AN IMPROVED SHIRT."
Year: 1860

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Richard Adams Ford and William Adams Paige, of
No. 38, Poultry, in the City of London, for the Invention of "AN
IMPROVED SHIRT."
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Richard Adams Ford and
William Adams Paige at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents,
with their Petition, on the 11th December 1860.
We, RICHARD ADAMS FORD and WILLIAM ADAMS PAIGE, of No. 38, Poultry,
in the City of London, do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for
"AN IMPROVED SHIRT," to be as follows:--
. This improved shirt, which the Inventors propose to call the London demi-
shirt, presents the appearance of a dress shirt, and is intended principally to be
worn over a colored flannel or other shirt, but it can also (if occasion require)
be worn over any other kind of under garment; the principal object being to
present all the appearance of a linen or other dress shirt, with very little addi-
tional warmth or bulk, and also to ensure a good set to the front.
The demi-shirt is composed of a front with collar, shoulder pieces, sleeves,
wristbands, and waistband, the skirt or tail and, back of the shirt being dis→

page_text: pensed with. The collar buttons or fastens either before or behind (but by
preference, the latter), and may be made with a button-hole in front to fasten
to the under shirt. The waistband also may button or fasten behind or at one
side, and keep the front in its place, ensuring a good and easy set. The sleeves
may be made without "gathers" or "gussets," except small ones at the wrist,
and the wristbands may be made to button and also fasten with links tight
round the wrist, so as to conceal the sleeve of the flannel or other under
shirt.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said Richard Adams Ford and William Adams Paige in the 1
Great Seal Patent Office on the 11th June 1861.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, we, RICHARD
ADAMS FORD and WILLIAM ADAMS PAIGE, of No. 38, Poultry, in the City of
London, send greeting...
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Eleventh day of December, in the year of our
Lord One thousand eight hundred and sixty, in the twenty-fourth year of Her
reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto us, the
said Richard Adams Ford and William Adams Paige, Her special licence
that we, the said Richard Adams Ford and William Adams Paige, our
executors, administrators, and assigns, or such others as we, the said
Richard Adams Ford and William Adams Paige, our executors, admi-
nistrators, and assigns, should at any time agree with, and no others,
from time to time and at 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 "AN IMPROVED SHIRT," upon the con-
dition (amongst others) that we, the said Richard Adams Ford and
William Adams Paige, our executors or administrators, by an instrument
in writing under our, or one of our 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.

page_text: NOW KNOW YE, that we, the said Richard Adams Ford and William
Adams Paige, do hereby declare the nature of our said Invention, and
in what manner the same is to be performed, to be particularly described
and ascertained in and by the following statement in writing, and on reference
to the accompanying Drawings, that is to say :-
This improved shirt presents the appearance of a dress or other shirt, and is
intended principally to be worn over a colored flannel or other shirt, but it can
also (if occasion require) be worn over any other kind of under garment, the
principal object being to present all the appearance of a linen or other dress
shirt, with very little additional warmth or bulk, and also to ensure a good set
to the front.
The shirt is composed of a front with body part, collar, shoulder pieces,
sleeves, wristbands, and waistband, the skirt or tail and back of the shirt being
dispensed with. The collar buttons or fastens either before or behind, but by
preference, the latter, and may be made with a button-hole in front to fasten
to the under shirt. The waistband also may button or fasten behind or at one
side, and passing round the back of the waist keeps, the front in its place,
ensuring a good and easy set. The sleeves may be made without "gathers"
or "gussets," except small ones at the wrist, and the wristbands may be made
of any desired shape, and may be made either to button only, or to fasten with
links only, or to button and also fasten with links tight round the wrist, so as
to conceal the sleeve of the flannel or other under shirt.
The peculiar novel features of our improved shirt will be at once apparent
on reference to the illustrative Drawing which we have annexed hereunto, in
order that our Invention may be distinctly understood.
Figure 1 in the accompanying Drawing represents a front view of the
"demi-shirt," and Figure 2, a back view of the same. a, a, is the front;
a', a, the body part; b, 6, are the shoulder pieces; c, c, the collar; d, d, the
sleeves; and e, e, the waistband, which is here represented as buttoning or
fastening at one side. It will be seen that these pieces form the whole of the
garment, and that the skirt or tail and back of the shirt are dispensed
with.
Having now described the nature and object of our said Invention for "An
Improved Shirt," together with the manner in which the same is to be or may
be performed or carried into practical effect, we would remark in conclusion,
that we claim as our Invention the formation of a garment or "demi-shirt,"
composed of a front with body part, collar, shoulder pieces, sleeves, wristbands,

page_text: and waistband; substantially as herein-before described and shewn in the
Drawings annexed.
In witness whereof, we, the said. Richard Adams Ford and William
Adams Paige, have hereunto set our hands and seals, this Tenth day
of June, in the year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and
sixty-one.
RICHP. ADAMS FORD.
(L.S.)
WILLIAM ADAMS PAIGE. (L.B.)
Witness,
THOMAS EDWARDS,
Clerk to Messrs. Davies & Hunt,
. Patent Agents,
1, Serle Street, Lincoln's Inn.