AN IMPROVEMENT IN THE MAKING OF STAYS AND CORSETTES, BY WHICH THEY WILL BE MUCH MORE EASY AND CONVENIENT TO THE WEARER THAN ANY NOW IN USE
Year: 1796

page_text: BOOTH'S SPECIFICATION.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, WILLIAM
Booтn, of the Parish of Saint Ann's, Soho, and County of Middlesex, Stay
and Corsette Maker, send greeting.
WHEREAS His most Excellent Majesty King George the Third did, by
His Letters Patent under the Great Seal of Great Britain, bearing date at
Westminster, the Thirty-first day of May, in the thirty-sixth year of His reign,
give and grant unto me, the said William Booth, his especial licence that I,
the said William Booth, during the term of years therein mentioned, should
and lawfully might use, exercise, and vend, within England, Wales, and the
Town of Berwick-upon-Tweed, my Invention of "AN IMPROVEMENT IN THE
MAKING OF STAYS AND CORSETTES, BY WHICH THEY WILL BE MUCH MORE EASY AND
CONVENIENT TO THE WEARER THAN ANY NOW IN USE;" in which said Letters
Patent there is contained a proviso, obliging me, the said William Booth, by
an instrument in writing under my hand and seal, to cause a particular
description of the nature of my said Invention, and in what manner the same
is to be performed, to be inrolled in His Majesty's High Court of Chancery
within one calendar month next and immediately after the date of the said
recited Letters Patent, as in and by the same (relation being thereunto had)
may more fully and at large appear.
NOW KNOW YE, that in compliance with the said proviso, I, the said
William Booth, do hereby declare that my said Invention is described in
manner following (that is to say) :-
In place of the round bone that is common to stays and corsettes before the

page_text: oilet holes in the back, put a flat bone, and secure two or more braces or
straps to each back. The braces or straps to be drawn through holes of their
dimensions in the opposite back. The holes that correspond with the braces
to be at a convenient distance from the edge of each back, so that when the
braces are drawn through them, the backs may fall over one another as much
as the wearer may require for the convenience of letting out and giving ease
at pleasure, by loosening the fastening before the waist braces or straps to be
drawn through their corresponding holes in the opposite back, and fastened
before by a buckel or clasp, or at a convenient place near the peak by a hook
and an eye, or an hook and oilet hole, as the fancy of the wearer may direct.
The back or shoulder braces or straps to be drawn through their corresponding
holes in the opposite back, and fastened at or near the fore size by a loop
fastened to the stay or corsette, or by an hook and an eye, or an hook and a
oilet hole in the brace or strap, and that part of it that passes upon the fore
part of the shoulder to be made elastic, and pass over the shoulder, then to
be drawn through loops in a back plate, if a back plate is required, and from
thence to pass to the opposite hip of the stay to be fastened by a hook and an
ee, or an hook and an oilet hole near tho peak of the stay or corsetto, as the
fancy of the wearer may direct. Both backs of the stay or corsette, and all
the braces or straps, hooks and eyes, and oilet holes, are to be made so that
they may be fastened with the right or the left hand alternately, or either, to
suit the conveniency of the wearer.
In witness whereof, I, the said William Booth, have hereunto set my
hand and seal, this Twenty-second day of June, in the year of our
Lord One thousand seven hundred and ninoty.siv
A. POPHAM.
AND BE IT REMEMBERED, that on the same Twenty-second day of
June, in the year above written, the aforesaid William Booth came before our
Lord the King in His Chancery, and acknowledged the Specification aforesaid,
and all and everything therein contained, in form above written. And also the
Specification aforesaid was stamped according to the tenor of the Statute in
that case made and provided.