IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MANUFACTURE OF BOOTS AND SHOES, AND IN APPARATUS EMPLOYED THEREIN
Year: 1862

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by Robert Seager at the Office
of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the 27th
February 1862.
I, ROBERT SEAGER, of Ipswich, in the County of Suffolk, do hereby declare
the nature of the Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MANUFACTURE OF
BOOTS AND SHOES, AND IN APPARATUS EMPLOYED THEREIN," to be as follows:-
This Invention has for its object improvements in the manufacture of boots
and shoes, and in apparatus employed therein. Heretofore it has been usual in
making and applying a sole or sole together with a heel to the "upper" of a
boot or shoe, to place the "upper" in a last and then to apply the several
parts of which a sole is composed, and to make such parts into a sole and to
fix the same to the "upper" whilst it is in the last. This making as well as
fixing a sole or a sole with a heel on an" upper" on a last requires a skilled
workman to produce good work.
Now my Invention consists in first producing a sole or a sole with a heel,
and then fastening the same to the "upper, "by which much less skilled labor
is required in fixing a previously made sole or a sole with a heel, than has
heretofore been required when the workman has had not only to fix, but also
to make a sole or sole and heel on an "upper." For these purposes when
making a sole to which no heel is applied, or a sole with a heel thereon, suitable
moulds are employed within which the materials used are pressed into the
desired forms. When leather is used if only in one piece the same is cut by

page_text: form.
a cutter into the proper shape, the leather is then moistened and placed in a
mould, and is subjected to considerable pressure therein, by which the leather will
not only be rendered compact and its grain rendered close, but the inner as well as
the outer surface including the edges will be made most accurately to the desired
When the sole or the sole with a heel is to be produced by the com-
bination of several pieces of leather or other material, it is preferred that the
several pieces should be first cemented together with a waterproof cement,
and after being cut to the proper form to fit into a mould and moistened, that
they should be subjected to pressure as before explained: When gutta percha
or gutta percha compounds or other compositions are used in a plastic state in
the manufacture of soles or of soles with heels, the materials are placed and
pressed in suitable moulds and are caused to assume the desired form of a sole
or sole and heel in a complete state. It should be stated that in making soles
or soles with heels from materials in a plastic state, an inner surface or lining,
or it may be an outer surface of leather or other material, is applied and caused
to adhere to the plastic material in order that the sole made therefrom may
not be liable to spread when in use. The soles thus made in a complete form
in moulds are then fixed to the "uppers" by sewing, or by brads, or screws, or
otherwise as heretofore. When using brads it is preferred to cut them with
bevilled points and bevilled heads in place of their being simply cut to a
tapering form as heretofore.