IMPROVEMENTS IN HATS AND OTHER COVERINGS FOR THE HEAD
Year: 1878

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by William Robert Lake at the Office of
the Commissioners of Patents on the 12th June 1878. A communication
from abroad by Wilhelm Wetzel, of the City and State of New York, United
States of America, Physician.
WILLIAM ROBERT LAKE, of the Firm of Haseltine, Lake, & Co., Patent Agents,
Southampton Buildings, London. "IMPROVEMENTS IN HATS AND OTHER COVERINGS
FOR THE HEAD." [A communication from abroad by Wilhelm Wetzel, of the City
and State of New York, United States of America, Physician.]
This Invention relates to hats and other head gear or coverings for the head, in
which ordinarily the head is encircled with more or less pressure.
Hats for men, and to a certain extent those for women and children also, as
hitherto made exert when worn a practically uniform pressure upon the circum-
ference of the head of the wearer, and consequently press upon the frontal occipital
and minor occipital nerves with a force and degree of compression which however
slightly perceptible eventually paralizes said nerves to a greater or less degree, and
gives rise to headaches, neuralgia, and in very many instances to permanent
baldness.
The object of the said Invention is to obviate these detrimental results by pro-
viding a hat or other head gear or head covering, in the use of which all pressure
upon the aforesaid nerves is entirely avoided.
The body, brim, lining, sweat band, and like parts of the hat may be of the
usual form and structure, which consequently needs no detailed description.
In carrying the said Invention into practise I place underneath the usual sweat
band strips of felt, leather, or other suitable material with spaces between the
adjacent ends of the said strips; the latter are secured in place by cement or by
other suitable means. As a consequence there is provided in the inner circum-
ference of the lower portion of the hat a number of indentations, recesses, or
cavities, the sweat band sinking or being sunk or impressed into the said spaces.
The number of indentations, recesses, or cavities corresponds to that of the nerves
herein-before specified, so that when the hat is placed upon the head of the wearer
the aforesaid indentations, cavities, or recesses will be brought over or coincident
ID...931

page_text: with the said nerves, so that the latter are as a consequence wholly relieved from
any pressure, it being understood that the said. indentations, cavities, or recesses
must be properly located, in other words, placed in such posturon along the herein-
before specified inner circumference of the hat that when the hat is placed upon
the head one of the said indentations, cavities, or recesses will be brought over
each of the aforesaid nerves. For example, with a hat of twenty-one inches
internal circumference, and starting from the median line of the forehead, the
indentations, cavities, or recesses intended to relieve the two frontal nerves will be
upon opposite sides of said median line, and each at a distance of about one and one
half inches from said line. Measuring in a backward direction about seven and
one half inches also from said line on each side the localities for those intended to
relieve the minor occipital nerves will be indicated; and measuring still further
back from the aforesaid median line on each side to the back part of the hat a
distance of about nine and one half inches the localities of those intended for the
relief of the occipital (meaning the larger occipital) nerves will be found.
It is to be understood that these directions are general, and that the width of the
indentations, cavities, or recesses aforesaid should be sufficient to obviate the
necessity of close calculation as to their respective localities, their relative position
being substantially that above indicated, although their absolute distances apart
must necessarily vary somewhat with different sizes of hats.
It is also to be understood that the method or means of providing the indenta-
tions, cavities, or recesses may be varied, it being sufficient for the purposes of the
said Invention that the indentations, cavities, or recesses be provided in such
position as to relieve the nerves from pressure, as herein set forth.
It is also to be understood that while the maximum benefit will result from the
use of a sufficient number of the indentations, cavities, or recesses to relieve the
frontal occipital and minor occipital nerves, as herein explained, the advantages of
the Invention will accrue, although in a less degree, if the number of indentations,
cavities, or recesses be diminished to relieve a less number of nerves.