IMPROVEMENTS IN AND APPER- TAINING TO APPARATUS FOR USE IN CUTTING OUT GARMENTS BY WHICH THE SHAPE OF THE BODY CAN BE ACCURATELY OBTAINED
Year: 1881

page_text: A
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by William Phillips Thompson at the
Office of the Commissioners of Patents on the 9th December 1881.
communication from Auguste Bornet, of Dijon, in the Republic of France.
WILLIAM PHILLIPS THOMPSON, of the Agency for Foreign Patent Solicitors,
6, Lord Street, Liverpool, in the County of Lancaster, and of 323, High Holborn,
in tho County of Middlesex, Civil Engineer. "IMPROVEMENTS IN AND APPER-
TAINING TO APPARATUS FOR USE IN CUTTING OUT GARMENTS BY WHICH THE
SHAPE OF THE BODY CAN BE ACCURATELY OBTAINED." A communication from
abroad from Monsieur Auguste Bornet, of Dijon, in the Republic of France.
This Invention is best described by giving the actual words (translated) of the
communication forwarded to me by my French correspondent which are as
follows.
My Invention consists in a device or appliance.
Serving to take the rigorous form of the body upon which it is adapted. The
apparatus is then developed and serves in this state as a pattern (" patron ") for
cutting the clothing. This apparatus, to enable the system to be better understood
is represented in the annexed Drawings as a sample only not as actually binding
the Invention to the special arrangement shown.
Fig. 1 represents the system in its most simple application and arranged so as
best to display the principle.
Fig. 2 is an enlarged detail of the same.
Fig. 3 represents a variation of the same system of "conformateur."
The principle of my "conformation apparatus" rests entirely upon an arrange-
ment of extensible "assemblages" composed of triangles of which the number
can be modified for each different case.
The apparatus consists of a sort of corset of sufficiently elastic caoutchouc knitting.
or other matter or tissue permitting the attainment of the same end. Figure 1
represents one half of this knitting.
The assemblage is composed of metallic bars or blades, a extensible as will be
seen further on by means of slides b. The bars a are composed of two parts the
free extremities of which cross each other in a flat coiled spring shown more clearly

page_text: The
in Fig. 2. The two opposite extremities of these bars are fixed by rivets c.
bars or blades a can be in metal horn whalebone or any other material that is
souple and flexible. They are pierced with little holes serving to form a stop when
the proportions of the person to be clothed have been obtained. This stop takes
place either by means of a spring or cam lever d as in Figure 1 or by means of a
set screw as in Figure 3.
The corset adjusts itself upon the person by the action of the springs c tending
constantly to close in. It is then that all the system is rendered rigid and
unalterable by lowering the levers d or by tightening the set screws f of the
Figure 3.
During the operation the apparatus is fixed upon the bust by means of lugs g
placed upon the shoulders adapting themselves into corresponding buttons. I
reserve to myself the right of employing other modes of attachment.
When the corset has rigorously espoused the form of the body and when the
blades or sides of the triangles are fixed it suffices to unhook and take off the
apparatus to obtain a pattern which constitutes the "patron" or template of the
clothing required to be made.
The two parts of the corset reunito before and behind by hooks or other
system of attachment.
•
The-modified-apparatus-shown in the Figure 3_is_a_corset or knitting of which
the edges are bound by a small coiled spring. The edges of the front, the back and
the shoulders are armed on the inside with a flat steel spring the length of which
is modified as will be seen but which is fixed by the aid of a set screw when the
corset is rigorously fitted to the form of the body. Upon these springs abut the
sides of the extensible triangles and they are garnished for this purpose and from
distance to distance with bands of leather upon which the sides of said triangles
are joined to form the summits of the angles. The end of each blade a of these
triangles is fixed upon the bands of leather by means of an eyelet hook as shown
in Figure 4 in which it is rivetted but in such manner as to be able to freely turn
in the hook round the rivet i.
At the lower and exterior part is disposed a little blade of steel upon which
slides the screw with ring or washer and hook which supports the coiled spring
Z regulating the height.
This disposition can be raised or lowered at pleasure in order that the different
points of the height to be thus regulated may find themselves well in the same
horizontal plane the spring is sustained itself by springs m also exterior. All
the mechanism herein described can be hid or covered in, in the corset or between
two surfaces knit together and I intend to reserve to myself the application of the
same system as well for the cutting out of ladies' clothes as for men's.
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