IMPROVEMENTS IN BOOTS AND SHOES."
Year: 1881

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to David Watt Cuthbert, of Glasgow, in the County of
Lanark, North Britain, Engineer, for an Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN
BOOTS AND SHOES."
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said David Watt Cuthbert at
the Office of the Commissioners of Patents on the 23rd June 1881.
DAVID WATT CUTHBERT, of Glasgow, in the County of Lanark, North Britain,
Engineer. "IMPROVEMENTS IN BOOTS AND SHOES."
This Invention has for its object to improve boots and shoes by applying
vulcanised rubber to the soles and heels thereof in a novel and advantageous
manner. The Invention also includes modifications in which substitutes for the
rubber are employed.
In carrying out the Invention the rubber is applied in the form of plugs or small
blocks of a round or other suitable shape, and these plugs are held in sockets
constructed for them in the soles and heels in such a manner as to project slightly
from such sockets. An important feature of the Invention consists in forming the
sockets or holding parts relatively to the rubber plugs or blocks in a manner
admitting of the rubber dilating or spreading laterally when subjected to the
treading pressure, as it is believed that only by so arranging can the elasticity of
the rubber be properly utilised. In treading the projecting portions of the rubber
blocks are first acted on, but these receding into their sockets the final pressure of
the tread comes to be borne by the solid parts of the sole and heel.
In this way
the treading action is rendered light and elastic whilst the rubber is saved from
sever strain and wear.
The soles and heels or parts thereof in which the sockets are formed may be
made of any suitable durable material, as for example of metal, or wood, or hard
rubber, or soft rubber, or leather, or any combinations of these. Thus separate
socket pieces of metal may be screwed to a wooden or other sole; or again an
undersole of wood or leather may have the sockets formed in it, and when the
rubber plugs or blocks have been inserted from the inner or upper side, be attached

page_text: by screwing or otherwise to an upper sole. In one simple modification the rubber
plugs or blocks are of a conical form or of a cylindrical form with a slightly pro-
jecting rim at their inner ends, and the sockets are made of corresponding form;
but space is in all cases provided at the inner parts of the sockets to allow of the
lateral dilation or spreading of the rubber when spread, the larger base of the
conical form or the projecting rim preventing the plugs or blocks from getting
out of the sockets. Or the plugs or blocks may be secured by wires or staples,
and be thereby prevented from becoming detached, although of a shape that might
otherwise get out of the sockets.
In other modifications the proper clastic action of the rubber may be attained by
making the plugs or blocks more or less hollow or indented, and in such modifi-
cations extra space need not be provided in the sockets. And in some modifications
plugs or blocks of leather or other material, combined or not with metal springs
or with rubber, may bo substituted for the plugs or blocks entirely of rubber.

page_text: SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent filed by
the said David Watt Cuthbert in the Great Seal Patent Office on the
22nd December 1881.
DAVID WATT CUTHBERT, of Glasgow, in the County of Lanark, North Britain,
Engineer. "IMPROVEMENTS IN BOOTS AND SHOES."
My said Invention has for its object to improve boots and shoes by applying
vnlcanised rubber to the soles and heels thereof in a novel and advantageous
manner. My Invention also includes modifications in which substitutes for the
rubber are employed.
In carrying out my Invention, according to some modifications the rubber is
applied in the form of plugs or small blocks of a round or other suitable shape,
and these plugs are held in sockets constructed for them in the soles and heels in
such a manner as to project slightly from such sockets. An important feature of
my Invention consists in forming the sockets or holding parts relatively to the
rubber plugs or blocks in a manner admitting of the rubber dilating or spreading
laterally when subjected to the treading pressure, as I believe that only by so
arranging can the elasticity of the rubber be properly utislised. In treading the
projecting portions of the rubber blocks are first acted on, but these receding into
their sockets, the final pressure of the tread comes to be borne by the solid or rigid
parts of the sole and heel. In this way the treading action is rendered light and
elastic, whilst the rubber is saved from severe strain and wear.
The soles and heels or parts thereof in which the sockets are formed may be
made of any suitable durable material, as for example of metal, or wood, or hard
rubber, or soft rubber, or leather, or any combinations of these.
In other modifications the proper elastic action of the rubber may be attained
by making the plugs or blocks more or less hollow or indented, and in such modi-
fications extra space need not be provided in the sockets. And in some modifi-
cations plugs or blocks of leather or other material, combined or not with metal
springs or with rubber, may be substituted for the plugs or blocks entirely of
rubber.
And in order that my said Invention and the manner of performing the same
may be properly understood I hereunto append a Sheet of explanatory Drawings
to be hereinafter referred to and representing, by way of example, boots and shoes
made with what I at present consider to be the best modifications of my improve-
ments. In these Drawings the same reference numerals are used to mark the same
or like parts wherever they are repeated.
Figure 1 on the accompanying Sheet of Drawings is a side elevation; Figure 2
is a vertical section; and Figure 3 is an inverted plan of a boot, the sole and heel
of which are provided with elastic rubber plugs or blocks 21, according to one
modification of my Invention. These plugs 21 are in the form of cylinders having
slightly projecting rims or flanges at their inner ends, and the sockets for them are
made of corresponding form. The plugs 21 are held in their places by metal
socket pieces or rings 22, which are fixed to the sole and heel of the boot, the
inner ends of the socket pieces holding the back rims or flanges of the plugs, whilst
the socket pieces are otherwise made larger than the body parts of the plugs to
allow of the dilating or spreading action of the plugs when compressed. The socket
pieces 22 may be fixed to the sole and heel by separate small screws, as indicated
in Figure 3, or each socket piece 22 may have a screw thread formed on the outside
of it, as indicated in the enlarged section, Figure 4, and be itself screwed into the
substance of the sole and heel. In the example shown in Figures 1, 2, 3, the sole
and heel are supposed to be made of leather in the ordinary way.
Figures 5, 6, and 7 represent a clog or wooden-soled shoe, as provided with
elastic rubber plugs or blocks 21, Figure 5 being a side elevation, Figure 6 a vertical

page_text: section, and Figure 7 an inverted plan. In this example the sole and heel are each
made in two halves or layers, and the plugs 21 are of a conical form. The bottom
sole or outer layer has conical socket holes formed in it for the plugs 21, the wider
parts of these socket holes being at the inner or upper sides. Slight recesses for
the inner ends of the plugs 21 may be formed in the upper soles or inner layers as
shown; or the sockets may be formed entirely in the bottom soles or outer layers.
The plugs 21 are placed in the sockets before the two parts of the sole are put
together, and then these parts are fixed together by screws or nails, or in any other
convenient way.
Figures 8, 9, and 10 represent a modification in which the plugs or projecting
blocks 21 are formed or moulded upon and in the same piece with a sheet or
backing of rubber. The sockets for the plugs, which in this example are hexagonal
in shape, are formed in a metal plate 23, which is fixed by screws or otherwise
outside of the sheet or backing of the plugs, and which has the sockets in the form
of holes quite through it for the plugs to project through. Figure 8 is a longitu-
dinal vertical section, and Figure 9 is a transverse vertical section through the
middles of a row of plugs, whilst Figure 10 is an inverted plan.
Figures 11, 12, 13 represent a modification somewhat like that shown in
Figures 8, 9, 10, but having both the plugs and the sockets formed in the
same sheet of rubber, the plugs being represented as hexagonal pyramids but with
the points rounded. The rubber sheet is cemented or otherwise fixed to the inner
sole, and a metal strip is by preference fixed round the outer edge as a protection
thereto.
When separate plugs, blocks, or pieces of rubber are used, as in Figures 1 to 4,
they may be of various forms and sizes; thus they may be fewer in number and of
larger sizes, and they may be held in separate metal or other socket pieces, or the
sockets may be formed in a single piece for the heel, and in one, two, or more
pieces for the ball or fore part of the sole. In a similar way the plugs, blocks, or
projections in the modifications shown in Figures 5 to 13 may be larger and fewer
than as shown, and of other shapes.
Instead of the plugs (21) being retained or held in any of the modes hereinbefore
described they may be of forms which can be entered into their sockets from the
outside, and be secured by wires or staples to prevent them from getting out of the
sockets.
Having thus particularly described my said Invention and the manner of
performing the same, I have to state that I do not restrict myself to the precise
details herein described or delineated, but that what I believe to be novel and
original, and claim as the Invention secured to me by and in terms of the herein-
before in part recited Letters Patent is,-
The providing of the soles and heels of boots and shoes with plugs or blocks,
or projections of rubber or other suitable elastic material or combination, combined
with sockets, the parts being constructed or arranged and operating, substantially
as herein before described.
In witness whereof, I, the said David Watt Cuthbert, have hereunto set my
hand and seal, this Twenty-first day of December, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and eighty-one.
Witness,
EDMUND HUNT,
Patent Agent,
Glasgow.
DAVID WATT CUTHBERT. (L.S.)