Adjustable Belt for the Prevention of Imperfect or Abnormal Growth of the Human Body.
Year: 1891

page_text: Date of Application, 27th Apr., 1891-Accepted, 30th May, 1891
Adjustable Belt for the Prevention of Imperfect or Abnormal
Growth of the Human Body.
I, CARL ROBERT PETER KLEM of 3 Theater Boulevard, Riga, Russia, Sanitary
Gymnasium Proprietor, 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 outward proportionate form of the human body is mainly affected by the
natural load carried by the spine of a child during its growth, and particularly
by the load under which the physiologicalar non-physiological position of the
hips is determined.
Defects in the growth are ascribable, when no inward cause pre-exists, to an
uneven distribution of the load on the hips.
The physiological position of the hips (the physiological bordose) requires a free
and erect position of the head so as to extend the chest, deepen the respiration,
improve the shape of the back and form, the basis of a proper growth, while on the
contrary a sloping non-physiological position of the hips causes the head and neck
to be thrown forward, the chest to be narrowed, and the respiration to be shortened,
particularly when the muscles are weak, and is thus the cause of an imperfect, or
abnormal growth.
To study with attention, to sit quiet, and at the same time to properly distribute
the load upon the spinal column are features which are contrary to a child's nature,
and which even grown up people cannot lastingly observe.
When walking, standing, running, jumping, the proper curving or arching
assumed by the hips is always unknown to the ordinary child, while on the contrary
during a prolonged sitting without constraint or stiffness, this curving or arching
takes place knowingly in the young as well as in the old.
For adults, constant sitting may be, to a certain extent, free from injury, or may
at least only weaken them, but for children, prolonged sittings, such as occur year
after year in schools, operate injuriously upon the growth and frequently cause
spinal curvatures. To remedy this, devices for holding the back straight have for
years been sold in the market but they have all missed their object owing to them
being constructed under a misconception.
It is wrong to depend wholly upon the vertebræ for the right position of the
trunk, and that is the basis upon which these devices have been heretofore made.
The curvature of the vertebræ as central part of the spinal column is intimately
connected with the thorax and shows in this connection-as compared with the
pliability, flexibility, or freedom of motion of the neck and hips-only a very
limited degree of motion. Altogether the flexibility or pliability of the spinal
column is such that the form of the hips determine the deportment, or support of
the trunk.
When the arching, or curvature of the hips becomes level during growth, the
chin being salient, the neck is thrown forward and the spinal column assumes a
curved position from the spinal process to the sacrum.
In order to hold the body in an erect position, a forward elastic pressure must be
exerted upon the hips while a backward pull is at the same time applied to the
shoulder. This is effected by my adjustable belt, which can be worn over the
clothes, can be easily fixed, and removed, and may be used outside the house,
as a school requisite, when at work, playing the piano, and the like.
The accompanying drawings illustrate my improved belt, Figures 1 and 2
show a front and a rear view thereof as it is applied on either side of the human
body. Figures 3 and 5 are details of construction. Figures 6 and 7 show the
belt fixed to a child in front, and at the back.

page_text: a is a belt of leather which surrounds the hips more or less firmly (Figures 6
and 7) and is buckled according to requirements by means of two small straps b, b,
and of two buckles c, c. To this belt is fixed a heart shaped pad d covered with
leather and secured at its lower end by the rivets &², d².
Upon the end d' is arranged a sheath-e (Figures 3, 4, and 5) to which is fixed by
means of a set screw, a steel bar or spring. In the angle formed by the pad d
with its arm d' carrying the sheath e is placed an elastic wedge of cork b
(Figure 5) which imparts at this place greater strength to the pad, the latter
being fixed at a distance from the belt.
At the upper end of the bar fis arranged a button or knob g' to which are fixel
and 7 over the
two shoulder straps h, h, which are placed as shown in Figures
shoulder of the wearer, and which may be lengthened, or shortened according as
required by means of the perforations formed therein. In front of the belt a is
arranged an adjustable belly or breast shield i fixed by means of a strap, and
consisting of a metal plate covered with leather. The belly or breast shield may
be dispensed with if desired and forms no important part of the adjustable belt.
My improved adjustable belt operates as follows:-The pad d is firmly pressed
by the belt a against the body in close proximity to the hip bones. As the spring
or bar forms an acute angle with the pad (Figure 5), the said bar is laid slantly
at the top and is at first off the body, its upper end being afterwards secured
against the said body by the shoulder straps h, h.
In consequence thereof, the upper end of the bar will obviously exert a backward
pull through the strap upon the shoulders, while the pad d exerts a forward
pressure upon the hip bones, and thus support their curvatures, or archings.
The belly shield has for its object to prevent the belt from pressing upon, or
cutting into regions in the vicinity of the stomach. The belt can be worn upon a
light undervest.
Having now particularly described and ascertained the nature of this inven-
tion and in what manner the same is to be performed I declare that what I
claim is :-
An adjustable belt for the prevention of imperfect growth of the human body,
in which belt, an acutely angular crank lever formed of a steel bar f, and a spring
plate or pad d is so buckled to the human body by means of shoulder straps h, h,
fixed at the upper end of the bar f, and of a hip strap fixed at the lower end of the
said bar, as to exert through the straps h, h, a backward action upon the shoulders,
and through the plate or pad d an elastic forward pressure upon the hip bones of
the wearer, hence compelling the latter to hold his body in a normal position, as
heretofore described.
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