IMPROVEMENTS IN BOOT AND SHOE HEELS
Year: 1872

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by William Robert Lake at the
Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the
1st June 1872. A communication from abroad by Antoine Leopold
Chéradame, Stephen Joseph Ignacy Zarzecki, and Victor Charles
Jules Oursel, all of Paris, France.
I, WILLIAM ROBERT LAKE, of the Firm of Haseltine, Lake, & Co.,
Patent Agents, Southampton Buildings, London, do hereby declare the
nature of the said Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN BOOT AND SHOE HEELS,"
a communication, to be as follows:-
This Invention relates to heels for boots and shoes which may be
called anti-distorting heels; fits object is to obviate the inconvenience
arising from defects in walking, that is to say, the distortion of the
heels either outward or inward, such distortion being rectified by this
Invention without the aid of a shoemaker.
The said Invention consists in adapting to the under surface of the
heel of a boot or shoe, that is to say, the surface ordinarily in contact
with the ground, a metallic horse-shoe shaped armature which is placed
around the edge of the heel, in its cross section it resembles angle iron,

page_text: and it is secured to the heel by pegs or screws with countersunk heads.
This metal piece is pierced with a row or several rows of holes at a
convenient distance apart to receive screws with square heads. These
heads have at the base a circular rim whereby the distance to which the
said screws enter the heel is limited. The heads are of such dimensions
that they project slightly beyond the edge of the metal piece so that they
constitute the surface in contact with the ground.
It is a peculiar feature of this Invention that for the same heel the
screw heads have different heights, the highest being placed at the side
where there is a tendency of the heel to distortion.
By the above description it will be seen that great advantages
result from this Invention. It obviates the necessity for the frequent
exchange, repair, or renewal of the heel and the loss of time resulting
from the same; any person can rectify the wear produced by the dis-
tortion of the boot or shoe by placing upon the heel in the proper
places screws with heads of the required height; the exchange of
screws may be easily and promptly effected. To prevent the slackening
of the screws during a long walk or from wear or otherwise, a brass
wire is passed through a hole in each screw head to secure them firmly
one to another.
Furthermore the said Invention is advantageous in frosty weather,
as it permits the screws with the heads shaped as above described to be
exchanged for screws with pointed heads, thereby forming what may be
termed an ice shoe.
In order that the said Invention may be more perfectly understood, I
have illustrated the same in the accompanying Drawing.
Figure 1 is a side elevation of a boot heel constructed according to
this Invention; Figure 2 is a bottom view of the same; Figure 3 is a
vertical section on the line 1, 2, Figure 2; Figure 4 is a vertical section
on the line 3, 4, Figure 1; Figure 5 shows a plan, an edge view, and a
longitudinal section of the aforesaid metal piece to be placed on
the heel; Figure 6 shows two elevations and a plan of the square
headed screws. Like letters indicate the same parts throughout the
Drawing.
a is the heel, which may be of any ordinary form and construction;
b, the iron piece having the cross sectional form of angle iron as seen
in Figure 5, it is fixed upon the under surface of the heel a by screws

page_text: or otherwise; c, c, are the holes formed in the said iron piece for the
square-headed screws d, whose heads e as before stated have different
lengths; fis the rim or base of these screws which limits their depth
in the heel; g is the hole made in each screw head for the passage of
the brass wire has shown in Figures 2 and 3, which wire secures the
heads together as above described.