Improvements in and in connection with Dress Shields.
Year: 1898

page_text: Date of Application, 5th Dec., 1898-Accepted, 18th Feb., 1899
COMPLETE SPECIFICATION.
Improvements in and in connection with Dress Shields.
I, GRACE SARAH ROBERTS, of 316, Herkimer Street, Brooklyn, New York, in
the United States of America, Manufacturer, 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:-
Dress shields to be worn satisfactorily must be held smoothly in position in
the arm scye of the dress, and that they may be put into and taken out of a dress
readily they must have suitable fastenings, and these fastenings must be so
made that they will not contact with the person, and so that they will hold and
keep the dress shield effectively in position in the waist or other article in which
they are worn.
I have aimed to and have produced fastenings for the purpose of uniting the
dress shield into a waist, and I have so applied the fastenings to the shields that
they cannot contact with either the arms or body.
I employ two fastenings, one located at the lower edge of the dress shield, and
the other at the upper corners of the dress shield.
The fastener located at the lower edge of the dress shield is composed of two
pieces of wire bent and adapted to cooperate together to form a saftey pin which
cannot be detached in use on the shield.
The two parts of the safety pin are and preferably will be united to the shield
by suitable rivets.
The fastenings used at the corners of the shield which I may designate as
grabs, are contained wholly within the shield, and they are connected with the
interior of the shield by the legs of the grabs passing through the material of
the shield, thus doing away with stitches by which to secure the grabs in place.
Fig. 1 shows a dress shield provided with my improved fastenings;
Fig. 2 shows the fastener fully opened;
Fig. 3 shows the two parts of the safety pin brought together preparatory
to fastening them;
Fig. 4 shows the safety pin fully united;
Fig. 5 shows the eye part of the safety pin much enlarged, and detached;
Fig. 6 is a detail showing the grab or fastening used at its upper edge, the
grab being opened;
Fig. shows the grab in end view and closed; and
Fig. 8 shows the grab of Fig. 7 spread wide open.
The dress shield A is and may be of any usual or suitable material and shape.
Preferably it will be composed of two thicknesses, the outer one of cloth,
and the inner one of an india rubber or gutta percha compound, the two thick-
nesses being provided with a binding B, or there may be a lining superimposed
on the rubber.
For the lower edges of the shield to attach it inside the sleeve and inside the
waist, I have devised a peculiar safety pin.
This safety pin is composed of two parts, viz.:-a pin part a having a bend
077

page_text: or crook at a an eye part composed of a piece of wire having an intermediate
bend 6 transversely of its length, the piece of wire being bent onward at 64,
Fig. 5, to form the attaching portion while the end at the other side of the
bend is formed into the open hook 62.
Both the pin a and the wire b of the hook have one end bent into circular
form, as represented at 63, Fig. 5, in connection with the eye, into which will be
inserted a suitable eyelet, as c and d, said eyelet serving to retain the pin a or
the eye b in operative position on the shield.
Fig. 2 shows the safety pin opened.
To operate it properly, the point a of the pin will be thrust through a small
bight or loop of the material, to which the pin is to be fastened, and the point
end of the pin beyond the part thereof engaged by the bight of the material
penetrated by the pin, will be made to enter the space 6 of the bend 6 of the
pin, as in Fig. 3, and then a part of said pin between the eyelet d and its end
will be laid into the open notch 62 of the eye, as in Fig. 4, which will serve to
hold the pin in place.
By bending the pin slightly downward as at a', Fig. 2, the point of the pin
when the two parts of the safety pin are fully engaged as in Fig. 4, will, in case
of any longitudinal movement imparted to the pin, enter the little space 66 in
the eyed end 3 of the wire b, and will meet the eyelet, so that the. said eyelet
constitutes a shield for the point of the pin, preventing it from entering the body
in case of accident.
The grab e, one being shown very clearly in full lines in Fig. 1, at the right,
and also in Figs. 6 to 8, is composed of a single piece of wire, opposite ends of
the said wire being bent about a central portion thereof to form two springs,
leaving legs f having inturned points f¹, the springs being so coiled as to act
normally to force the points one towards the other to grab the material placed
between the points when the legs are spread apart so that the said grabs are
self closing.
The grab herein shown is preferably constructed as follows, viz.:-legs are
bent at fto form shoulders, and lower down they are bent again at an acute
angle to present points f¹.
These points may be inserted one in one half and the other in the other half
of the dress shield, the said points passing from the inner side of the shield
through to the outer side thereof and then again from the outer side through
to the inner side, as represented in Fig. 1, leaving both points inside the shield
in position to grasp the dress or waist material at the arm scye.
By bending the legs to form the shoulders f, the space between the legs is
sufficiently enlarged to readily fit over and embrace any usual edge of the dress
or waist at the arm scye, and the entrance of the point into the dress or waist
material is not interfered with by the contact of the arms with said material
as the points are entering the material.
The grabs herein shown are held in place solidly, by being inserted through
the material of the dress shield, and they remain in such position without any
further fastening whatever.
I find by forming the points of the legs by an acute angled bend that the
grabs hold so securely that they can be detached only by hand manipulation.
and not by any use of the shield in a dress waist.
Having now particularly described and ascertained the nature of my said in-
vention, and in what manner the same is to be performed, I declare that what I
claim is:
1. The herein described dress shield fastening composed of a pin, and an eye
piece. the latter presenting at one end an open hook, and an intermediate bend
between its ends, to cooperate with said pin, substantially as described.
2. A dress shield having a pin attached to it by an eyelet, combined with an
eye part presenting an open hook at one end and having an intermediate bend,
and an eyelet to attach said eye piece to said shield, substantially as described.

page_text: d
3. The herein described dress shield fastening composed of a pin having
bend a', and an eye piece, the latter presenting at one end an open hook, and
an intermediate bend between its ends, to cooperate with said pin, substantially
as described.
4. The dress shield provided at its corners inside said shield with grabs, com-
posed of spring legs having points, said legs being extended each through one
half of the said shield at opposite sides of its upper edge, leaving said points in
position when said legs are separated one from the other, to grasp a portion
of an arm scye to hold the shield in place, substantially as described.
5. The grabs composed of spring legs, bent to provide shoulders f, and further
bent to present points f, the spring normally acting to keep the points crossing
one the other, substantially as described.
6. A grab composed of spring wire bent to present oppositely turned springs
and having legs provided near said springs with a shoulder and having points
bent from said legs and standing therefrom at an acute angle, substantially as
described.
7. A grab for dress shields, the same being composed of wire presenting a
straight body portion wrapped from what is to constitute its extremities by coiled
portions to form two cooperating springs, one end of each of said springs pre-
senting an arm, said springs being shaped to present holding prongs, which,
under the normal action of said spring coils, will grasp and hold the arm-scye of
a dress and thereby retain the shield in place, substantially as described.
8. A grab for dress shields, composed of wire and comprising a body portion
having end loops, the portions of said wire being wrapped about the body portion
to form two spring-coils, the adjacent ends of the coils being laterally extended
and oppositely bent toward each other at their extremities to form holding prongs,
substantially as described.
י
33
A
WM. BROOKES & SON,
55 and 56, Chancery Lane, London, Agents for the Applicant.