IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MANUFACTURE OR PRODUCTION OF STAYS, CORSETS, AND BODICES, AND OTHER SIMILAR ARTICLES OF DRESS, AND IN THE FASTENINGS FOR SAME
Year: 1865

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by Stephen Dixon at the Office of
the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the 30th
November 1865.
I, STEPHEN DIXON, of the City of London, in the County of Middlesex,
Gentleman, do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for
"IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MANUFACTURE OR PRODUCTION OF STAYS, CORSETS, AND
BODICES, AND OTHER SIMILAR ARTICLES OF DRESS, AND IN THE FASTENINGS FOR
SAME,"
," to be as follows:--
My improvements relate to the manufacture or production of stays,
corsets, bodices, and other similar articles of dress.
First, according to my Invention I make or produce them entirely
from looped or elastic, fabrics, especially such fabrics as are made by the
framework knitters of the counties of Leicester and Nottingham, and
whether of silk,,cotton, worsted, merino, india-rubber, or other looped or
elastic material, or of any combination thereof; and, secondly, I produce
these articles with an elastic or other like under side, between which and
the upper portion thereof I place a layer or layers of down, whether of
the eider duck, or other bird, or of silk or other down, either in combi-
nation with other materials or otherwise, as particularly described in the
Specification of a Patent granted to myself and the late James Calvert the
younger, dated the Twenty-ninth day of January 1864, No. 245, or I
produce these articles made wholly or partly of down, or of fleecy hosiery
either alone or in combination with down, to permit free ventilation or
evaporation of heat from the human frame.

page_text: Amongst the advantages of these stays, corsets, or bodices is their use
for persons suffering under spinal affections. Surgeons may have them in
assorted sizes and make marks on them as to size and situation for inserting
bones, pads, supports, or other appliances to prevent mistakes being made
by incompetent persons.
My Invention is also applicable (in part). to belts, thigh-pieces, knee-
caps, and other articles made of elasticated materials employed for surgical
or other like purposes.
My improvements in fastenings for the same have for their object that
they shall not be unloosed except at the will of the wearer, and they are
capable of various modifications. One of these fastenings consists of a
hollow button which revolves on a pin or axle, with plate thereunder in
which is a segmental or quadrantal groove; as the button revolves the
groove in the plate will slide over a stud so as to form a lock, or a circular
plate, plain or ornamented, and grooved or slotted as before mentioned may
be used, and sometimes in lieu of a groove I use a segmental bolt which
might pass through an eye on the opposite side of the stay or other article
of dress, (hereinafter for convenience of description called "stay" only);
the like may be accomplished by a lever hook falling on to a stud on the
opposite side. I also use elastic material attached to one side of the stay
having button, eyelet, or stud holes to button or hook on to the opposite
side of the stay.
:
Another modification consists of a spring lock or catch with slotted
loop or loops on one side of the stay which passes into the catch or lock,
and may be opened only by the wearer pressing down the spring or lock.
A further modification consists in the employment of curved slots of such
shape and arrangement that the studs on the opposite side of the stay will
be placed in the upper part of the slots and will at once drop down into
the curved part and become securely fastened.
In a further modification a slot or slots is or are made in plates on one
side of the stay, and a revolving button or bar fits into the slot on the
opposite side thereof and may be turned round to make the stay perfectly
secure. These fastenings need not be on steel or other metal bars, but
may be attached to the stay without metal if required.