IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MODE OF UNITING PIECES OF LEATHER AND IN THE MANUFACTURE OF SHOES AND BOOTS
Year: 1864

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Benjamin Franklin Sturtevant, of the County of
Suffolk and State of Massachusetts, of the United States of America,
for the Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MODE OF UNITING PIECES OF
LEATHER AND IN THE MANUFACTURE OF SHOES AND BOOTS."
Sealed the 20th October 1864, and dated the 6th July 1864.
COMPLETE SPECIFICATION filed by the said Benjamin Franklin Sturtevant
at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition and
Declaration, on the 6th July 1864, pursuant to the 9th Section of the
Patent Law Amendment Act, 1852.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, BE IT
KNOWN, that I, BENJAMIN FRANKLIN STURTEVANT, of the County of Suffolk,
and State of Massachusetts, of the United States of America, have made a
new and useful Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MODE OF UNITING PIECES
OF LEATHER AND IN THE MANUFACTURE OF SHOES AND BOOTS," and I do hereby
declare the nature thereof, and the manner in which the same is to be per-.
formed, to be fully described in the following Specification and represented in
the accompanying Drawings, of which Figure 1 denotes an underside view of

page_text: an improved shoe containing my Invention; Figure 2 exhibits a side elevation
of the shoe with a portion removed in order to exhibit my improvements in
the connection of the soles and the upper leather.
The nature of my Invention in part consists in a line of sewing, or a series
of loops or stitches, and a series of pegs or their equivalents, arranged or
applied together, and within pieces of leather or other material (to be con-
nected), substantially in manner as herein-after explained, the pegs and the
loops or stitches co-operating so as not only to fasten together the pieces or
sheets of leather or material, but to mutually aid in keeping each other in
place therein.
The nature of my Invention further consists in a new or improved manu-
facture of boot or shoe, viz., one which, besides its upper leather and sole or
soles and a thread for connecting them together, has a row of pegs so combined
and arranged therewith as not only to aid in fastening the stitches or loops of
the thread in place, but to operate as an additional means of connecting the
parts, and thereby improving the shoe in various respects.
In the Drawings A denotes the outer sole, B, the upper or upper leather,
and C, the "in-sole or inner sole of a shoe, they being connected by a
thread (a) and a series of pegs (b, b, b, b,) inserted within a series of awl holes
(c, c, c, c).
The thread is to be looped within the awl holes, or it may be passed through
them, and is to have a peg, either of wood or other proper material, driven,
forced, or inserted into each hole, so as to either compress or expand the
thread within the hole and against its side or sides in manner to not only
firmly fix or aid in fixing the thread in the hole, but at the same time to
firmly fasten the peg therein. The shoe, therefore, besides having its "upper"
and sole or soles and their fastening thread, will further be composed of the
row of pegs.
"
In sewing leather by means of a sewing machine and with a thread (whether
waxed or not) by running it through or looping it into a series of awl holes
made in such leather, the portion or part of the thread deposited within each
hole will seldom completely fill the hole, in consequence of which, when the
exposed parts of the thread may become worn out the materials sewed or
connected together are liable to be easily ripped apart. By means, however,
of the row of pegs combined and arranged with the awl holes and the thread
in manner as explained, the thread can be so firmly fastened within the several
aw) holes as to securely connect the parts together, and materially operate to
prevent them from being ripped apart. The thread also serves to keep the

page_text: pegs in place within the holes. The making of the awl holes and the insertion
of the pegs and the thread therein may be effected either by manual labor
and proper tools or implements, or such may be accomplished by mechanism
operating automatically either in whole or in part.
A boot or shoe made in accordance with my Invention unites the advantages
of "sewing" and "pegging," and consequently will be much stronger than a
shoe or boot as ordinarily made, whether either pegged or sewed." Further-
more, by connecting the sole and the upper by a series of pegs and a thread
looped into the awl holes there will be no necessity of removing the last from
the shoe preparatory to the fixation of the sole to the upper. Each loop may
be formed by the peg during the act of forcing it into the material or the awl
hole thereof and against the thread previously suitably laid over or across the
mouth of the hole, in which case the peg should be so formed as to ensure
the introduction of the thread or loop into the hole. Instead thereof the loop
may be first inserted within the awl hole by a proper instrument, the peg
subsequently being driven into the hole and either within the loop or along-
side of it. There are various other ways in which the thread may be
introduced into or sewed relatively to the awl holes. The loops may be
chain-stitched together if desirable.
By my Invention, or that portion thereof which relates to the connection of
pieces of leather or other materials, we not only have in connection most, if
not all, the advantages which appertain to "sewing" and "pegging" when
separately considered, but we have, by the combination of the sewing and
pegging or pegs, in the manner as explained, the additional advantage of each
being made to operate so as to aid in holding or fixing the other within the
work, that is to say, while the looped or sewed thread performs its peculiar
function of connecting the two pieces of material or leather, and while the
pegs, in their way, answer a like purpose; the pegs and the thread co-operate
in such manner that each serves to more or less to sustain or support the
other in place, and thus to give additional strength to the connection, and
more or less prevent wear of the thread under ordinary circumstances.
In waxed thread sewing, when the exposed parts of the loops or stitches
become worn out the portions of leather held in connection are very apt to
rip apart or can be readily ripped asunder; but with my mode of connection
or combination and arrangement of "sewing" and "pegging" the pegs will
operate to prevent the separated parts of the thread from being easily drawn
out of their holes. I do not claim either "pegging" or "sewing" as a means
of connection when separately considered.

page_text: I claim as my Invention the new or improved art or mode, substantially as
described, of uniting pieces of leather or other material:
And I also especially claim the new or improved manufacture, or shoe or
boot, made substantially in manner as described.
In witness whereof I have. hereunto set my hand and seal, this 13th
June 1864.
BENJAMIN FRANKLIN STURTEVANT (L.S.)