IMPROVEMENTS IN SUSPENDERS OR BRACES
Year: 1869

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to George Tomlinson Bousfield, of Loughborough
Park, Brixton, in the County of Surrey, for the Invention of
"IMPROVEMENTS IN SUSPENDERS OR BRACES."-A communication from
abroad by Thomas Jefferson Flagg, of the City of New York, in
the United States of America.
Sealed the 7th September 1869, and dated the 6th May 1869.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said George Tomlinson
Bousfield at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his
Petition, on the 6th May 1869.
I, GEORGE TOMLINSON BOUSFIELD, of Loughborough Park, Brixton,
in the County of Surrey, do hereby declare the nature of the said
Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN SUSPENDERS OR BRACES," to be as follows:-
The Invention consists of a new manufacture of ends for suspenders
or braces composed in part or in whole of felt.
Previous to this Invention suspender ends have been manufactured
of the following materials: -1st, leather alone; 2nd, woven cloth; 3rd,
elastic web.

page_text: Suspender ends constructed as heretofore of each of the said materials
are defective. Suspender ends constructed of leather alone are defective,
because they stain the clothing when they become wet with perspiration,
because also they become stiff by continued use and discolored.
Suspender ends of ordinary woven cloth are defective, because if the
material be turned in at the edges and sewed a clumsy article is
produced, and if the material be cut into the desired form, and the
edges be not turned in, ravelling takes place. The elastic web
suspender ends are defective, because they can be made only of a straight
piece, and require to be sewed at the ends to prevent ravelling, because
moreover they become gradually elongated by continued use until their
elasticity is destroyed and smell offensively.
The present Invention is based upon the discovery that suspender
ends can be constructed of strong felt or cloth so firmly felted that it
does not ravel when cut without the necessity of binding or turning in
the cut edges, and that the articles produced are free from the defects
of the older kinds of suspender ends above referred to. This new
manufacture of suspender ends being attended with the following
advantages, viz., the articles can be cut by means of dies to any
desired form, they do not ravel at the cut edges, and therefore do not
require the edges to be bound or to be turned in and sewed, they do
not smell offensively, nor stretch as india-rubber web suspender ends
do, they do not stain the clothing, nor become discolored nor stiff. The
new manufacture may be composed of felt alone, or of felt combined
with one or more other materials, such, for example, as buckskin, kid, or
chamois leather, or shammy leather as it is frequently denominated. If
the new suspender ends are to be constructed of felt alone it is preferred
to combine two thicknesses of the material together by lines of machine
stitching. A single sheet of material may be cut into pieces of the
desired form by means of a suitable cutting die, and two pieces may be
sewed together so as to form a suspender end, or two sheets of the
material may be pasted together and dried and cut into pieces and sewed
subsequently. The button hole (for buttoning the article to the
pantaloon) may be cut through one end of the article, either before or
after the combining lines of stitching are sewed, by means of a suitable
die. The suspender end produced may be connected with the shoulder
strap either through the intervention of a buckle or by securing the two
together permanently by stitching or by rivetting. The employment
of a buckle being expedient when the suspender end is a front end and

page_text: the permanent mode of connection being preferable for a rear suspender
end. When the suspender end is to be constructed in part only of felt
it is preferred to employ the felt for the outer side and the other material
for the inner side, so that the felt intervenes between the other material
and the exterior clothing of the wearer, or to employ two thicknesses
of felt with a thickness of the other material between them. If, for
example, the suspender end is to be constructed of felt combined with
buckskin, a sheet of the latter may be pasted upon a sheet of the former,
and the whole may be consolidated by pressure and dried; then the
suspender ends may be cut out of the composite sheet by means of dies,
after which the two materials composing each cut piece may be combined
by lines of machine stitching, the button hole being cut before or after
stitching by means of a suitable cutting die.
The kind of felt that is preferred for this new manufacture is the same
quality as that used for the manufacture of wool bonnets, or that used
for covering pianoforte hammers, and produced without first weaving
yarns into cloth; but hard felt produced in part by weaving may be used,
provided the subsequent felting operation has been performed so
thoroughly that the material when cut does not ravel out at the edges,
such a material being deemed the equivalent of felt produced without
weaving for the new manufacture. The form of the suspender end may
be varied as found expedient, and the article may be produced of any
desired color by employing felt dyed to that color as the material of
which the article is made.
5 SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent,
filed by the said George Tomlinson Bousfield in the Great Seal
Patent Office on the 4th November 1869.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, GEORGE
TOMLINSON BOUSFIELD, of Loughborough Park, Brixton, in the County
0 of Surrey, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Letters Patent, bearing date the Sixth day of May, in the year of our
Lord One thousand eight hundred and sixty-nine, in the thirty-second.
-

page_text: year of Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and
grant unto me, the said George Tomlinson Bousfield, Her special
licence that I, the said George Tomlinson Bousfield, my executors,
administrators, and assigns, or such others as I, the said George
Tomlinson Bousfield, 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 "IMPROVEMENTS IN SUSPENDERS OR BRACES," a
communication to me from abroad by Thomas Jefferson Flagg, of
the City of New York, in the United States of America, upon the
condition (amongst others) that I, the said George Tomlinson Bousfield,
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 George Tomlinson Bousfield, do
hereby declare the nature of the said Invention, and in what manner
the same is to be performed, to be particularly described and ascertained
in and by the following statement thereof, that is to say:-
The Invention consists of a new manufacture of ends for suspenders
or braces composed in part or in whole of felt.
Previous to this Invention suspender ends have been manufactured cf
the following materials:-1st, leather alone; 2nd, woven cloth; 3rd,
elastic web.
Suspender ends constructed as heretofore of each of the said materials
are defective. Suspender ends constructed of leather alone are defective,
because they stain the clothing when they become wet with perspiration,
because also they become stiff by continued use and discolored.
Suspender ends of ordinary woven cloth are defective, because if the
material be turned in at the edges and sewed a clumsy article is
produced, and if the material be cut into the desired form and the edges
be not turned in ravelling takes place. The elastic web suspender ends
are defective, because they can be made only of a straight piece, and

page_text: require to be sewed at the ends to prevent ravelling, because moreover
they become gradually elongated by continued use until their clasticity
is destroyed, and because they smell offensively.
The present Invention is based upon the discovery that suspender
ends can be constructed of strong felt or cloth so firmly felted that it
does not ravel when cut without the necessity of binding or turning in
the cut edges, and that the articles produced are free from the defects
of the older kinds of suspender ends above referred to
This new
manufacture of suspender ends being attended with the following
advantages, viz., the articles can be cut by means of dies to any desired
form, they do not ravel at the cut edges, and therefore do not require
the edges to be bound or to be turned in and sewed, they do not smell
offensively, nor stretch as india-rubber web suspender ends do, they
do not stain the clothing nor become discolored nor stiff. The new
manufacture may be composed of felt alone or of felt combined with
one or more other materials, such, for example, as buckskin, kid, or
chamois leather, or shammy leather as it is frequently denominated.
If the new suspender ends are to be constructed of felt alone it is
preferred to combine two thicknesses of the material together by lines
of machine stitching. To this end a single sheet of material may be
cut into pieces of the desired form by means of a suitable cutting die,
and two of the pieces may be sewed together so as to form a suspender
end, or two sheets of the material may be pasted together and dried and
cut into pieces and sewed subsequently. The button holes (for button-
ing the article to the pantaloon) may be cut through one end of the
article, either before or after the combining lines of stitching are sewed,
by means of a suitable cutting die. The suspender end produced may
be connected with the shoulder strap cither through the intervention of
a buckle, or by securing the two together permanently by stitching or
by rivetting, the employment of a buckle being expedient when the
suspender end is a front end for a pair of suspenders, and the permanent
mode of connection being preferable for a rear suspender end. When
the suspender end is to be constructed in part only of felt it is preferred
to employ the felt for the outer side, and the other material for the inner
side, so that the felt intervenes between the other material and the
exterior clothing of the wearer, or to employ two thicknesses of felt
with a thickness of the other material between them. If, for example,
the suspender end is to be constructed of felt combined with buckskin

page_text: a sheet of the latter may be pasted upon a sheet of the former, and the
whole may be consolidated by pressure and dried. Then the suspender
ends may be cut out of the composite sheet by means of a cutting die,
after which the two materials composing each cut piece may be
combined by lines of machine stitching, the button hole being cut
before or after stitching by means of a suitable cutting die. Or a
composite sheet may be formed by pasting a sheet of felt at each side
of a sheet of thin leather, such as kid or goat skin, the whole being
pressed and dried, and then the suspender ends may be cut from the
composite sheet and finished as before described. Or the composite sheet
may be formed by pasting a sheet of felt to one side of a sheet of thin
leather, and a sheet of buckskin or shammy leather to the other side of
the sheet of thin leather.
The kind of felt that is preferred for this new manufacture is the same
quality as that used for the manufacture of wool bonnets or that used
for covering pianoforte hammers and produced without first weaving
yarns into cloth; but hard felt produced in part by weaving may be
used, provided the subsequent felting operation has been performed so
thoroughly that the material when cut does not ravel out at the
'edges, such a material being deemed the equivalent of felt produced
without weaving for the new manufacture. The form of the suspender
end may be varied as found expedient, and the article may be produced
of any desired color by employing felt dyed to that color as the material
of which the article is made.
Figure 1 of the accompanying Drawing represents a face view of a
pair of front suspender ends secured to a loop, by means of which they
are connected with one of the shoulder straps of the pair of suspenders,
and Figure 2 represents an edge view of one of the suspender ends with
the loop in section.
Each suspender end A. is formed of two thicknesses 1, 1, of felt which
have been pasted together with wheat flour paste pressed and dried.
The suspender ends were stamped out of the composite sheet by cutting
dies of the required shape, and the button boles a, a, were also stamped
out by similar cutting dies. Then each suspender end was stitched by
means of a sewing machine in the lines indicated by the dotted lines in
Figure 1. Subsequently each suspender end was secured to the loop b

page_text: by doubling the upper end through the loop and fastening it by means
an eyelet e, which was rivetted by means of an eyelet press. The
loop 6 projects from a plate D having a slots to hook upon a stud
projecting from the buckle of the shoulder strap.
What is claimed as the Invention to be secured by Letters Patent is,
the new manufacture of felt suspender ends, substantially as before set
forth.
In witness whereof, I, the said George Tomlinson Bousfield, have
hereunto set my hand and seal, this Second day of November,
in the year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and sixty-
nine.
GEO. T. BOUSFIELD. (L.S.)