Improvements in Wire for Use in Securing the Soles of Boots and Shoes.
Year: 1887

page_text: Date of Application, 20th Sept., 1887
Specification Accepted, 21st Oct.. 1887
COME LEIDDI ECIFICATION.
Improvements in Wire for Use in Securing the Soles of Boots and
Shoes.
I LOUIS GODDU, of Winchester in the State of Massachusetts one of the United
States of America, Machinist do hereby declare the nature of this invention and in
what manner the same is to be performed, to be particularly described and ascertained
in and by the following statement :-
In the manufacture of shoes the soles are commonly secured to the upper by means
of fastenings cut in measured lengths from a threaded wire taken from a coil of wire.
This wire, as now used, is provided with a single thread of quite short pitch,
which is made to enter the stock by rotating the wire and is then cut off close to the
stock.
The finer the thread the greater the number of rotations and the longer the time
required to screw the wire through the stock, and so also the less the pitch of the
thread the slower it is cut in the machine producing the wire.
The wire to be useful should be well covered by threads.
In my experiments to cheapen the construction of boots and shoes, I have
discovered that a sole-fastening wire may be provided with two or more threads of
considerable pitch, at a very much less cost in time than when the wire has but a
single thread as now in use, and it follows that the end of a sole fastening wire
provided with a multiple thread may be inserted into the sole or stock at a much
greater speed, thus cheapening the cost of making the shoe.
Figure 1 shows a coil of sole-fastening wire embodying my invention, and
Figure 2 is an enlarged detail of one end of the fastening wire.
The sole fastening wire a, instead of being provided with a single thread as
common, is provided, as shown, with two threads running spirally about the wire but
parallel each to the other, these two independent threads, as 2 and 3, being of quite
steep pitch thus enabling the end of the sole fastening wire to be entered more
rapidly into the stock.
The wire is put up into coil form, as shown, to be easily applied to a machine for
uniting soles to uppers.

page_text: By the employment of a sole fastening wire as described, it having more than one
thread, great economy is effected by the saving of time in the manufacture of the
wire and also a great saving in the time for inserting the wire into the stock or sole.
In the insertion into stock of sole fastening wire having a single thread, the
cutting knives are set in the same plane on opposite sides or parts of the wire, and as
the wire has but a single thread, it necessarily follows that, while one knife is cutting
between threads, the other knife on the opposite side or part of the wire is acting
on the edge of the thread, and bends or turns the said edge over, so that it
partially fills up the space between the threads on that side or part of the wire.
A sole fastening wire having a single thread and cut as described offers
considerable resistance while entering the stock, on account of the bending or turning
of the edge of the thread as desired, and so also the holding power of the fastening
cut from it, when embedded in the stock, is diminished to a considerable degree
owing to the injury of the thread at the point where it is cut from the wire, whereas
a double or multiple thread affords a greater facility for both knives to cut in the
grooves which always come substantially diametrically opposite on the wire, thus
obviating injury to the end or point next to be inserted into the material.
Having now particularly described and ascertained the nature of my said invention,
and in what manner the same is to be performed, I declare that what I claim is :-
As an improved article of manufacture, a sole fastening wire having independent
or separate threads, the grooves between the threads being substantially diametrically
opposite as and for the purpose specified.
Dated the 20th day of September 1887
WM. BROOKES & SON,
55 & 56, Chancery Lane, London,
Agents for the Applicant.