AN IMPROVEMENT IN THE MANUFACTURE OF STAYS AND CORSETS
Year: 1855

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to William Sangster, of Cheapside, in the City of
London, for the Invention of "AN IMPROVEMENT IN THE MANUFACTURE OF
STAYS AND CORSETS."
Sealed the 4th March 1856, and dated the 15th September 1855.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said William Sangster at the
Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the 15th
September 1855.
I, WILLIAM SANGSTER, of Cheapside, in the City of London, do hereby
declare the nature of the Invention for "AN IMPROVEMENT IN THE MANUFACTURE
OF STAYS AND CORSETS " to be as follows:-
This Invention has for its object the application of a peculiar manufacture
of warp fabric in the making of stays and corsets. Heretofore in the making
of stays and corsets the fabrics used have been those woven by warp and weft,
and wherein the warp and weft are at right angles to each other, which
prevents the fabrics so made being elastic either in their length or in their
breadth. Now, my improvement consists of applying warp fabrics of those
descriptions where the warp threads of which a fabric is made are not only
looped into each other, but are also traversed from selvage to selvage, by which
the fabric so made is elastic in all directions.

page_text: SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said William Sangster in the Great Seal Patent Office on the
15th March 1856.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, WILLIAM
SANGSTER, of Cheapside, in the City of London, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Fifteenth day of September, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and fifty-five, in the nineteenth year of Her
reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto me, the
said William Sangster, Her special licence that I, the said William Sangster,
my exccutors, administrators, and assigns, or such others as I, the said
William Sangster, my executors, administrators, and assigns, should at any
time agree with, and no others, from time to time and at all times thereafter
during the term therein expressed, should and lawfully might make, use,
exercise, and vend, within the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland,
the Channel Islands, and Isle of Man, an Invention for "AN IMPROVEMENTS IN
THE MANUFACTURE OF STAYS AND CORSETS," upon the condition (amongst others)
that I, the said William Sangster, my executors or administrators, by an
instrument in writing under my, or their, or one of their hands and seals,
,should particularly describe and ascertain the nature of the said Invention,
and in what manner the same was to be performed, and cause the same to be
filed in the Great Seal Patent Office within six calendar months next and
immediately after the date of the said Letters Patent.
NOW KNOW YE, that I, the said William Sangster, do hereby declare
the nature of the said Invention, and in what manner the same is to be per-
formed, to be particularly described and ascertained in and by the following
statement thereof, that is to say:-
This Invention has for its object the application of a peculiar manufacture of
warp fabric in the making of stays and corsets. Heretofore in the making of
stays and corsets the fabrics used have been those woven by warp and weft, and
wherein the warp and weft are at right angles to each other, which prevents
the fabrics so made being elastic either in their length or in their breadth.
Now, my improvement consists of applying warp fabrics of those descriptions
where the warp threads of which a fabric is made are not only looped into each
other, but are also traversed from selvage to selvage, by which the fabric so
made is elastic in all directions.
Having thus stated the nature of my said Invention, I will proceed more
fully to describe the manner of performing the same.

page_text: It is well known that there are now manufactured warp fabrics wherein the
several warp threads, in addition to looping into each other, also traverse from
selvage to selvage of the fabrics, and such fabrics are called "traverse-warp
warp fabrics;" and my Invention consists of applying such fabrics in the
manufacture of stays and corsets, by which the manufacture of stays and
corsets is greatly improved by reason of the peculiar elasticity possessed by
such fabrics. In the making up of a stay or corset I usually employ two layers
or thicknesses of such fabrics, which may consist of two or more pieces of such
fabrics, and these two layers or thicknesses of traverse-warp warp fabrics are
sewed or stitched together, leaving proper cases or spaces, as heretofore, for
receiving steel or other busks, and for whalebones or steel springs, as formerly,
and according to the quantity of support desired to be given to the person
wearing such stay or corset; and where it is desired to reduce the clasticity, or
prevent its coming into action at any parts of the stay or corset, then I either
add or apply portions of inelastic fabric at parts, by which all elasticity of the
loop fabrics may be stopped in those parts; or I cut the traverse-warp warp
fabrics more or less on the bias, and in sewing or stitching the two thicknesses
of fabrics together, I cross the direction of the rows of loops of the two portions
of fabrics, so that the elasticity of the two portions may be more or less opposed
to each other, and thus may the whole elasticity of the peculiar fabric be
prevented or modified, according to the requirements of the person for whom a
stay or corset is to be made; and it will be found that by thus applying traverse-
warp warp fabrics in the manufacture of stays and corsets great advantages
may be obtained, and the persons wearing such stays will be less under
restraint than heretofore, when wearing ordinary stays made of inelastic
fabrics (woven with warp or weft at right angles to each other), and yet at the
same time those parts of the person requiring stay or support may receive it
without placing other parts of the person under restraint unnecessarily.
In witness whereof, I, the said William Sangster, have hereunto set
my hand and seal, this Fifteenth day of March, in the year of our
Lord One thousand eight hundred and fifty-six.
Witness,
JAMES WILLIS,
No. 1, Turner St., Com' Road.
WILLIAM SANGSTER. (L.s.)