IMPROVEMENTS IN STAYS AND OTHER ARTICLES OF WEARING APPAREL
Year: 1864

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Peter Armand Lecomte de Fontainemoreau, of the
General Patent Offices, 10, Rue de la Fidélité, Paris, in the Empire of
France, and 4, South Street, Finsbury, London, Patent Agent, for the
Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN STAYS AND OTHER ARTICLES OF WEARING
APPAREL." A communication from Madame V. Billard, residing, at
Paris, in the Empire of France.
Sealed the 22nd July 1864, and dated the 30th January 1864.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Peter Armand Lecomte
de Fontainemoreau at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents,
with his Petition, on the 30th January 1864.
I, PETER ARMAND LECOMTE DE FONTAINEMOREAU, of the General Patent
Offices, 10, Rue de la Fidélité, Paris, in the Empire of France, and 4, South
Street, Finsbury, London, Patent Agent, do hereby declare the nature of
the said Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN STAYS AND OTHER ARTICLES OF
WEARING APPAREL," to be as follows, that is to say :-
My improvements relate to stays, corsets, belts, bodices, stockings, and
other articles of wearing apparel, either for men or women, and with or
without seam.
By my mode of manufacturing these articles they permit of the pespiration
taking place and passing off, at the same time allowing the circulation of
the air.
The apparel prepared by my improvements renders great service under

page_text: surgical operations, as it yields to all the movements of the body or member
under treatment.
Instead of the ordinary cloth fabric of which stays and most other articles
of wearing apparel are principally made, according to my improvements they
are made of narrow bands of any required tissue placed very closely together and
covering invisible whalebone. These small bands may be set in all directions
according to the use for which the article is intended, thus, for a stay, they
may be longitudinal, whereas for the gussets they are perpendicular, and in
the stocking they may be either perpendicular or horizontal. The bands are
joined together by an elastic fabric which may be visible or not, but which
permits the article to yield to all the movements of the body or member on
which the article may be applied.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said Peter Armand Lecomte de Fontainemoreau in the Great
Seal Patent Office on the 28th July 1864.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, PETER
ARMAND LECOMTE DE FONTAINE MOREAU, of the General Patent Offices, 10, Rue
de la Fidélité, Paris, in the Empire of France, and 4, South Street, Finsbury,
Patent Agent, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Thirtieth day of January, in the year of our
Lord One thousand eight hundred and sixty-four, in the twenty-seventh year
of Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant
unto me, the said Peter Armand Lecomte de Fontaine Moreau, Her special
license that I, the said Peter Armand Lecomte de Fontaine Moreau, my
executors, administrators, and assigns, or such others as I, the said Peter
Armand Lecomte de Fontaine Moreau, my executors, administrators, or
assigns, should at any time agree with, and no others, from time to time and
all times thereafter during the term therein expressed, should and lawfully
might make, use, exercise, and vend, within the United Kingdom of Great
Britain and Ireland, the Channel Islands, and Isle of Man, an Invention for
"IMPROVEMENTS IN STAYS AND OTHER ARTICLES OF WEARING APPAREL," (a com-
munication from Madame V. Billard, a person resident at Paris, in the Empire
of France;) upon the condition (amongst others) that I, the said Peter
Armand Lecomte de Fontaine Moreau, my executors or administrators, by an
instrument in writing under my hand and seal, or under the hand and seal

page_text: of one of them, should particularly describe and ascertain the nature of the
said Invention, and in what manner the same was to be performed, and cause
the same to be filed in the Great Seal Patent Office within six calendar
months next, and immediately after the date of the said Letters Patent.
NOW KNOW YE, that I, the said Peter Armand Lecomte de Fontaine
Moreau, do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention, and in what
manner the same is to be performed, to be particularly described and ascer-
tained in and by the following statement, reference being had to the Drawing
hereto annexed, and to the figures and letters marked thereon, that is
to say:
.
The Invention communicated to me consists in manufacturing stays, corsets,
bodices, belts, stockings, and other similar articles of wearing apparel for men
and women, having a very great and incontestable superiority over all similar
articles hitherto manufactured..
The present mode of manufacturing these articles produces very disastrous
effects on the health of the wearer. The body is not only in a constant state
of stiffness and oppression, but it cannot bend or turn with ease, besides which
the air is prevented from reaching the skin; this mode of manufacturing
occasions very great derangements in the whole of the human system, and
especially in the region of the heart, on the lungs, and abdomen. In many
cases it prepares and finally completes deformities.
The articles manufactured according to my Invention remedy all these
serious and dangerous inconveniences, and render the greatest service to
diseased persons and in surgical cases, I make the two parts forming the body
of the stays of very narrow bands of any suitable material, with which I cover
very narrow pieces of whalebone, which thus become invisible. These bands
are united very closely to each other by means of a very narrow elastic tissue,
either single in some parts, and overlapping one band upon the other; they
are set either perpendicularly or horizontally and form a sort of close trellis,
leaving small apertures for the introduction of air to the skin, giving to the
wearer at the same time the full liberty of all his movements by the elasticity
of its form and construction. The freedom of action is such that besides the
gracefulness it imparts to the body, and which is so striking comparatively
to a person having any other kind of stays, that the wearer will not feel the
wearing of such an article. The gussets are made perpendicularly. For belts,
bodices, and stockings, I manufacture them on the same principle. I place
on the belts an edge of plush or any other suitable material. I generally
manufacture them with five pieces of whalebone, but they can be made with
any other number. Whatever may be the article to be manufactured, I cut

page_text: the stuff to be employed crossways and not in a straight line. The first mode
of cutting presents great elasticity.
In order to have my Invention better understood, I refer to the Figures of
the annexed Drawing, in which Figure 1 represents a pair of stays entirely
made and ready for use. In that Figure a, a, represent the waist; b, b, the
gussets, showing the overlapping parts, which can be applied to every part of
the article.
Figure 2 represents a belt, in which a, a, are the pieces of whalebone to
support the whole of the belt; b, b, the invisible small bands overlapping
each other.
And having now described my Invention, and the best means of putting the
same into execution, I wish it to be understood that I do not confine myself.
to the precise details herein described, as the same may be varied without
deviating from the principle of my Invention; but what I claim as new
and intend to be protected by the herein-before in part recited Letters
Patent is,-
First, the mode of uniting closely together the small bands covering the
whalebone by means of a narrow elastic tissue for the manufacture of stays or
other like articles.
Secondly, the mode of overlapping, either horizontally or vertically, the
narrow bands covering the whalebone in the manufacture of stays or other
similar articles, as herein-before described.
In witness whereof, I, the said Peter Armand Lecomte de Fontaine
Moreau, have hereunto set my hand and seal, this Twenty-sixth day
of July, in the year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and
sixty-four.
Witness,
H*. GILBEE,
L. DE FONTAINEMOREAU. (L.S.)
Paris, 10, Rue de la Fidélité.