IMPROVE- MENTS IN HOOPED SKIRTS OR PETTICOATS.
Year: 1864

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Richard Archibald Brooman, of 166, Fleet Street,
in the City of London, Patent,Agent, for the Invention of " IMPROVE-
MENTS IN HOOPED SKIRTS OR PETTICOATS. "A communication from abroad
by Samuel Maynard, of New York. United States of America
Sealed the 24th March 1865, and dated the 27th September 1864.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Richard Archibald
Brooman at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his
Petition, on the 27th September 1864.
I, RICHARD ARCHIBALD BROOMAN, of 166, Fleet Street, in the City of
London, Patent Agent, do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention
for "IMPROVEMENTS IN HOOPED SKIRTS OR PETTICOATS," to be as follows:-
This Invention consists in the construction of skirt hoops, each of two or
more narrow strips of steel or other metal arranged edge to edge and united by
braiding or weaving them together with cotton or other fibrous material, by
which construction several important advantages are obtained.
Firstly, facility is afforded for inserting the clasps between the parts com-
posing the hoops; secondly, the hoops are rendered more uniformly elastic and
less liable to get out of shape, since any soft place in one of the strips will be
strengthened by the adjacent parts of the other or others, it being bardly
probable that soft portions of the two strips will be presented at the same
part of a hoop; thirdly, the hoops while being as stiff and elastic in a hori-
zontal direction are less stiff in a vertical direction, and so less liable to stick
up when the wearer sits down.

page_text: It also consists in a certain combination of such hoops with tapes or straps
and metallic clasps by which a very strong and durable skirt is produced.
To exemplify this Invention:-The hoops are composed each of three narrow
strips of flat steel set edge to edge and woven together, the weaving being
effected by arranging the said strips in the loom as a portion of a warp with
warp yarns of cotton or other fibrous substances between them, and operating
with a filling of fibrous yarn as in ordinary plain weaving, butinstead of being
woven together they may be braided together with threads of cotton or other
fibrous material in a braiding machine. The hoops thus made need not beany
or much wider than the steel hoops commonly used. I prefer to use three
strips for the convenience of inserting through them the two-prongs of the
clasps which are employed to secure the hoops to the tapes or straps, the said
prongs being inserted through the hoops-between the middle and the two
outer strips. The clasps are of tin plate or other sheet metal, with pointed
prongs which pass easily through the suspending tapes or straps and through
the fibrous covering of the strips and are afterwards bent towards each other
over the middle strip. I prefer always to have the suspending tapes or straps
woven double, and open in those parts where the hoops are to be attached, so
that the hoops may be inserted through them, andwoven single betweenthese
parts. The prongs of the clasps pass through the tapes or straps on both sides
of the hoops.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said Richard Archibald Brooman in the Great Seal Patent
Office on the 27th March 1865.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, RICHARD
ARCHIBALD BROOMAN, of 166, Fleet Street, in the City of London, Patent
Agent, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Twenty-seventh day of September, in the year of our
Lord One thousand eighthundred and sixty-four, in the twenty-eighth year of
Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto me,
the said Richard Archibald Brooman, Her special licence that I, the said
Richard Archibald Brooman, my executors, administrators, and assigns, or
such others as I, the said Richard Archibald Brooman, my executors,
administrators, and assigns, should at any time agree with, and no others,
from time to time and at all times thereafter during the term therein

page_text: 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 HOOPED [SKIRTS OR PETTI-
COATS," (communicated to me from abroad by Samuel Maynard, of New York,
United States of America,) uponthe condition (amongst others) that I, the said
Richard Archibald Brooman, my executors or administrators, by an instru-
ment in writing under my, or their, or one of their hands and seals, 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 Richard Archibald Brooman, do
hereby declare the nature of the said Invention, and in what manner the
same is to be performed, to be particularly described and ascertained in and
by the following statement thereof, reference being had to the Drawings
hereunto annexed, that is to say:-
This Inventionconsists in the con:truction of skirt hoops, each of two or
more narrow strips of steel or other metal arranged edge to edge, and united
by braiding or weaving them together with cotton or other fibrous material by
which construction several important advantages are obtained.
Firstly, facility is afforded for inserting the clasps between the parts
composing the hoops; secondly, the hoops are rendered more uniformly elastic,
and less liable to get out of shape, since any soft place in one of the strips
will be strengthened by the adjacent parts of the other or others, it being
hardly probable that soft portions of the two strips will be presented at the
same part of a hoop; thirdly, the hoops while being as stiff and elastic in a
horizontal direction are less stiff in a vertical direction, and so less liable to
stick up when the wearer sits down.
It also consists in a certain combination of such hoops with tapes or straps
and metallic clasps, by which a very strong and durable skirt is produced. To
examplify this Invention the hoops are composed each of three narrow strips
of flat steel set edge to edge, and woven together, the weaving being effected
by arranging the said strips in the loom as a portion of a warp with warp
yarns of cotton or other fibrous substances between them, and operating with
a filling of fibrous yarn as in ordinary plain weaving, but instead of being
woven together they may be braided together with threads of cotton or other
fibrous material in a braiding machine. The hoops thus made need not be any
or much wider than the steel hoops commonly used.
Figure 1 of the accompanying Drawings represents a skirt constructed

page_text: according to this Invention; Figure 2 is a vertical section on an enlarged
scale taken at the intersection of one of the hoops, and suspending tapes;
Figure 3 is a face view of a portion of one of the improved hoops and of a tape
also on an enlarged scale; Figure 4 is an enlarged perspective view of one of
the improved clasps for securing the hoops to the suspending tapes.
I prefer to form each hoop of three strips a for the convenience of inserting
through them the two prongs b of the clasps B which are employed to secure
the hoops to the tapes or straps C, the said prongs being inserted through the
hoops between the middle, and the two outer strips in the manner shown in
Figure 2. The clasps B are of tin plate or other sheet metal, with pointed
prongs which pass easily through the suspending tapes or straps and through
the fibrous covering of the strips a, and are afterwards bent towards each other
over the middle strip as shown in Figure 2. I prefer always to have the
suspending tapes or straps woven double, and open in those parts where the
hoops are to be attached, so that the hoops may be inserted through them, as
in Figure 2, and woven single between these parts. The prongs of the clasps
pass through the tapes or straps on both sides of the hoops.
And having now described the nature of the said Invention, and in what
manner the same is to be performed, I declare that I claim as the improve-
ments in hooped skirts and petticoats,—
1
First, the construction of skirt hoops of two or more strips of steel or
other metal arranged edge to edge and woven or braided together with
fibrous materials, substantially as herein-before described, and illustrated in
the accompanying Drawings.
Second, the combined employment of tapes or straps woven double, at the
places where the hoops are connected and single between those parts of hoops
composed each of two or more strips of metal united by weaving or braiding
as described, and inserted through the double portions of the tapes or straps;
and of metallic clasps passing through both the tapes or straps and the hoops,
all substantially as herein-before described and illustrated in the accompanying
Drawings.
In witness whereof, I, the said Richard Achibald Broomau, have
hereunto set my hand and seal, this Twenty-fifth day of March, One
thousand eight hundred and sixty-five.