AN IMPROVED APPARATUS FOR FITTING GARMENTS
Year: 1866

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Henri Adrien Bonneville, of the British and Foreign
Patent Offices, 38, Porchester Terrace, Bayswater, in the County of
Middlesex, and 24, Rue du Mont Thabor, Paris, in the Empire of
France, Patent Agent, for the Invention of "AN IMPROVED APPARATUS
FOR FITTING GARMENTS."-A communication from Silas Otis Brigham,
residing at San Francisco, in the State of California, United States of
America.
Sealed the 15th March 1867, and dated the 29th September 1866.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Henri Adrien Bonneville
at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the
29th September 1866.
I, HENRI ADRIEN BONNEVILLE, of the British and Foreign Patent Offices,
38, Porchester Terrace, Bayswater, in the County of Middlesex, and 24, Rue
du Mont Thabor, Paris, in the Empire of France, Patent Agent, do hereby
declare the nature of the said Invention for "AN IMPROVED APPARATUS FOR
FITTING GARMENTS," a communication from Silas Otis Brigham, a person
resident at San Francisco, in the State of California, United States of
America, to be as follows:-
This Invention relates to an apparatus or (so called) conformator, by means
of which the right measurement of a garment may be correctly ascertained,

page_text: of such construction and arrangement that when applied to the person it will
adjust itself, and perfectly conform thereto in every respect and portion, and
consists in a sort of jacket made of thin tissue, sheet india-rubber, gutta
percha, or of any of their elastic compounds, or of any other suitable elastic
material or materials in any proper manner to correspond in general shape
and outline to the form of the body, which conformator is provided at such
portions of its exterior as correspond to the positions in which the necessary
seams for the making of the dress or other garment are to run with a series
of sharp-pointed projecting pins or studs, or any other equivalent device or
devices, so that by laying a thin sheet of paper or other suitable material over
and upon such conformator when on the person, the direction of the seams
for the cutting of the dress will be accurately indicated by the puncturing of
the said paper by the said pins, and thus when the paper is cut out in the
line of such punctures a perfect pattern of the person's form will be produced,
which then using upon the cloth or other material of which the dress or other
garment is to be made in the usual manner, the dress material can be cut
with such accuracy that when properly sewed or stitched together and applied
to the person a perfect, accurate, and smooth fitting garment will be obtained,
reference being had to the accompanying Drawing, in which, for the pur-
pose of more fully and distinctly illustrating my Invention, it is shown as
applied to the waist and body of the figure of a lady, letters a, a, indicating
the pins.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said Henri Adrien Bonneville in the Great Seal Patent Office
on the 21st March 1867.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, HENRI
ADRIEN BONNEVILLE, of the British and Foreign Patent Offices, 38,
Porchester Terrace, Bayswater, in the County of Middlesex, and 24, Rue
du Mont Thabor, Paris, in the Empire of France, Patent Agent, send
greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Twenty-ninth day of September, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and sixty-six, in the thirtieth year of Her reign,
did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto me, the said
Henri Adrien Bonneville, Her special licence that I, the said Henri Adrien
Bonneville, my executors, administrators, and assigns, or such others as I, the

page_text: said Henri Adrien Bonneville, my executors, administrators, and assigns,
should at any time agree with, and no others, from time to time and at
all times thereafter during the term therein expressed, should and lawfully
might make, use, exercise, and vend, within the United Kingdom of Great
Britain and Ireland, the Channel Islands, and Isle of Man, an Invention
for "AN IMPROVED APPARATUS FOR FITTING GARMENTS," a communication from
Silas Otis Brigham, a person resident at San Francisco, in the State of
California, United States of America, upon the condition (amongst others)
that I, the said Henri Adrien Bonneville, my executors or administrators,
by an instrument in writing under my, or their, or one of their hands
and seals, should particularly describe and ascertain the nature of the
said Invention, and in what manner the same was to be performed, and
cause the same to be filed in the Great Seal Patent Office within six
calendar months next and immediately after the date of the said Letters
Patent.
NOW KNOW YE, that I, the said Henri Adrien Bonneville, do hereby
declare the nature of the said Invention, and in what manner the same
is to be performed, to be particularly described and ascertained in and by
the following statement, that is to say :-
This Invention relates to an apparatus or (so-called) conformator, by means
of which the right measurement of a garment may be correctly ascertained,
of such construction and arrangement that when applied to the person it will
adjust itself, and perfectly conform thereto in every respect and portion, and
consists in a sort of jacket made of thin tissue, sheet india-rubber, gutta
percha, or of any of their elastic compounds, or of any other suitable elastic
material or materials in any proper manner to correspond, in general shape
and outline to the body, which conformator is provided at such portions of
its exterior as correspond to the positions in which the necessary seams for
the making of the dress or other garment are to run with a series of sharp-
pointed projecting pins or studs, or any other equivalent device or devices, so
that by laying a thin sheet of paper or other suitable material over and upon
such conformator when on the person, the direction of the seams for the
cutting of the dress will be accurately indicated by the puncturing of the
said paper by the said pins, and thus when the paper is cut out in the line
of such punctures a perfect pattern of the person's form will be produced,
which then using upon the cloth or other material of which the dress or other
garment is to be made in the usual manner, the dress material can be cut
with such accuracy that when properly sewed or stitched together and applied
to the person a perfect, accurate, and smooth fitting garment will be obtained,

page_text: reference being had to the accompanying Drawings, in which, for the purpose
of more fully and distinctly illustrating my Invention, it is shown as applied
to the waist and body of the figure of a lady.
In the fitting of garments either for ladies or gentlemen or misses or boys,
with any of the now prevalent modes or methods practised, therefore it is
almost impossible, if not entirely so, without exercising the utmost care to
measure the body and such other portions of the person as are necessary
to make the garment with sufficient accuracy to ensure or produce the tlesired
fit. With the many instruments or devices heretofore invented and patented
for the purpose of fitting. the waists of dresses, more especially to ladies or
misses, it has been necessary in every instance to adjust the various parts
composing such instrument to the form of the person, which not only required
much time and care, but also considerable experience to so adjust them
that the dress cut out from the result of such adjustment of the instrument
would fit the person with the necessary accuracy and smoothness in every
part or portion of the same. To avoid all the difficulties encountered with
the instruments or apparatuses now in use for the fitting of ladies' or misses'
dresses more especially is the principal object of the present Invention,
although with slight modifications the instrument or device embraced by my
improvements can be as well adapted to gentlemen or boys, as will be more
apparent from the following detail description.
In the accompanying Drawings, Fig. 1 is a view of the front side of the
said instrument or conformator, as I term it; Fig. 2, a view of the back of
the same; Fig. 3, a view looking down upon the same; and Figures 4 and 5,
detail views showing one mode of inserting the pins in the conformator, which
will be herein-after fully explained. A represents the improved dress or
garment-fitting instrument or conformator, of such dimensions that upon
persons of the same sex of the average size about the waist and body, it can
adjust itself to their forms in every particular or part and lay perfectly smooth
thereon without causing any severe strain or the slightest perceptible pain to
the wearer, the conformator being made on the principle of a tight-fitting
waist or jacket, buttoning or hooking up in front or on the back, as may be
deemed most desirable, and is put on and taken off the person in a similar
manner to the same, as is plainly apparent from an inspection of the
Drawings. Projecting from this conformator, and in such directions upon
the same as correspond to the line of seams necessary for the making of the
garment or dress so as to have it fit nicely and smoothly upon the person, are
a series or rows of sharp-pointed pins or studs a, a, a, of any desired number,
but sufficiently close together to define the line of seam which is to pass

page_text: through them, these rows of pins being attached to or secured upon the
elastic sheet or material of which the conformator is made in such a manner
as to be either fixed or permanent in position, or so as to be susceptible of
being removed or detached, which latter mode of attachment is illustrated in
Figures 4 and 5, and consists in passing the pins through the elastic sheet,
with a suitable washer or ring upon each side of the same. The mode of
securing the pins will admit of innumerable variations, and the one above
described and shown in the Drawings I deem to possess many advantages, as
by means of such attachment the line of direction of the pins can be changed
to suit the style of pattern according to which the dress is to be cut.
In the use of my conformator for the cutting of garments having the
features above explained, it is first put on the body of the person for whom
the garment is to be fitted, and then buttoned or otherwise properly fastened
together in front or on the back, as the case may be, the elastic material of
which the conformator is made causing it to adjust itself in every particular to
the form of the person. When taking a thin sheet of paper or other suitable
material and laying it upon and over the surface of the conformator, keeping
it smooth and even, the direction of the rows of pins upon the conformator
can then be indicated upon the paper by simply pressing upon it with sufficient
pressure to cause them to puncture the same; when cutting the paper in the
line of such punctures it is obvious that a pattern for the dress or garment is
produced, that when the material of which the garment is to be made is cut
out according thereto, and properly sewed or otherwise secured together,
a perfect, accurate, and smooth fitting garment must necessarily be produced.
From the above description of my improved dress or garment fitting con-
formator it is manifest that one conformator can be used upon persons varying
considerably in the dimensions and outlines of their bodies, as being made of
elastic or flexible material it adjusts itself immediately and with no trouble or
labour to the form of the person on which it is put, indicating in every instance
by its projecting pins the true line of the seams which it is necessary to make
for the perfect fitting of the garment or dress. In lieu of using pins or studs
upon the conformator for indicating the line of seams, as explained, continuous
ridges may be formed upon or attached to the same, either made of the same
material as the conformator or of different material, and attached thereto in
any proper manner; the line of seam upon the pattern with the use of raised
edges in lieu of pins being indicated by manipulating the paper in any proper
manner to cause the line of direction of such ridges to be indicated upon it, as
for instance by creasing it.
The conformator herein above described is made of an elastic sheet of any

page_text: suitable material of such a shape that when placed upon the person it will
entirely encase such portions of the body as it is intended to cover, but in lieu
of being so made it can be formed of strips or bands of elastic material, having
open spaces between them and properly joined together, so as to constitute a
conformator having substantially the characteristics above stated, but I do
not deem it expedient or advantageous to so make them, and in fact the per-
fectness of operation cannot be secured in that mode of construction as by that
particularly explained and shown in the Drawings.
It may be here remarked in conclusion that although I have described two
modes in which my conformator can be made, so that the lines of seams can
be indicated or produced upon the material of which the garment pattern is
to be made, I do not intend to limit myself to any one particular mode or con-
struction of the same for such purpose, the present Invention consisting in a
self-adjusting conformator having any suitable construction for indicating the
line of seams.
Having now described and particularly ascertained the nature of the said
Invention, and the manner in which the same is or may be used or carried
into effect, I would observe that what I consider to be novel and original, and
therefore claim is, a self-adjusting apparatus or conformator, as I term it,
having the principles and characteristics substantially as herein-before described
and for the purpose specified.
In witness whereof, I, the said Henri Adrien Bonneville, have hereunto
set my hand and seal, the Twentieth day of March, in the year of our
Lord One thousand eight hundred and sixty-seven.
H. BONNEVILLE. (L.S.)