Improvements in Skirt Protectors.
Year: 1896

page_text: Date of Application, 28th Jan., 1896-Accepted, 29th Feb., 1896
COMPLETE SPECIFICATION.
Improvements in Skirt Protectors.
I, HARRY FEDER, of No. 43 Leonard Street, in the City and County of New
York, in the State of New York, United States of America, Merchant, do hereby
declare the nature of this invention and in what manner the same is to be
performed, to be particularly described and ascertained in and by the following
statement:-
My invention relates to improvements in skirt protectors in which there is provided
a brush edge at the bottom to receive the wear from the ground or floor along which
the skirt is dragged.
A practical embodiment of my invention is represented in the accompanying
drawing in which
Figure 1 shows a piece of the protector in side elevation,
Figure 2 is a view in cross section,
Figure 3 represents, in detail, two of the threads which form the brush,
Figure 4 represents, in side elevation, the position which the protector occupies
with respect to the garment which it is intended to protect, and
Figure 5 is a view of the same in transverse section.
The brush which is intended to take the wear preferably cousists of the
following parts:-a series of bunches of weft threads, represented by A, folded
over until their opposite ends extend substantially in the same direction or slightly
diverge, as shown in Figure 3, where a single thread is represented by a, and a
series of bunches of shorter weft threads folded in like manner and represented by a¹
(Figure 3) are arranged alternately with their free ends in substantially the same
plane and are held in position by the interwoven warp threads B, the weaving
extending from the bights of the folds of the threads a, down to a point intermediate
of the bight of the shorter fold a' and the free ends of the branches of the fold.
This firmly locks the bunches of folded weft threads together and the introduction
of the shorter bunches materially thickens the brush so that when completed, it has
an effect of a dress braid with a heavy brush along one of its edges.
In applying this to the garment to be protected, the weft portion is applied to
the face of the skirt at its lower edge in the manner shown in Figures 4 and 5
where the skirt is represented by C aud the braided portion of the protector, when
taken as a whole, by D.
The brush form of protector has the advantage of yielding to slight unevenness
in the surface over which the garment is dragged, so that the grinding motion due
to the frictional contact, is reduced to a minimum and it also yields so freely under
the pressure of contact that it effectually wraps itself under and around the lower
edge of the skirt, preventing the latter from touching the ground or floor under
any circumstances and so forming an effective and at the same time a very sightly
protector.
Having now particularly described and ascertained the nature of my said inven-
tion and in what manner the same is to be performed, I declare that what I
claim is :-
A skirt protector consisting of a fabric composed of a plurality of series of folded
bunches of threads forming the weft of the fabric and having the bights of the

page_text: of another series and warp threads interwoven with the said folded bunches leaving
the free ends of the bunches extended beyond the edge of the fabric to form a brush,
substantially as set forth.
Dated this 28th day of January 1896.
HASELTINE, LAKE & Co.,
45 Southampton Buildings, London, W.C., Agents for the Applicant.