IMPROVE- *MENTS IN UNDER SKIRTS OR PETTICOATS
Year: 1857

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Richard Archibald Brooman, of 166, Fleet Street,
in the City of London, Patent Agent, for the Invention of "IMPROVE-
*MENTS IN UNDER SKIRTS OR PETTICOATS."-A communication.
Scaled the 21st August 1857, and dated the 24th February 1857.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Richard Archibald Brooman
at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the
24th February 1857.
I, RICHARD ARCHIBALD BROOMAN, of 166, Fleet Street, in the City of
London, Patent Agent, do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention
for "IMPROVEMENTS IN UNDER SKIRTS OR PETTICOATS," (communicated to me by a
foreigner residing abroad) to be as follows:-
This Invention consists in constructing or forming petticoats of a flounced
skirt, the skirt being of any material suitable for the purpose, and the flounces,
which are sewn thereto, hooked thereon, or otherwise attached, being formed
of plaited straw or other vegetable fibre encased in a textile material; or tho
flounces are formed of a textile material, with strips of plaited straw. or other
vegetable fibro combined in such manner as to impart fullness thereto; or,
instead of or in addition to strips of plaited straw; I impart stiffness to the
flounces by whalebone, cane, gutta percha, or other like stiffening agent.

page_text: Flounces such as before described may be hooked, tied, or otherwise
attached to or removed from an ordinary skirt, which can then be worn either
as a plain or stiffened petticoat..
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said Richard Archibald Brooman in the Great Seal Patent Office
on the 24th August 1857.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, RICHARD
ARCHIBALD BROOMAN, of 166, Fleet Street, in the City of Loudon, Patent
Agent, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Twenty-fourth day of February, in the year of our
Lord One thousand eight hundred and fifty-seven, in the twentieth year of Her
reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto me, the
said Richard Archibald Brooman, Her special licence that I, the said
Richard Archibald Brooman, my executors, administrators, and assigns, or
such others as I, the said Richard Archibald Brooman, executors, adminis-
trators, and assigns, should at any tiine 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 UNDER SKIRTS OR PETTICOATS," (a com-
munication,) upon the condition (amongst others) that I, the said Richard
Archibald Brooman, my executors or administrators, by an instrument in
writing under my, or their, or one of their hands and scals, should par-
ticularly 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 Richard Archibald Brooman, 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, referènce being had to the Drawings hereunto
annexed, that is to say :-
This Invention consists in constructing or forming petticoats of a flounced
skirt, the skirt being of any material suitable for the purposes, and the

page_text: flounces, which are sewn thereto, hooked thereon, or otherwise attached, being
formed of plaited straw or other vegetable fibre, alone or encased with strips
of steel in a textile material; or the flounces are formed of a textile material
with strips of plaited straw or other vegetable fibre combined in such manner
as to impart fullness thereto; or, instead of or in addition to strips of plaited
straw, I impart stiffness to the flounces by whalebone, cane, gutta percha, or
other like stiffening agent. Flounces such as before described may be
hooked, tied, or otherwise attached to or removed from an ordinary skirt,
which can be worn as a plain or stiffened petticoat.
Figure 1 of the Drawings annexed is a view, in elevation, of one of the
flounced petticoats made according to this Invention; and Figure 2 shews a
piece of the plaited straw or other vegetable fibre employed as the stiffening
material in the manufacture of the petticoat. A', A2, A3, A', are four flounces,
which are sewn, hooked, or otherwise attached to a petticoat constructed in
the ordinary manner. Round the lower, or any other part considered most
suitable, of each of these flounces, there are inserted strips of plaited straw
or other vegetable fibre, of the form shewn in Figure 2, which is covered
with linen or other suitable substance. When the straw is not considered
to afford sufficient stiffness there is inserted with it, or separately, some
other stiffening material, as before described. Any number of flounces can
be employed, and the straw arranged in any desirable manner.
Figure 3 shews, in clevation, a modification of the petticoat shewn at
Figure 1. Here the flounces are dispensed with, and the straw alone, or
combined with steel or some other stiffening agent is employed. The plaited
straw is placed in cases a, a, the body b of the petticoat at suitable dis-
tances apart. The combination of straw plait and steel prevents the latter
breaking, which it is apt to do when used alone. It will be easily seen that
this petticoat will not be so thick as that before described, and consequently
better adapted for warm weather.
Petticoats constructed in the manner before described prosent not only an
elegant appearance, but the fullness which is obtained has not that stiffness,
so disagreeable in those in which metal alone is used as the stiffening
Inedium.
And having now described the nature of the said Invention, and in what
manner the same is to be performed, I declare that I claim,-
First, the constructing or forming of petticoats in the manner herein-before
described, and represented in tho Drawings annexed.
Second, the employment, in the manner herein-before described, of plaited

page_text: straw or any other vegetable, fibre in the manufacture of petticoats, such
straw or fibre being used alone or combined with strips of steel.
In witness whereof, I, the said Richard: Archibald Brooman, have
hereunto set my hand and scal, this Twenty-fourth day of August, One
thousand eight hundred and fifty-seven.