield, have
hereunto set my hand and seal, this First day of August, in
the year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and sixty-
eight.