Improvements in Stays or Corsets.
Year: 1890

page_text: Date of Application, 17th July, 1890-Accepted, 23rd Aug., 1890 .
COMPLETE SIMULTICAIRN
Improvements in Stays or Corsets.
1, GERHARD TOPKEN, and PETER TOPKEN, Merchants, trading under the style or
firm of Messrs. G. and P. Toepken, of No. 11 Heiligegeist Strasse, Berlin, Germany,
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 :-
Our invention relates to improvements in stays or corsets with elastic waistband
and side pieces, which, in contradistinction to the construction hitherto used, are
without tail pieces or part below the waist, but end with the elastic waistband.
The object of this arrangement is to remove the unhealthly action of the known
constructions of stays or corsets, which consist therein, that the mechanism or rails
and the whalebone staves press on the abdomen and the tender organs of the same,
the stomach, liver, milt, etc., so that a free movement of the body is more or less
hindered. Our new stays or corset enclose, in contradistinction to the customary
stays or corsets, only those parts of the body which, by means of the skeleton or
frame of the human body, naturally offer more resistance to pressure, such as the
breast bone and ribs, and allows at the same time, by means of the elastic girdle or
waistband and the elastic side pieces, the free expansion of the chest by the lungs and
also the free movement of the body without perceptible resistance and without leaving
the upper part of the body unsupported at any part or pressing one part on the other
as is the case with the present stays, or corsets, which often causes, as experience
shows, the breakage of the staves or the mechanism.
In the accompanying drawing, Figure 1 is an elevation of the stays or corset in
extended condition,
Figure 2 is an elevation of the same in closed condition.
The lower part of the stays or corsets is formed by an elastic band g, the mechanism
or breast rails c, c, and the other stiffeners d, d, whalebone in pockets etc., reaching
only to the upper edge of the waistband, whilst the back rails or staves e, e, with the
eyelets for the laces, run to the lower edge of the elastic waistband g.
The side parts of the stays are preferably made of elastic strap-like open worked
material or webbing f, the other parts of the stays being also made of open worked
material or a fabric with large pores, so as not to in any way hinder the perspiration or
the evaporation of the latter. The elastic side pieces ✓ will also permit the free
expansion of the stays or corset in breathing.
Our improved stays or corset can also be provided with adjustable shoulder straps h,
so that the same can be held up tight or be released and carried loosely..
Having now particularly described and ascertained the nature of our said
invention, and in what manner the same is to be performed, we declare that what
we claim is :-
g
Stays or corsets, which at their lower part terminate in an elastic waistband
and are provided with elastic strap-like parts f, whereby only that part which is
supported by the framework of the body, skeleton, is enclosed and thus the free
movement and expansion of the body is permitted, substantially as specified and
shown.
ated this 17th day of July 1890.
MESSRS. E. P. ALEXANDER & SON, Fels. Inst. P.A.,
19, Southampton Buildings, Chancery Lane, W.C., Filing Agents.