A STAY, PARTICULARLY APPLICABLE TO SUPPORTING THE BODY UNDER SPINAL WEAKNESS, AND CORRECTING DEFORMITY OF SHAPE
Year: 1822

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, DENNY
GARDNER, of Edmond Place, Aldersgate Street, in the City of London,
Manufacturer, send greeting.
WHEREAS His most Excellent Majesty King George the Fourth, did, by
His Letters Patent under the Great Seal of the United Kingdom of Great
Britain and Ireland, bearing date at Westminster, the Thirteenth day of
June, One thousand eight hundred and twenty-two, in the third year of His
reign, give and grant unto me, the said Denny Gardner, my exors, adors,
and assigns, His especial licence, full power, sole privilege and authority, that
I, the said Denny Gardner, my exors, adñiors, and assigns, during the term
of years therein mentioned, should and lawfully might make, use, exercise,
and vend, within England, Wales, and the Town of Berwick-upon-Tweed, my
Invention of "A STAY, PARTICULARLY APPLICABLE TO SUPPORTING THE BODY
UNDER SPINAL WEAKNESS, AND CORRECTING DEFORMITY OF SHAPE;" in which said
Letters Patent there is contained a proviso, that if I, the said Denny Gardner,
shall not particularly describe and ascertain the nature of my said Invention,
and in what manner the same is to be performed, by an instrument in writing
under my hand and seal, and cause the same to be inrolled in His Majesty's
High Court of Chancery, within two calendar months next and immediately
after the date of the said Letters Patent, that then the said Letters Patent,.
and all liberties and advantages. whatsoever thereby granted, shall utterly
cease, determine, and become void, as in and by the same, relation being
thereunto had, will more fully and at large appear.

page_text: NOW KNOW YE, that in compliance with the said proviso, I, the said
Denny Gardner, do hereby declare that the nature of my said Invention, and
the manner in which the same is to be performed, are particularly described
and ascertained in and by the Drawing hereunto annexed, and the following
description thereof, (that is to say) :-
:-
My stay for supporting the body under spinal weakness, and for correcting
leformity of shape, consists of various parts and modifications adapted to brace
the trunk either of the male or female patient. The principal feature of this
Invention is a steel support or stay, composed of several pieces of plate steel
with joints, which supports are intended to be introduced into the shape or
body of ordinary stays, under each arm, and to be there secured by flaps or
lappets, tied or laced tightly to the shape. The upper end of each steel
support or stay is to be formed as a crutch head, and covered with leather or
other soft material, so as to set close under the arm. The lower end of each
steel support or stay is also to be formed as a crutch head, and covered with
leather, which is to rest upon the hip of the patient; and the length of these
steel supports or stays may be lengthened or shortened as circumstances may
require.
Figure 1 of the Drawings represents the shape or body of a woman's
ordinary stay, the dotted lines shewing the situation of one of the lateral steel
supports above mentioned, as attached to the shape by means of lappets tied
and laced over it. Figure 2 shews one of the steel supports removed from
the body. Figure 3 is the upper crutch piece detached. Figure 4 is the
upper adjusting plate; Figure 5, the lower adjusting plate; Figure 6, the
lower crutch. Four circular holes a, b, c, d, are scen, in the upper crutch
piece, Figure 3, which are tapped and intended to receive small screws e and f.
Figure 4 are elongated holes in the upper adjusting plate; g and h are
circular holes in the same; a screw introduced through the hole g, in the
plate Figure 4, and screwed into the hole c of the crutch piece Figure 3,
becomes a pivot, upon which the crutch piece is enabled to turn. Screws
introduced through the elongated holes e and f of the plate, Figure 4, and
screwed into the holes a and b of the crutch piece, Figure 3, limit the extent
of action to which the top crutch piece is allowed to move. A screw introduced
through the hole of Figure 4, and screwed into the hole d of Figure 3,
confines the crutch piece and presents its turning upon its pivot. These parts.
are seen put together in Figure 2; i, i, i, i, are several holes tapped in the
upper adjusting plate, Figure 4, for the purpose of receiving small screws;
k and 1, Figure 5, are circular holes in the lower adjusting plate, through
which, if screws are passed, and screwed into any two of the holes i, i, in the

page_text: upper adjusting plate, Figure 4, the junction of the two plates becomes a
fixture; and by these screws the steel support or stay may be lengthened or
shortened, as the patient may require. If the screw is withdraw from the
hole k, and another screw introduced through the hole m into one of the
holes i of Figure 4, the centre of the steel support will then have a joint
moveable upon its pivot at i, in which case the upper joint of the crutch piece
should be made a fixture by the introduction of the screw at d. The circular
hole n, Figure 5, is intended to be made the pivot in the event of the pivot
at not being found so convenient, and one of the elongated, holes, o or p, in
this case, is to receive the screw to confine the action of the joint; q and r are
circular holes, and s and t elongated holes, in the lower adjusting plate, for
the same purpose as the holes h, g, f, & e, of the upper adjusting plate, and the
circular holes v, u, w, and x, of the lower crutch piece are tapped to receive
screws for the purpose of forming a fixed or moveable joint, as described above
at a, b, c, d.
Having described the mode by which I propose to introduce these steel
supports, and connect them to the body or shape of women's stays, and also
explained the several parts of the support, I have now to state that I propose
when these supports are first used by a patient that is deformed in the manner
commonly called crooked, or under extreme weakness of the spine, to fix all
the joints of the steel support by introducing the stop screws, so as to prevent
the action of the joints, or if any of the joints require to be set at any particular
angle so as to suit the circumstances of the patient, that may be done by
adjusting the joints as may be required, and then fixing them by screwing up
the screws of the elongated holes, so as to bear tight upon the plates and
prevent the action at the pivots. When the patient has acquired sufficient
strength to allow the action of the joints, the stop screws may be withdrawn
from the top and bottom crutch pieces, or these being left fixed, the stop
screws may be removed from the middle joint of the two adjusting plates, as
the circumstances of the patient may require.
Having thus explained the parts and purposes of these lateral supports, I
have only to add that, though I propose and prefer to make them of steel, yet
any other sort of metal may be employed, or wood, whalebone, horn, and a
variety of other substances, all of which I avail myself of in their manufacture.
The back parts of the steel supports I propose to cover with leather or other
soft material, which may be sewed thereto, through the small stitching holes
shewn in the Drawings. I have here described my support with such joints
as will enable the patient to move with ease and grace, and to allow the body
all its proper actions in walking, sitting, stooping, and dancing; but under

page_text: some circumstances, as above mentioned, it may be necessary to use the
supports with fixed joints, or even sufficient if made without joints. I, there-
fore, claim, the right of making my supports each in one piece, adhering to the
shape and position, as well as to the situation and purpose for which they are
to be employed. The body or shape of the stay may be made to lace behind
or before, as the state of the patient shall require; but it will be necessary to
introduce two steel slips in the front of the stay, and in the back part one steel
slip, to assist in supporting the spine. I farther propose to make the shape or
body of the stay of a material known or called by the name of hunting-belt
web, which, from its texture and substance, is better calculated to the support
of the body than any other material, such a substance being necessarily stiff'
and better suited to the purposes of my Invention.
Having above described the adaptation of my Invention to women's stays,
I further declare that the same sort of steel support may be used by gentlemen,
and may be attached to a riding or hunting belt, assisted by such straps or
braces as the circumstances of the patient may require.
In witness whereof, I, the said Denny Gardner, have hereunto set my
hand and seal, this Thirteenth day of August, in the year of our
Land One thousand eight hundred and twenty-two.