A New or Improved Stiffening Material for Use in connection with Corsets, Dress Bodices, and other Garments, and Machine or Apparatus for Producing the same.
Year: 1896

page_text: Date of Application, 20th Mar., 1896
Complete Specification Left, 19th Dec., 1896-Accepted, 6th Feb., 1897
A New or Improved Stiffening Material for Use in connection with
Corsets, Dress Bodices, and other Garments, and Machine or
Apparatus for Producing the same.
I, HERBERT WAIDE REYNOLDS, of the Firm of Waterhouse Reynolds & Co.,
Upper Brown Street, Leicester, Corset Manufacturers do hereby declare the
nature of this invention to be as follows:-
This invention has for its object to produce a cheap and efficient stiffening
material or agent for use in connection with corsets, dress bodices and other
garments as a substitute for cane and whalebone at present employed in that
capacity.
The invention also comprises a machine or apparatus for the production of the
said stiffening material.
The said stiffening material which may be considered as a new article of manu-
facture for the purpose named consists of strips of paper, buckram or other
substance of sufficient rigidity or thickness, folded over upon itself one or more
times and submitted to pressure to flatten and consolidate it and having optionally
incorporated therewith some plastic or adhesive substance which will increase the
stiffness and the cohesion of the superposed layers or strips when dry.
These stiffening strips may then be utilized in corsets and other garments in the
same manner as whalebone or cane.
According to one construction of machine for producing the before mentioned
stiffening material provision is made whereby the latter has its two marginal edges
first folded inwardly and upon itself the two overturned edges thereof running
parallel to and by preference meeting each other.
The said material is then again folded along its centre so that there are now
four thicknesses or superposed layers which are compressed by passing between
pulleys or their equivalent as hereinafter described and if desired combined with
plastic adhesive material.
The stiff paper or other material to be fed into the machine is in the form of a
flat strip many yards in length and the end is placed in a guide which turns
upwardly the edges of the strip, so that when the latter emerges from the guide
which decreases in width towards the exit, the marginal edges of the strip are
turned over upon the strip itself and after passing between two discs or rollers, one
of which is circumferentially recessed to receive a similar projection on the
adjacent disc or roller, the two edges of the strip are compressed upon the latter
and form a double thickness.
After leaving these discs or rollers the end of the doubled strip is placed in
another guide which folds the strip along its centre, and after leaving the said
guide the strip enters between two other similarly constructed discs, provided with
a narrower recess and projection thereon respectively equivalent in width to that
of the finished strip, and becomes compressed and consolidated thereby and consists
of a fourfold thickness.
The strips may be provided with a coating of adhesive or similar stiffening
material at any convenient stage in its manufacture.

page_text: The before mentioned discs are carried on shafts provided with adjustable spring
bearings, the shafts being driven by suitable gear wheels from a countershaft
having the usual fast and loose pulleys thereon.
Dated this 17th day of March 1896.
BOULT & WADE,
Agents for the Applicant.
A New or Improved Stiffening Material for Use in connection with
Corsets, Dress Bodices, and other Garments, and Machine or
Apparatus for Producing the same.
I, HERBERT WAIDE REYNOLDS, of the Firm of Waterhouse Reynolds & Co.,
Upper Brown Street, Leicester, Corset Manufacturers 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:-
This invention has for its object to produce a cheap and efficient stiffening
material or agent for use in connection with corsets, dress bodices and other
garments as a substitute for cane and whalebone at present employed in that
capacity.
The said stiffening material which may be considered as a new article of manu-
facture for the purpose named consists of strips of paper, buckram or other
substances of sufficient rigidity or thickness, folded over upon itself one or more
times and submitted to pressure to flatten and consolidate it and having optionally
incorporated therewith some plastic or adhesive substance which will increase the
stiffness and the cohesion of the superposed layers or strips when dry.
These stiffening strips may then be utilized in corsets and other garments in the
same manner as whalebone or cane.
According to one mode of producing the before mentioned stiffening material a
strip of paper or other material may have its two marginal edges first folded
inwardly and upon itself or upon a narrower strip laid thereon the two overturned
edges thereof running parallel to and by preference meeting each other or
nearly so.
The said material is then again folded along its centre so that there are now four
or six thicknesses or superposed layers which are compressed by passing between
pulleys or their equivalent as hereinafter described and if desired combined with
plastic adhesive material.
The invention will be fully understood from the following further description in
reference to the accompanying drawing in which,
Figures 1 and 2 are plan and elevations respectively of apparatus concerned
in the production of the improved stiffening agent the subject of the present
invention.
In Fig. 1 the upper pulley is omitted for the sake of clearness.
Figures 3 and 4 are side elevations of other apparatus to illustrate the manu-
facture of the said stiffening agent.
Figures 5 and 6 are detached views of the two guides H R on a larger scale than
in the previous figures, and
Figures 7, 8 and 9 are very greatly enlarged sections of the stiffening agent at
different stages of its manufacture.
Only so much of the apparatus is shown in the drawings as is necessary to clearly
illustrate the invention and like letters of reference represent the same parts in all
the figures.

page_text: Referring to Fig. 7, A represents a strip of paper or other material prior to its
manufacture into the stiffening agent hereinbefore referred to.
B represents a narrower width of similar or other material which may be
optionally laid along the centre of A, prior to the marginal edges A' of the
latter being turned up and folded over upon itself or upon the narrow strip B as
indicated in Fig. 8.
In Fig. 7 the two strips are shown in the relative positions they occupy when
going into the guide-in Fig. 1.
In Fig. 8 the strip is shown in the condition it leaves the apparatus Figs. 1 and 2,
and in Fig. 9 is shown, on a much larger scale than either Figs. 7 or 8, the
completed stiffening agent, having progressed another step and been folded upon
itself along its centre.
The manufacture of the said stiffening agent according to this invention may be
conducted as follows:-
A is the paper strip which as in Fig. t may be led from a roll A 2 many yards in
length, the central hole in which is placed over a projection on a board or holder
revoluble on a pin C inserted in the floor or elsewhere.
The said strip thence passes under a roller D over a large roller D' which
revolving in a bath E containing dextrine or other adhesive or stiffening material,
lubricates or spreads the surface of the strip therewith as it passes over.
The said strip then passes under the ruller D 2 over a smaller roller D 3 (which
tends to equalise the spreading of the adhesive substance on the strip) thence under
the roller D4 upwards over the roller D 5 through a slot F in an arm F Fig. 2
screwed to the framework G of the apparatus, and thence into the large slit or
passage H¹ in the guide H.
When one or more narrower strips B of paper or other fabric are also used they
may come from reels fixed in any suitable positions, and pass over a roller B', over
the arm F and into a narrower slit H 2 in the guide H.
The guide H is furnished with a lateral extension H3 through which screws
pass and attach it to an arm J bolted at J¹ to the framing G of the machine.
This, guide as shown detached in Fig. 5 is furnished with two slits or
entrances H H 2 for the wider and narrower strips A B respectively.
If more than one of the narrow strips B are employed the narrow slits H 2 may
be increased in number proportionately.
The slit, through which the wide strip passes is curve-shaped as shown so that
upon entering the guide the edges.of the strip receive the initial tendency to curl
or turn upwards and the fact of the guide being elliptic shape as illustrated and
reduced in width towards its exit end, causes the strip as it emerges from the guide
to have its edges A' turned over upon itself or upon the narrower strip B as shown
in Fig. 5.
The guide as shown in Figs. 1 and 2 is located with its exit close up against two
rollers KL so that the folded strip as it leaves the said guide passes between
the rollers and the overturned edges are compressed thereby and come through
the rollers in the condition shown by the enlarged section in fig. 8.
The two rollers are male and female, the upper having a projection K¹ thereon
fitting into a circumferential recess L in the lower roller; spring bearings of any
of the well known types being provided to give the necessary pressure to, the
partly compacted strip as it leaves the guide and enters the recess in the lower
roller.
This recess will be most clearly seen in Fig. 1 which has the upper roller removed
for that purpose.
A finger M attached as shown to the opposite end of the arm J and whose end
is located in an auxiliary groove L2 in the female roller L prevents the partly
compacted strip adhering to and being taken round with the roller.
After leaving the rollers K L the strip thus partly formed and in the con.lition
already referred to and as shown in Fig. 7 is submitted to another process illustrated
in Fig. 4.

page_text: The said strip having been wound on a roller N carried by an upright N' or
between two of such, passes from thence under an eye or staple O fixed in the
bath O', over a roller O2 which is thereby revolved in the commercial gelatine
"contained in the latter, over the upper horizontal part of a scraper O3 (which
removes the superduous gelatinous coating on the strip) under a crosspiece on the
vertical rod P, through the donbling guide R, between two other male and female
rollers S S', similar in construction to K L but narrower, when it leaves the said
rollers compacted together and comprising one layer upon the top of another as
shown on a very largely increased size in Fig. 9. It then needs but to dry before
it can be wound onto reels and cut up and used as required and for the purpose
hereinbefore mentioned.
The guide as indicated in the enlarged detached view in Fig. 6 has at its entrance
a loop or staple R' which brings the partly prepared strip into the proper position
for passing under the overturned curvilinear edge strips R 2 which converge towards
the exit of the guide and thus tend to fold over or double the said strip preparatory
to its passing between the two rollers S S which completely effect the turning over
or the folding of the strip along its centre, and by the pressure thereon effectually
consolidate it into the form shown in Fig. 9, which when dry it retains because of
the adhesive substance with which it has been treated before compression.
It is obvious that the rollers D'02 'are revolved in their respective baths by the
frictional pressure of the strips thereon and although the use of dextrine and
commercial gelatine has been berein before referred to as the adhesive substances
for smearing the surfaces of the strips before being folded or doubled as described,
any other suitable kind of adhesive or stiffening material might equally well be
used for the purpose.
It should also be understood that while the guides illustrated in Figures 5 and 6
are suitable for the edge turning and the doubling of the strips in the manner
referred to, the invention is not limited to the exact construction thereof.
I may also adopt other means than those described for lubricating or coating the
surfaces of the strips with adhesive substance. The invention is.not limited either
to the superposition of the several layers or strips by doubling or folding the same
in the manner hereinbefore described, as two or more separate strips if placed one
above the other and treated with adhesive material and compressed together in the
manner herein mentioned would come within the scope of the present invention.
Having now particularly described and ascertained the nature of my said inven-
tion and in what manner the same is to be performed I declare that what I
claim is :
1. As a new article of manufacture, a stiffening agent composed of superposed
strips or layers of paper or other material treated with adhesive substance and
compressed together substantially as described.
2. As a new article of manufacture, a stiffening agent consisting of one or more
strips or layers of paper or other material, treated with adhesive substance, and
whose marginal edges are folded over upon the said strip or strips and the latter
again doubled along its centre and then compressed together substantially as
described.
3. As a new article of manufacture, a stiffening agent consisting of two or more
strips of paper or other material of different widths, treated with adhesive substance,
the marginal edges of the wider strip or strips being folded over upon the
narrower width and the whole doubled along its centre and compressed substantially
as described.
4. As a new article of manufacture a stiffening agent consisting of strips of paper
or other material treated with adhesive substance and folded over and doubled upon
itself and compressed together substantially as described and with reference to
Figs. 7, 8 and 9 of the accompanying drawing.
5. The process of manufacturing a new stiffening agent consisting in treating
one or more strips of paper or other material with adhesive substance and folding

page_text: or doubling the said strip or strips one or more times and submitting the same to.
pressure to compact it substantially as described.
6. In the manufacture of a stiffening agent comprising one or more strips or
layers of paper doubled or folded over upon itself one or more times, the use or
employment of guides such as H or R substantially as and for the purpose-
described.
Dated this 18th day of December.
HERBERT WAIDE REYNOLDS.
Witness-
E. N. LEWIS,
Berridge Street Chambers, Leicester.
Boult & Wade,
Agents for the Applicant..