A NEW AND IMPROVED MODE OF FASTENING SHOES TO THE FEET OF MEN, WOMEN, AND CHILDREN
Year: 1805

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, WILLIAM
MARTIN, of Howden Pans, in the County of Northumberland, Rope Maker,
send greeting.
WHEREAS His most Excellent Majesty King George the Third did, by
His Letters Patent under the Great Seal of the United Kingdom of Great
Britain and Ireland, bearing date at Westminster, the Nineteenth day of
February, in the forty-fifth year of His reign, give and grant unto me, the said
William Martin, my exors, adñññors, and assigns, His especial licence, that I,
the said William Martin, my exors, adñors, and assigns, should and lawfully
might, during the term of years therein mentioned, make, use, exercise, and
vend, within England, Wales, and the Town of Berwick-upon-Tweed, my
Invention of "A NEW AND IMPROVED MODE OF FASTENING SHOES TO THE FEET OF
MEN, WOMEN, AND CHILDREN;" in which said Letters Patent there is contained
a proviso, obliging me, the said William Martin, by an instrument in writing
under my hand and seal, to cause a particular description of the nature of my
said Invention, and in what manner the same is to be performed, to be inrolled
in His Majesty's High Court of Chancery within one calendar month after
the date of the said recited Letters Patent, as in and by the same, relation
being thereunto bad, may more fully and at large appear.

page_text: NOW KNOW YE, that in compliance with the said proviso, I, the said
William Martin, do hereby declare that my said Invention is described by
the Drawings in the margin hereof and the following description, that is
to say:-
The principle of my Invention consists in causing the heel and toe of
the shoe or slipper to be drawn towards each other, in the operation of fasten-
ing, by buckles, clasps, or otherwise. I effect this by placing a strap, tape, or
string, see A, A, Fig. 1, on the inside and between the upper leather and the
lining of that part of the shoe or slipper called the heel quarter, and near
the top thereof, the ends of which strap, tape, or string meet, and are joined
together or left loose according to the nature of the fastening to be adopted at
that part of the shoe or slipper, as at D; this strap, tape, or string is sewed or
otherwise fastened at the heel or a small part of the way round the heel,
leaving the rest of the strap, tape, or string loose; it is joined by two others, as
at B, and on each side of the shoe or slipper, which are carried obliquely down
to or near to the sole, where they are sewed or otherwise fastened. The heel
straps A and side straps B being thus united or left separate at D, where
they meet in the inside of the shoe or slipper must then be drawn through
a hole, slit, or aperture, see E, E, Fig. 2, made for that purpose in the
upper leather, by a buckle, button, clasp, ribband, or other fit thing fixed or
fastened on the top of the shoe at a small distance from the slit or hole above
mentioned, and between it and the toe of the shoe or slipper, as at E, Fig. 2,
by which the strap D is drawn tight and fastened. Although the straps A & B
are described as being made of separate pieces joined together, yet it is obvious
a strap may be made of one entire piece, cut from leather, woollen, linen, or
any other proper material to answer the same end, if such in any case should
be preferred; and also, instead of uniting the ends of the strap A at D, a strap
may be cut entire at D, and the ends made to meet and be sewed at the heel,
sec Fig. 2; or the strap may be formed, made, or composed of any materials
that may be preferred, or of different sorts of materials in the same shoe, as,
for instance, from D to A, of leather; from A to the heel and sole, of silk,
linen, webbing, metallic springs, or any other material that may be thought
proper to use. It is also obvious that this Invention may be applied with the
same effect to the outside as well as to the inside of the shoe or slipper; but as
these are only variations of or from the principle of my Invention, I think it
needless to describe them. The side straps B may be adopted or not at the
pleasure of the makers; I think them useful, but not absolutely necessary.
Fig. 1, section of a shoc or slipper, exhibiting the situation of the straps,
tape, or strings A, B, D, whether fixed on the inside or the outside thereof.

page_text: Fig. 2, bird's-eye view, shewing by dotted lines the strap, tape, or string
A, A, A, A, B, B, D, before the shoe is buckled.
Fig. 3, view of a shoe or slipper when buckled, the straps being fixed on the
inside between the lining and the upper leather.
In witness whereof, I, the said William Martin, have hereunto set my
hand and seal, this Eighth day of March, in the year of our Lord One
thousand eight hundred and five.