Improvements in the Manufacture of Boots and Shoes.
Year: 1892

page_text: ⚫ COMPLETE SPECIFICATION.
Improvements in the Manufacture of Boots and Shoes.
I EDWARD KENWORTHY DUTTON of the firm of E. K. Dutton & Co. of
Number 5 John Dalton Street, Manchester, in the County of Lancaster, Consulting
Engineers and Chartered Patent Agents, do hereby declare the nature of this
invention (communicated to me from abroad by Edward Coffin Anderson of
8 Florence Street, Roslindale, Boston, in the County of Suffolk, and State of
Massachusetts, United States of America, Shoe-maker,) and in what manner the
same is to be performed to be particularly described and ascertained in and by the
following statement and accompanying drawings :-
The object of my invention is to produce a laced boot or shoe provided with
eyelets which do not show on the outside, thereby preventing the unsightly
appearance resulting from the wearing off of the japan or other coating from the
eyelets when they are so placed as to appear on the outside of the boot or shoe, as
has been heretofore the universal practice.
I accomplish my object as follows :
provide a stay-piece, as is now done, but
instead of putting the eyelets through both this piece and the upper, thereby
causing the eyelet to appear outside of the upper, where it will be subjected to
wear, I put the eyelet through the stay-piece only, or through the lining and the
stay-piece, and puncture, by any appropriate means, a series of holes in the upper,
opposite to the eyelets in the stay-piece. In this way, when the boot or shoe is
laced, no part of the eyelets will be seen.
The stay-piece may be placed on the outside, and in that case the eyelets will be
put through the upper, the stay-piece provided with holes opposite to the eyelets,
being sewed on over the part containing the eyelets; but this I regard as only
another form of my invention.
An important feature in my invention is that the eyelets can be set so that the
split and ragged rim, caused by setting it, does not come next to the stocking but
between the upper and the stay. This not only gives the shoe a neater and more
finished appearance, but prevents the lacing from being worn out by coming in
contact with the split rim of the eyelet in putting on and taking off the shoe and
also whilst being worn.
In the drawings I have shown in Fig. 1 a front view of a shoe made in accordance
with my invention, the stay-piece and upper being turned back, so as to show the
eyelets in the former, and the holes opposite to them in the latter; and in Fig. 2
I have shown the same laced up. In the drawing a is the shoe, is the stay piece,
cc are the eyelets, d d are the holes in the upper opposite to the eyelets through
which the lacings are to be placed, e is the lining. It will be seen that by my
invention the rough side of the eyelet is concealed, whereas, as they are now used,
it must appear on one side or the other of the upper.
Having now particularly described and ascertained the nature of my said inven-
tion and in what manner the same is to be performed I declare that what I
claim is.
A laced boot or shoe provided with eyelets which are inserted in the under
portion only of the different thicknesses of material composing the boot or shoe
at that part, and are covered by the outer portion of the shoe, through which
outer portion are holes placed substantially opposite to the eyelets, so that the
lacings may be put through the eyelets and the opposite holes, and when the boot

page_text: or shoe is laced no portion of the eyelets will appear substantially as and for the
purpose above described.
init .
1000
EDWARD K. DUTTON,
5, John Dalton Street, Manchester, Agents.