Year: 1886

page_text: 1or the same.
:
SAMUEL HORATIO HODGES' of Street in the County of Somerset Mill Manager,
do hereby declare the nature of this invention to be as follows:-
"It is often found by people whose avocations require them to do much standing
or walking that the innersoles of their boots become very hard and to protect
their feet it is necessary to insert in their boots a sock of some soft material.
:
This hardness of the innnersole arises from a quality, or property of leather. To
a certain extent all leather is compressible but not elastic so that under the
constant pressure of the foot in walking and standing the innersole is pressed into
a harder and thinner mass than when the boot was first made. It also happens
when the foot is hot and moist that the leather is parched and looses its original
nature..
f
The object of my invention is to produce a new material suitable for innersoles
which shall to a. large extent combine the advantages of a sock with the strength
and wearing qualities of a leather innersole..
".
:
:
I take a piece of good cotton or linen cloth; this with a suitable glue I cover a
very thin layer of leatherboard: On the side of the leatherboard not covered
with the cotton cloth I place with suitable: glue or cement a soft woolen cloth
making thereby a compact sheet of three materials cemented together.
· Innersoles cut from this sheet I use in the manufacture of the boot in such
a way as that the soft woolen cloth comes next the foot; this gives protection
from the points of the lasting tacks or tingles by which the boots were lasted
The woolen cloth being elastic yields to the pressure and the whole is not in any:
Buch degree susceptible to the heat and moisture of the foot,
.

page_text: for the same.
I, SAMUEL HORATIO HODGES of Street in the County of Somersetshire, Mill
Manager 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:―
It is often found by people whose avocations require them to do much standing
or walking that the innersoles of their boots become very hard and to protect
their feet it is necessary to insert in their boots a sock of some soft material.
This hardness of the innersole arises from a quality or property of leather. To
a 'certain extent all leather is compressible but not elastic, so that under the
constant pressure of the foot in walking and standing the innersole is pressed into
a harder and thinner mass than when the boot was first made. It also often
happens when the foot is hot and moist that the leather becomes parched and
loses its original nature.
The object of my invention is to produce a new material suitable for innersoles
which shall to a large extent combine the advantages of a sock with the strength
and wearing qualities of a leather innersole.
I take a sheet of very thin leather board and over one face of it I cement with
good ordinary glue or other suitable cement a piece of good cotton or linen cloth.
Over the other face of the leather board I similarly cement a soft woollen cloth
making thereby a compact sheet of three materials cemented together.
Innersoles cut from this sheet are to be used in the manufacture of boots or
shoes in such manner that the soft woollen cloth comes next to the foot-this
gives protection from the points of the lasting tacks or tingles by which the boots
or shoes are lasted.
Innersoles formed in the above manner are less affected by the heat and moisture
of the foot and are more flexible than innersoles as heretofore made.
I would state that innersoles have for the past 5 or 6 years been made from
sheets of leather-board and more recently say for two or three years a canvas
covering has been laid on the leather board sheet for the purpose of strengthening
the sheet and adding to the wearing capacity of the innersole.
Innersoles made in these ways are very hard indeed and are necessarily made
stout they are not flexible.
•
By adding a layer of cloth to the other side of the leather-board sheet as above
described I obtain additional strength and am able to diminish the substance of
the hard and unyielding leather-board to a minimum and so produce an innersole
not only superior to the leather-board and canvas article heretofore made but in
many desirable respects superior to leather itself.

page_text: 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
1. An inner sole for a boot or shoe formed from thin leather-board having
cotton or linen cloth cemented to one side of it and a soft woollen cloth to the
opposite side substantially as described.
2. The manufacture of a material suitable for the inner soles of boots and shoes
by cementing cotton or linen cloth to one side of a sheet of thin leather-board and
a soft woollen cloth to the opposite side substantially as described.