CERTAIN IMPROVEMENTS IN CRINOLINES
Year: 1865

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Augusto Yves Rehm, of Rue Saussure, Paris, in
the Empire of Fiance, for the Invention of "CERTAIN IMPROVEMENTS IN
CRINOLINES."
Sealed the 16th January 1866, and dated the 31st July 1865.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Auguste Yves Rehm nt
the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the
81st July 1865
I, AUGUSTE YVES REHM, of Rue Saussure, Paris, in the Empire of France,
do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for "CERTAIN IMPROVE-
MENTS IN CRINOLINES," to be as follows, that is to say:-
My Invention consists in the manufacture of crinolines or crinoline pettr-
coats in such a manner that their form or shape can be altered at will by
the wearers, who are thus enabled to sit down, to enter a vehicle, or to
pass through narrow places without difficulty, and without disarranging their
dress
To carry out this Invention I employ circles as used at present in crinolines,
but I make them in several parts articulated in such a manner that the
Joints correspond with one another from the top to the bottom of the petti-

page_text: roat, so that by means of cords their shape can be altered in one or several
places; this is effected by drawing one or several of the cords connecting
the articulations of the successive circles placed in the same vertical line, the
said cords being only attached to every other one of the articulations; it
therefore follows that in drawing the cords each successive circle is changed
into a broken line placed on the surface of the petticoat, the upper parts of
this line being the points where the cords are fastened, and the lower
parts the articulations that are fiee. The weight of the cucles will cause
the articulations attached to the cords to descend to the level of the parts
that are free, and thus the crinoline or petticoat will take its original
shape or form; or if necessary suitable springs can be employed for the
purpose.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said Auguste Yves Rehm in the Great Seal Patent Office on the
29th January 1866.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, AUGUSTE
YVES REHM, of Rue Saussure, Pans, in the Empue of France, send
greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Thirty-first day of July, in the year of our Lord One
thousand eight hundred and sixty-five, in the twenty-ninth year of Her
reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto me, the
said Auguste Yves Rehm, Her special licence that I, the said Auguste Yves
Rehm, my executors, administrators, and assigns, or such others as I, the said
Auguste Yves Rehm, 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 expressed, should and lawfully might make, use,
exercise, and vend, within the United Kingdom of Great Butam and Ireland,
the Channel Islands, and Isle of Man, an Invention for "CERTAIN IMPROVEMENTS
IN CRINOLINES," upon the condition (amongst others) that I, the said Auguste
Yves Rehm, my executors or administrators, by an instrument 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.

page_text: NOW KNOW YE, that I, the said Auguste Yves Rehm, do hereby declare
the nature of my said Invention, and in what manner the same is to be per-
formed, to be particularly described and ascertained in and by the following
statement, reference being had to the Drawing hereto annexed and to the
figuies and letters marked thereon, that is to say:-
My Invention consists of certain improvements in the manufacture of
crinolines or petticoats
By my Invention the moderator petticoat disappears wholly or in part at
will in sing again within itself so as to become reduced to a small volume,
and retakes its primitive form instantaneously in transforming itself at will
from its reduced state to that of its complete developement by simply letting
go the stungs which retained it.
These improved petticoats are chiefly made of cloth, and arc cut in fiont
in the form of an open hood in such manner as to be able to apply them to
the body as easily as when putting on a mantle, the same facility existing for
taking off the petticoat.
Petticoats, called improperly crinolines, support hoops of different kinds,
such as hoops with or without spings. My improved petticoat is arranged
in such manner that in using it exclusively as a petticoat it has only buttons
to close it, which is eflected by means of small button fasteners, and supports
by the same means the hoops covered with casings, the object of which is to
develope the petticoat when the casings or sheaths of the springs are fixed to
the petticoat, and either sewn or held by button fasteners. The different
sized hoops which apply to these potticoats are divided and arranged pio-
portionally to arcs of circles, so that all the folds and the angles of the joints
may correspond with one another in each hoop. The arcs forming hoops are
attached one to another by pieces forming hinges, all these hoops are closed
by clasps. Each hoop joined with those placed above it is composed of double
blades, which in facilitating the putting together and the adjusting of spings
by enclosing double knee pieces have the advantage of retaining the round-
ness of the circle which supports itself better by the operation effected on the
othei. The hoops at the lower part forming the moveable frame of the
petticoat are double and broken up in equal parts; the hoops on the upper
part are also cut in equal parts, but proportionally to the joints of the largest
hoop, so that their adjustments may thus correspond, as well as the elements
of the circles which are proportionally shorter. All the arcs of the cucle
united one to another by a joint forming hinges or spring catches give a
1ght line, the two ends of which are easily united by a clasp forming a hoop,
which can also be taken to pieces and be folded in 2, 4, 6, 8, 10, and 12 parts

page_text: which makes
and thus render them capable of being packed in a small space. The hoop
thus formed are fixed on the inside of the petticoat by passing in a slide o
casing sewn to the cloth of the petticoat to which they are united by double
button fasteners at any desired distance to give the tournure and the elegan
style sought after by the present fashion. The lowest hoop is the principa
one, it can be made of flexible wood, bollowed round iron, or in double stee
bands, or of steel web; it is divided in 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, and 12
parts. At each division, varying from eight to twenty-five inches, there is a joint
and a knee piece or hinge which joins them by means of pins. The arcs of
the medium cicles, in divisions of eight, are about fourteen inches in length,
desclupement of about nine feet four inches to form the
circumference At each are of the circle, or at each two ares, there is a fat
screw spring serving to copen the sharp angles in such manner as to support
and bring back the broken circle in a vertical duechon in the same horizontal
plane. Each junction at its elastic point can have at will springs or spirals
covered with double copper casings forming a joint in the form of watch
barrels, or rather by binocular springs interposed in the double plate forming
hinges, on covered with caoutchouc to serve as spings. These compensating
spiral springs are fixed in such manner to replace the circle in its normal
position, that is to say, that the springs moving by one same contrary effort
and in an opposite direction will equihbrate and bring back the arcs of the
hoops in causing them to retake then position when they have been folded m
raising them. The elliptical springs in the flat screws, adapted to the middlo
of the arcs, give a movement to straighten the two opposite ares by an
excentric tension exerted on the two handles at each end by two connecting
rods united to the springs by some end pieces. The same effect takes place
for the opposite aics The joints of the hoops are covered with soft leather
for preserving the fut on the casing which contains the hoop and hxes it to
the petticoat. Any other hind of springs may by analogous aangements
effect tho same object; the petticoat can even be made to work, fold, and
develope itself without any spring, the weight of the hoops themselves being
even sufficient to attain this object The upper circle, although divided in
four parts for facilitating packing, remains generally fixed on its hinges made
immovable by 1ngs, which being placed on the two extremities of the ares
prevents the alteration of the circle These joints can be applied to petticoats
formed of hoops in form of a screw, or to apparatuses folding (up like an
umbrella, and rising afterwards vertically in contracting one half, and in
folding or in rising one upon the other similar to telescopes. The same
mechanism composed of three to four aics of a circle arranged in the form of

page_text: the hoop of a carriage cover is applicable also for supporting the hood of
mantles and pelices, and so as to support the hoods above the head dress and
in the position desired by means of two spring buttons and pawls adapted
above the shoulders fixed to the round spring which rejoins the two buttons
for regulating the separation of the hoops. This system for supporting the
hoods to protect the head has for its object to cover over the hair, and to
protect it without touching or creasing it, and to cover the head at will, and
to bring it down over the back, which is effected by simply pulling a string
joined to the pawls of the buttons of the same description as those applied to
carriage window blinds. In this manner the head and the hair are preserved
in covering them with a hood to any degree desired. The stop is sufficient
to fix the hood against the wind, and obviates the inconvenience of hoods which
have no springs or broken hoops. These spiral spings, enclosed in a sort of
watch barrel in the form of tasteful ornamental buttons, serve as ornaments
and at the same time to support the hoop cords placed between the lining
and the cloth of the hood, as well as the spring which unites the two barrels.
I would observe that the ruptures of the joints taking place in the plane of
the length of the blades of the hoops (instead of in their thickness), so as to
be able to rise in a vertical direction in diminishing itself concentrically by
means of angles entering in a parallel direction to the conical surface in
approaching the axis towards the top of the cone, the lower hoop of which
petticoat, called crinoline, is the base, when they are reduced by means of
strings. The advantage of these petticoats is that they may be folded with
the hands to take any form capable of being contained in a smaller space
when ladies wish to sit down or are travelling in a carnage. Reducing the
petticoat takes place by means of strings on laces fixed to two joints of the
lower hoop, and passing in a ring attached to the casing in front of the joints
of the upper symetrical hoops or in four or six parts united between them at
two places. These strings move in two small rings or grooved pullies which
retain the petticoat in suspension raised to the height desired, and which in
pressing them become extended, or aise the spring and let slide the rings
which follow the fasteners of the pin or knee pieces of the double plates with
a single piece uniting the hoops by two pins, and closing each spring in
supporting caoutchouc forming itself a preserving spring in redescending and
reforming the circumference of the petticoat.
I would observe that the facility of putting together, and the manner in
which an extended petticoat again takes its primitive form is by means of
three simple broken hoops which fold vertically in broken lines and unfold
the petticoat, giving again the form of the dress.

page_text: Figure represents a cloth petticoat open in fiont, and closed by double
button fasteners placed in the button holes of the cloth. Numbers 1, 2, 3, are
casings for carrying the hoops; it can have as many as are desired. The
hoop at the bottom, No 1 in C', c, c, of Figure 2, the most important, it is
divided in eight parts of the arc of a circle. Each part united by binges
forms aight line, as is represented by the extended hoop, Figure 111., c', c, c,
which in uniting in c by a clasp or a ing represents the circle c², c, c, uf
Figure IV.
The sping clasp unfastening and unclicking at c' as easy as the
clasps or button holes of the petticoat 2, 1, 2, 1, 2, 1, 2, 2, 1, of Figure 1, un eight
doublo button fasteners. This hoop has two to ten spings nixed to each
arc an cach hinge on each two only. These simple or double action springs
have for object to move the circle from the surface of the cone in the same
plane in straightening the articulations of the angles in bringing them back
to the right line when the circle is broken. The joints of the hoops No. 1
correspond to the hinges of the hoops No. 2, rising by means of four stungs
united two by two, one on each side and egressing, and terminated by a
tassel on a pulley fixed above the pocket of the dress. Each sting is fastened
by a ring fixed to the casing in front of each of the two articulations to tho
fur of the bottom underneath the top of the angle of the lower hinge. In
using the silk tassel or ball fixed at the end of the stings which roll between
two spung pullies they turn up the petticoat in raising the cucle from the
bottom in its kuce pieces, which rise by then angles the hoop B. b', b, at
corresponding lunges, and fold them also at then joints which cover the others
by large angles, Figure 5 The movement which is effected when the cncles
are contracted in raising them vertically by the fixed strings on the double
aics is that they are shortened concentrically in approaching from the top of
the axis of the conical surface. The petticoat replaced and raised by the
stings up to the circle A, a, a, takes the form of the dress around the
hoops with a diameter equal to the hoop, preserving the form indicated by
Figure V.
Figure 6 represents the hoop B, 6', b, also divided in eight parts, folding
like a bioken measure, it is fixed in the slide of a petticoat at the part
B, b, b, and is taken to pieces and put together again by the spring claw b
in the same manner as the lower circle; b, b, clasp which is covered by the
button hole stuff by means of fasteners which close in front.
Figure 7 represents in A the first hoop divided in four ares of a circle
which are fastened at a' to the spring clasp in such a manner that it cannot

page_text: be undone, and fixed on its hinges by rings which prevent the arcs from
bending. The hoop A¹, a, a, only folds or bends when it is intended for
packing, as is also done with the others B, 61, b, and C, c, c, which fold up
like a broken measure.
Figue VIII represents the hoops for the hood. D, G, spring surrounded
with caoutchouc placed on the inside of the collar. The ornamental knob D
and G, with the click and spring work at bottom, also separates the bioken
hoops E to form at will above the head some interior or extenor angles. The
springs D, G, are for the purpose of causing the hoods to fall on the shoulders
in uniting in the hood the hoops which lay flat on the back. The same
effect takes place with summer bonnets, the hoops of which bend or fold in
the cloth.
Figures 9, 10, 11, 12 represent some modifications and anlangements of
the crinoline above described.
Having now described the nature of my Invention, and in what manner
the same is to be performed, I wish it to be understood that I do not confine
myself to the precise details herein laid down so long as the peculiar character
of my Invention be retained; but what I clum is, the application of articulated
spring arcs forming hoops in petticoats which fold up or extend at will, and
the different improvements herein-before described, reference being had to the
Diawing annexed
In witness whereof, I, the said Augusto Yves Rehm, have hereunto set
my band and seal, this Twenty-sixth day of January, in the year of
our Lord One thousand eight hundred and sixty-six.
Witness,
II A. DUFRENÉ,
10, Rue de la Fidélité,
Paris,
26th January 1866.
A. Y. REHM. (LS)