IMPROVEMENTS IN MODELS OR APPARATUS FOR FACILITATING THE FITTING OF ARTICLES OF WEARING APPAREL
Year: 1877

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by John Henry Johnson at the-Office of
the Commissioners of Patents on the 29th October 1877. A communication
from abroad by Ernest Angel Delannoy, of Paris, in the Republic of France,
Dressmaker.
JOHN HENRY JOHNSON, of 47, Lincoln's Inn Fields, in the County of Middlesex,
Gentleman. "IMPROVEMENTS IN MODELS OR APPARATUS FOR FACILITATING THE
FITTING OF ARTICLES OF WEARING APPAREL." A communication from abroad by
Ernest Augel Delannoy, of Paris, in the Republic of France, Dressmaker.
This Invention relates to an expanding dummy possessing the advantage of being
capable of being altered in all its proportions, height, and breadth, of all the parts,
bust, waist, shoulders, neck, and the like.
According to the usual methods, dresses, stays, and other articles of ladies'
wearing apparel are prepared on the person, or on a suitable dummy, before being
completely finished. This preparatory operation consequently necessitates trying
the garment on to the person for whom it is intended, or the employment of a model.
corresponding exactly to the figure of the wearer.
The employment of this expanding dummy enables the presence of the intended
wearer of the garments, or the sending of a model, to be dispensed with. The
measure only is required, which may be so arranged as to enable the parts of the
expanding dummy to be adjusted accordingly in the required position. By these
means garments may be manufactured for ladies residing at a distance, according to
the measures which they send, and the said garments cannot fail to fit the wearer
with the greatest accuracy.
The bust, and base, or lower portion of the dummy, are composed of, say, eight
principal parts, four being employed for the-former, and four for the latter. They
are both moveable in a horizontal direction in order to give fulness. The chest
alone is capable of moving also in a vertical direction in order to alter the height.
Oblique rods, acting as guides to plates, provided with internal screws actuated by
a screwed spindle, cause the horizontal motion. Another screw acting on the upper
part of the dummy regulates the height.
In carrying out this Invention the eight movable parts which compose the bust
and base of the dummy are worked by means of two plates, each provided with a

page_text: nut at the centre, working on a threaded rod or spindle. These plates are con-
nected together by pieces of wood which form the framework of the dummy, and
ensure its firmness; they are also traversed by rods which act as guides when
screwing up the bust. Other vertical rods act as guides in a similar manner.
Lastly. Iron rods converging towards the upper part pass through the plates
before mentioned, and are connected to other plates which support the shell. The
plates are moreover divided into several segments, each of which corresponds with
a portion of the shell. It may be understood that by turning the screw by means
of a handle, the plates acting as nuts will cause the rods to approach or recede from
one another, and consequently produce a corresponding motion of the various parts
of the dummy, according to the direction of the motion.
The divided plates are provided with projections which slide in dovetailed grooves
in the base plate, and the fixed piece which forms the neck. This piece is provided
with a nut in which a hollow screw works, being turned by means of a handle. It
will be perceived that by actuating this screw the bust may be raised or lowered,
being guided in its vertical motion by the rods herein-before referred to.
In order to avoid breaking the continuity of the bust, steel or sheet-metal blades
are provided all round the waist of the dummy, which bear upon other blades
carried by the bust.
One of the blades is divided into inches, for example, beginning at the waist, in
order to enable the length of the latter to be established with facility in each
case.
"
A horizontal blade, also divided into inches, is likewise fixed to the base, and
indicates the increase in the girth, which equals four times the length in case the
dummy is divided in four parts.
The shell of the dummy is of cardboard, wood, or any other suitable material;
it is covered with cloth for the facility of pinning on the articles of apparel.