An Improved Boot-tree or Stretcher.
Year: 1893

page_text: Date of Application, 23rd Sept., 1893
Complete Specification Left, 13th Nov., 1893-Accepted, 16th Dec., 1893
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION.
An Improved Boot-tree or Stretcher.
I, HENRY LOUIS LEE, of the Junior Army and Navy Club, St. James Street,
in the County of Middlesex, Captain in Her Majesty's Service, do hereby declare
the nature of this invention to be as follows:-
My invention relates to the means employed for stretching boots when not in
wear, and consists of an improved tree which is cheaply made, of great efficiency
and simplicity, and is less cumbersome for travelling, being of small weight, and
capable of being packed into small compass.
My improved tree may be applied either for the stretching of the foot of the
boot, or for the stretching of the leg or upper part of a riding, Wellington, or
military boot.
The apparatus I employ for stretching the foot of a boot, consists of a central
frame, to which are pivotably attached hinged toggle joints, supporting at their
outer ends a plate for the sole of the boot and another plate for the upper. The
central frame also terminates with a toe plate attached to the frame by an adjusting
right and left screwed junction nut.
At the end of the frame nearest to the ankle of the boot are pivotably fitted two
further toggle joints in the line of the frame, the outer one terminating in a pad or
plate fitting into the back of the heel of the boot.
When the plates are collapsed upon the central frame, the whole tree is almost
flat, and in little compass, convenient for packing.
The tree is introduced into the toe of the boot in a collapsed condition, the end
toggle joints at the heel presenting an acute angle upwards in the ankle of the
boot.
When this acute angle is pressed down nearly flat by the pressure of the hand,
the central frame is thrust forward into the toe of the boot, presses open the
attaching toggle joints of the sole and upper plates and thus forces out the foot of
the boct into shape. A fly-nut is applied to the centre joint of the ankle toggle
joint, so that when it is thrust down and the boot is stretched, the fly-nut is
tightened up, and the extended frame thus maintained in a rigid condition.
may use two toggle joints for each connection between the central frame and
either the sole and upper plate or plates, if desired, to render their connection
stiffer to the central frame. Or I may divide the upper plates into a central and
two side plates, and make the side plates capable of any required adjustment of
width to the central upper plate.
Or alternatively I may use a sole, upper, and two side plates, all connected to the
central frame by toggle joints, so as to give both an upper and lateral thrust by
these plates upon elongation of the central frame by the action of the ankle toggle
joints.
For the stretching of the leg of a hunting, Wellington, or military boot, I use
two or more curved plates fitting the leg of the, boot and attached as above
described by pivoted toggle joints to a central frame or bar, the leg plates being
thrust outwards by the toggle joints when the central bar or frame is thrust
downwards into the boot.
Such an upper stretcher is fitted so as to be used with and clear the foot-boot-
stretcher as above described.
Dated this 23rd day of Santambar 1902

page_text: COMPLETE SPECIFICATION.
An Improved Boot-tree or Stretcher.
I, HENRY LOUIS LEE of the Junior Army and Navy Club, Saint James Street
in the County of Middlesex, Captain in Her Majesty's Service, do hereby
declare the nature of this invention and the manner in which the same is to be
performed to be particularly described and ascertained in and by the following
statement:-
My invention relates to the means employed for stretching boots, when not in
wear, and consists of an improved tree, which is cheaply made of great efficiency
and simplicity, and is less cumbersome for transport, being of small weight and
capable of being packed, into small compass.
My improved tree may be applied either for the stretching of the foot of the
boot, or for the stretching of the leg or upper part of a riding, Wellington, or
military boot.
And in order that my invention may be the better understood, I now proceed to
describe the same in relation to the drawings hereto annexed and to the figures and
letters marked thereon.
Fig. 1 is an elevation of my apparatus.
Fig. 2 is a plan of the same with the top plate removed.
Fig. 3 shows a modification of Fig. 1 to a smaller scale, and
Fig. 4 is a sectional elevation of my apparatus applied to both the foot and leg
of a riding, Wellington, or military boot.
The essence of my apparatus, common to all modifications shown, is that the
stretching effect of the various plates or moulds, inside the foot or leg of the boot,
is produced by hinged or pivotted pairs of toggle joints, which are forced by the
pressure of the hand to lie nearly in a line to one another, thus producing a greatly
increased outward thrust towards their ends or extremities.
A is the upper plate of metal or any suitable material moulded to suit the
required shape of the upper part of the boot, and in Figs. 1 2 and 3, it is combined
with a sole plate B and a heel plate C. In Fig. 3 a special toe plate D is added
to the combination, and in Fig. 4 the sole plate may be dispensed with as shewn,
whilst other leg plates E. E. are added to fit the leg of a long riding, Wellington,
or military boot.
In each case these plates are connected together by toggle joints F. F, pivotted
or hinged at the plates, and also to one another where they meet.
In Figs. 1 and 2 the said toggle joints F F are pivotably connected at their
centre pivots to another pair of horizontal toggle levers G. G, which are pivotably
attached, at the other end, to the heel plate C. Or these toggle joints G G may be
duplicated to bend both up and down, and their centres may be connected by a
right and left handed screw to draw them together.
The pins H. H. may be readily taken out so that the upper plate A can be
easily removed for the substitution of another one if desired.
The ends of the toggle joints G G, and the end of one or more of the toggle
joints F., are perforated with a series of holes, so that their length may be regulated
at will, to put any desired strain upon either the toe-end or the instep end of the
plate A, before the levers or toggles G G are brought down to their final
horizontal position, beyond which they cannot go, as the tail of one lever laps upon
the other, and forms a detent.
The pivots K may also be utilized as screw clamps to fix the toggle joints G in
any desired angular position to one another. By removal of one of the screws K,
the plates A and C may be collapsed, and the levers G and plate C folded over on
the plate B for transport.
In Figure 3 a single central adjustable bar L connects the central pivots of the
toggle joints F F, and is continued by an adjustable part M to a toe piece D.

page_text: The rear set of toggles F F is connected by the further pair of toggle joints G G
to the heel piece C, the whole stretching action of the tree being in this case
effected by the depression of a single pair of toggle joints G.
In Figure 4, the tree applied to the foot of the boot may consist only of an upper
plate A and a heel plate C connected by two pairs of pivotted toggle joints & G
and N N.
The two leg plates E E may be afterwards inserted into the leg of the boot, and
may be arranged so as to mortice into or fit over a part of the lower foot tree, and
these plates are connected by two or more sets of toggle joints P P, preferably
pivotted to one leg plate and hooked into the other.
Having now particularly described and ascertained the nature of my inven-
tion and the manner in which it is to be performed, I declare that what I
claim is:-
1st. A boot-tree or stretcher, consisting of plates or moulds connected to one
another by pairs of toggle joints, which produce the outward stretching pressure
by being pressed from an angular position, one to another, into a straight line, one
to another, substantially as described.
2nd. In a boot-tree or stretcher, an upper and sole plate or mould connected by
two or more pivotted toggle joints in combination with a heel plate connected to
the centre of each of the said toggles respectively, by a further horizontal toggle
joint or joints, substantially as described.
3rd. In a boot-tree or stretcher an upper and sole plate connected by two or more
toggle joints in combination with a central adjustable bar or frame carrying a toe
piece and abutting upon a heel piece by a further horizontal toggle joint or joints,
substantially as described.
4th. In a boot tree or stretcher the combination of an upper plate and heel plate
or any number of mould plates connected by pairs of adjustable toggle joints in
combination with two or more leg plates or moulds, connected by two or more
toggle joints, substantially as described.
Dated this 11th day of November 1893.
FELL & WILDING,
1, Queen Victoria Street, London, E.C., Agents for the Applicant.