AN IMPROVED MACHINE FOR PARING OR CUTTING AND SHAPING HEELS FOR BOOTS AND SHOES
Year: 1873

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by William Edward Gedge at the
Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the
24th June 1873.-A communication from abroad by Henri
Perrissin and Company, of Paris, France.
I, WILLIAM EDWARD GEDGE, of No. 11, Wellington Street, Strand,
in the County of Middlesex, Patent Agent, do hereby declare the
nature of the said Invention for "AN IMPROVED MACHINE FOR PARING OR
CUTTING AND SHAPING HEELS FOR BOOTS AND SHOES," a communication to me
from abroad by Henri Perrissin and Company, of Paris, France, to be as
follows:-
The constantly increasing development of the boot and shoe trade has
long resulted in an abandonment of the slow and imperfect means of
manufacturing boots and shoes by hand, and most of the operations
which now constitute the manufacture of the boot or shoe are executed
by machinery. This manufacture has also long been divided, each of
the parts of the boot or shoe being made separately.
1
The heel is particularly the part which has received the most attention
from manufacturers.

page_text: Heels have been made of many various forms and materials, but
whatever the material employed a great difficulty always existed and has
not hitherto been overcome. This was the possibility of making heels by
machinery while giving to them the semi-elliptic form possessed by heels
made by hand, those hitherto made by machinery having a regular
semicircular shape. The mechanical execution of this oval shape was in
fact very difficult of attainment by means of a cutter or paring knife, for
this piece turning constantly upon an axle and in a same plane, and
the heel itself being unable to vary its axis of rotation a special arrange-
ment was required permitting this latter to approach and recede from
the cutter with regularity according to the shape to be given to
the heel.
I will now explain, reference being had to the accompanying Sheet
of Drawing, how this result is obtained by this Invention.
To give to the heel the mobility necessary to its reception of the 1
elliptical form while holding it firmly to the action of the cutter the bed
of the machine is provided with a carriage A which may be made to slide
longitudinally, and on this carriage is set a small platform B. This platform
is so arranged that it may make two very distinct movements; the first is
a movement which permits it to advance towards or to recede from the
cutter; the second consists in the possibility of pivoting one half turn
upon itself; this double movement is operated as follows:-An eccentric
C to which has been given the shape that the heel is to have is fixed upon
the axle of the platform. A spring D continually presses upon this
axle, the object of this spring being to keep the eccentric C constantly in s
cotact with a small roller c which serves as stop piece to regulate the
journey of the eccentric. The result of this arrangement is that the
eccentric being cut to the exact shape which the heel is to receive, and
the heel being itself set on the same centre of rotation as this eccentric,
the cutter can never act upon this heel excepting accordingly as this a
centre is displaced, which displacement is obtained by means of a'
spring pressing continually against the axle of the eccentric. The
heel is set and fixed in position by a screw worked by the fly or
lever V.
"
The machine is worked as follows:-The pieces or lifts" forming
the heel being set up, in order to cut and shape them it is only
necessary to place them on the platform B¹, the points or pins of which

page_text: hold the heel, one or two turns of the fly or lever V then tightly nip the
heel. This operation ended it is only necessary to push the carriage A
and thus expose the heel to the action of the cutter. Then seizing the
handle M the platform B is made to describe a semicircle, so as to
expose all the parts of the heel to the action of this cutter, two studs or
gudgeons a placed right and left regulate this circular journey.
It will have been seen how by turning this platform the eccentric
which turns with it displaced the centre of the heel so as to give it the
oval shape.
The principle of this Invention is therefore based upon the possibility
and the means of producing by machinery a heel of any irregular shape
by means of an eccentric or analogous piece acting for the same
purpose, whether this eccentric be guided by a spring or by a groove or
otherwise.