Improved Stiffener for Collars and Wearing Apparel, to be Used as Waist Band and as a Lining for Ladies' Belts.
Year: 1896

page_text: Date of Application, 7th Aug., 1896--Accepted, 6th Feb., 1897
COMPLETE SPECIFICATION.
Improved Stiffener for Collars and Wearing Apparel, to be Used as
Waist Band and as a Lining for Ladies' Belts.
I, ADOLF VORWERK of Barmen, 5/9 Kohlgartenstrasse, Rhenish Prussia Germany,
Manufacturer 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 :-
The collar stiffeners and stiffeners for wearing apparel, waist bands and ladies:
belts which have been in use until now are a woven product made in the ribbon
loom by means of special apparatus attached to the ordinary loom and by varying
the suspending weights of the warp threads according to their position to the inner
or outer selvedge
of the ribbon and the woven fabric is then made stiff by a special
finishing and sizing process.
Now these woven collar stiffeners waist belt stiffeners and belt stiffeners are-
comparatively expensive in making, and varying them in their curve or radius,
requires troublesome alterations in the loom ; few varieties of them only are therefore
produced.
The present invention relates to such improved collar stiffeners and stiffeners for
wearing apparel to be used as waist band and as lining for ladies belts which can be
made cheaper and in any desired radius as may be required without requiring
important alterations in the mechanical means for their production. Instead of
being woven, the improved stiffener forins a close worked braid but of such character
that the braiding is shortened on one side and lengthened on the other side,.
gradually increasing in length (or decreasing) from one selvedge to the other in
the same ratio as the circumferences increase or decrease of concentric circles drawn
by increasing or decreasing radii.
In making the new collar stiffener I prefer using the so called "glaced thread "
or "glaced cotton."
The braiding may be single braiding or multiple braiding, that is to say, the-
threads of a certain bobbin may alternately change in place in the web the upper
and lower side or, as shown in the drawing, the threads of two or more bobbins.
may lie above the threads of a bobbin passing underneath the other ones and vary
their position in this manner continually; so called central threads may be used
or not.
This is no novelty in braid making and I do not claim it as my invention, but what.
I claim as new and as my invention, is a close worked braid that is shorter at the
side of one selvedge than on the other side, so that it takes a ring shaped or circular-
form when placed flat, or the form of the surface or envelope of a cone trunk, when
placed upright or standing on the selvedge as shown in the drawing.
These braids, as they come from the braiding machine are exposed to a suitable-
finishing and sizing process, in order to give them stiffness and rigidity in the same-
manner as is done with the patent woven collar stiffeners, so that they will not
bulge or fold up in use but keep an even smooth surface and give a support to the
soft covering and lining stuff put upon them when used as the inner part of a
collar or ladies belt.
The means for making the braid closer at one selvedge than the other so as to
make a curved braid consists in exchanging the usual cylindrical up taking or
drawing off roll of the ordinary braiding machine for conical ones, which, as will.

page_text: be easily understood, draw out the braided lace quicker at the side of the larger
diameter of the rolls than at that side where the web lies between the thin parts of
the conical rolls.
Having now particularly described and ascertained the nature of my said
invention and in what manner the same is to be performed, I declare that what
I claim is :
A stiffener for the collars of wearing apparel to be used also as waist bands and
as a lining for ladies belts, consisting of a conically braided closed lace forming a
continuous circle or ring surface when placed flat on the continuous developing
surface of a cone trunk of any desired diameter of the base and a determined angle of
inclination of the sides, said conically braided lace being made stiff and kept smooth
by causing it to undergo a suitable finishing and sizing process, the whole as set
forth and for the purpose specified.
Dated this ISL
of Au
1896.
11th day of November 1896.
ADOLF VORWERK,
Per Karl J. Mayer, Agent.