IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MANUFACTURE OF ELASTIC RODS, "BONES OR STIFFENING FILLINGS FOR CORSETS, WHIPS AND OTHER ARTICLES OF WEAR AND USE
Year: 1883

page_text: "
LETTERS PATENT to Alexander Melville Clark of the firm of A. M and W Clark
of 53 Chancery Lane in the County of Middlesex Fellow of the Institute of
· Patent Agents for an Invention of IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MANUFACTURE OF
ELASTIC RODS, "BONES
OR STIFFENING FILLINGS FOR CORSETS, WHIPS AND
OTHER ARTICLES OF WEAR AND USE communicated to him from abroad by
Edward Kirk Warren of Three Oaks in the County of Berrien and State
of Michigan, United States of America
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Alexander Melville Clark at
the Office of the Commissioners of Patents on the 16th October 1883.
ALEXANDER MELVILLE CLARK of the firm of A. M. and W. Clark of 53 Chancery
Lane in the County of Middlesex Fellow of the Institute of Patent Agents
"IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MANUFACTURE OF ELASTIC RODS, "BONES," OR STIFFENING
FILLINGS FOR CORSETS, WHIPS, AND OTHER ARTICLES OF WEAR AND USE." [Commu-
nicated to him from abroad by Edward Kirk Warren of Three Oaks in the County
of Berrien and State of Michigan, United States of America]
This Invention has for its object the production of an artificial "bone" or
stiffening filling for corsets and other articles of dress or wear and for whips and
other articles, of a cheap efficient and serviceable elastic rod. For this purpose I
utilize the stalks, stems or quill portions of feathers after they have been stripped,
as for instance the feathers of turkeys, geese, chickens and other fowls or birds
which have heretofore had little or no commercial value. These it is proposed
among other purposes to use as a substitute for whalebone, steel, rattan, and
other elastic substances, in corsets, waists, dresses, abdominal supporters, surgical
appliances, whips, fishing rods and other articles of wear and use.
The growing scarcity and increasing cost of whalebone for many or most of these
purposes has led to the employment of various substitutes, including bones, horn,
rubber steel and rattan. Many of these are expensive and much inferior in

page_text: numerous respects to whalebone. The improved elastic rod or filling which will
here be termed "featherbone" has many advantages and the same may be made
to form a compact stay or bone which in some respects is better and has more
enduring elasticity than whalebone inasmuch as it is not so liable to break or warp,
nor will it be injured by perspiration, or by boiling water in washing. This feather-
bone it is generally proposed to make by splitting or otherwise reducing the quills
of which it is composed into splints. These splints or fibres may be held together
by a suitable external binding; thus they may be wrapped with either wire or
thread by winding, braiding, twisting or they may be cemented or otherwise
joined together to form a featherbone of any desired size and shape in its transverse
section.
When inserted as a filling in an article of wear the quills or quill splints may be
woven therein, or they may be woven together so as to form an elastic or flexible
fabric.
In carrying out this Invention a number of split quill splints are arranged
longitudinally together to form a featherbone of the desired form in its transverse
section, and these are held together either by a wound wire or thread external
binding or by a woven external covering, or otherwise held together as herein-
before specified. By using the separated fibres or splints of the stripped quills or
stems of feathers produced by splitting or disintegrating them, the resiliency of
the quills is preserved without exposing them to breakage in bending, to which
they would be more or less liable if used in their entire form.
By this construction the featherbone will be found well adapted to form a corset
stiffener. In the construction of the featherbone suitable for and applied as an
elastic filling for a whip, the quills of which it is composed are used in their whole
form, or in the form of splints or fibres produced by splitting or otherwise reducing
the quills, or in both forms combined. This in some cases will depend upon the
size of the whip, or portion of the whip to which the featherbone is applied; thus
the whip may be made, for instance, either a full bone one, a half bone one, or a
quarter bone one, and in the thicker portions of the whip whole quills may be more
or less used, while in the smaller or finer tapering portions of it, quill splints will
be found preferable. The quills or splints or fibres of quills are put together or
arranged so as to give the desired taper to the whip from its butt end towards its
tip in different lengths, and are joined or bound together either by cementing
them, or by an external binding such as a wrapper of thread or wire wound
braided or twisted around them.
The invention also relates to building up a tapering elastic rod of the splints of
quills, the same being arranged in diminishing quantities toward the smaller end
or portion of the rod and being arranged so as to overlap one another or break
joint for the purpose of establishing continuity throughout the whole length of
the rod.
Both whole quills and quill splints may be similarly arranged and combined. An
elastic tapering rod having thus been built up and its quills or quill splints joined
or bound together as described, the whip of which said rod forms the stiffener is
completed by covering said filling with cloth, buckskin or other material and the
braid end cover put on by an ordinary whip machine, and after this the usual final
finish of water-proof varnish is applied to the exterior.

page_text: SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent filed
by the said Alexander Melville Clark in the Patent Office on the 2nd April
1884.
ALEXANDER MELVILLE CLARK of the firm of A. M. and W. Clark of 53 Chancery
Lane in the County of Middlesex Fellow of the Institute of Patent Agents.
"IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MANUFACTURE OF ELASTIC RODS, "BONES," OR STIFFENING
FILLINGS FOR CORSETS, WHIPS, AND OTHER ARTICLES OF WEAR AND USE." A commu-
nication to me from abroad by Edward Kirk Warren of Three Oaks in the County
of Berrien and State of Michigan, United States of America.
"
This invention has for its object the production of an artificial “
"bone or
stiffening filling for corsets and other articles of dress or wear, and for whips and
other articles, of a cheap efficient and serviceable elastic rod, and it consists
mainly in the novel utilization for such purpose of the stalks, stems or quill
portions of feathers after they have been stripped, as for instance the feathers of
turkeys, geese, chickens and other fowls or birds, much of which kind of stock has
heretofore had little or no commercial value. These it is proposed among other
purposes, to use as a substitute for whalebone, steel, rattan, and other elastic
substances, in corsets, waists, dresses, abdominal supporters, surgical appliances,
whips fishing rods and other articles of wear and use.
“
The growing scarcity and increasing cost of whalebone for many or most of these
purposes has led to the employment of various substitutes, including bones, horn,
rubber steel and rattan. Many of these are expensive and much inferior in
numerous respects to whalebone. The improved elastic rod or filling which will
here be termed
feather bone" has many advantages and the same may be made
to form a compact stay or bone which in some respects is better and has more
enduring elasticity than whalebone inasmuch as it is not so liable to break or
warp, nor will it be injured by perspiration, or by boiling water in washing. This
featherbone it is generally proposed to make by splitting or otherwise reducing
either by hand or machinery, but preferably by machinery, the quills of which it
is composed into splints. These splints or fibres may be held together by a
suitable external binding; thus they may be wrapped with either wire or thread
by winding, braiding, twisting, or they may be cemented or otherwise joined
together to form a featherbone of any desired size and shape in its transverse
section. When inserted as a filling in an article of wear the quills or quill splints
may be woven therein, or they may be woven together so as to form an elastic or
flexible fabric. When used as an elastic stiffener or filling for, whips and other
like shaped articles which are of a tapering construction in direction of their length,
the featherbone is or may be formed of the quills or quill splints or both arranged
to overlap and break joint with one another and bound together to form a tapering
elastic rod of any desired length.
In the accompanying drawings forming part of this specification similar letters
of reference indicate corresponding parts in all the figures.
Figure 1 represents an exterior longitudinal view of a featherbone in which a
number of quill splints are held together by winding a wire or thread around:
them. Figure 2 is a similar view of a number of quill splints held together by a
woven covering. Figure 3 is a view in perspective, upon an enlarged scale, of a
portion of one of the quill splints detached. Figure 4 is a cross section of figure 1
and Figure 5 is a cross section of figure 2, both being on an enlarged scale.
Figure 6 is a perspective view of a stiffener made of the entire quills in a suitable.
wrapper. Figure 7 represents a longitudinal view of a finished whip or portion;

page_text: of a whip made with the improved featherbone filling. Figures
and 9 are
longitudinal views, upon a larger scale of different lengths or sections of the filling
showing different ways in which the featherbone filling may be built up of splints,
or quills and splints and Figures 10 and 11 are transverse sections of figures 8
and 9 respectively.
Referring in the first instance, to the first five figures of the drawing, b, b,
represents a number of split quill splints arranged longitudinally together in any
suitable manner to form a featherbone A of any desired form in its transverse
section, and which may be held together either by a wound wire or thread external
binding c as in figures 1 and 4, or by a woven external covering c¹ as in figures 2
and 5, or which may be otherwise held together as herein before specified. By
using the separated fibres or splints of the stripped quills or stems of feathers
produced by splitting or disintegrating them, the resiliency of the quills is
preserved without exposing them to breakage in bending, to which they would be
more or less liable if used, in their entire form. However the entire quills make a
very good stiffener when stripped and bound together as shown in figure 6 of the
drawing and in which 61, 61, indicate the stripped entire quills and c their wrapper
or covering. Either of these constructions of the featherbone will be found well
adapted to form a corset stiffener
Referring to figures 7, 8, 9, 10 and 11 of the drawing, which illustrate a
construction of the featherbone as suitable for and applied as an elastic filling for
a whip, the quills of which it is composed may either be used in their whole form,
or in the form of splints or fibres produced by splitting or otherwise reducing the
quills, or in both forms combined. This in some cases will depend upon the
size of the whip, or portion of the whip to which the featherbone is applied; thus
the whip may be made for instance, either a full bone one, a half bone one, or a
quarter bone one, and in the thicker portions of the whip whole quills may be
more or less used while in the smaller or finer tapering portions of it, quill splints
will be found preferable. The quills or splints or fibres of quills are put together
or arranged so as to give the desired taper to the whip from its butt end toward
its tip in different lengths to meet the requirements of manufacturers and are
joined or bound together either by cementing them, or by any suitable external
binding including a wrapper of thread or wire wound braided or twisted around
them, or they may be joined together in any other suitable manner. In figures 8
and 9 of the drawing they are shown as bound together by simply winding a cord,
thread or wire c around them.
In figures 8 and 10 only the splints 6 of quills are shown as used in building up
the tapering elastic rod there represented, the same being arranged in diminishing
quantities toward the smaller end or portion of the rod and being arranged so as
to overlap one another or break joint as shown by their ends marked 8 for the
purpose of establishing continuity throughout the whole length of the rod. In
figures 9 and 11 both whole quills 61 and quill splints b similarly arranged and
combined are used.
An elastic tapering rod having thus been quilt up and its quills or quill splints
joined or bound together as described, the whip of which said rod forms the
stiffener may be completed in the usual or any approved manner, as for instance by
covering said filling with cloth, buckskin or other material and the braid end
cover put on by an ordinary whip machine, and after this the usual final finish of
water proof varnish applied to the exterior.
The elastic rod filling herein described is not to be confounded with other
structures or devices in which feathers and quills are used, as for instance, with
feather dusters and other articles in which for convenience sake, a portion of the
quills have been bound in to assist in attaching the handle or other part of the
article, but the elastic rod, which is here termed "featherbone
" is composed of
bound quills or quill splints from which the feathers have been removed and is
designed for use as an elastic stiffener "bone" or filling, in the place of whalebone,
and other like fillings in wearing apparel, whips and other articles of wear or use,

page_text: the same being made substantially as specified and forming a new article of
manufacture as a bone or stiffener for such purposes.
Having described the nature of the said Invention and the manner of performing
the same I declare that what I claim as the Invention to be protected by the
herein before in part recited Letters Patent is:
"
1 The within described elastic rod termed featherbone, as a
bone" or
stiffening filling for articles of wear and other use; substantially as specified.
2nd A corset stiffener formed of quills or quill splints, or both, stripped of the
feathers and bound together, essentially as shown and described.
3rd An elastic filling for whips or sections of whips and other articles, composed
of quills or quill splints, or both, arranged to overlap and break joint with
one another and bound together to form a tapering elastic rod, essentially as
described.
In witness whereof I the said Alexander Melville Clark, have hereunto set my
hand and seal this second day of April A.D. 1884.
A M CLARK (18)