US38377A - Improvement in skirt-wire - Google Patents

Description

PATENT OFFICE.

THEODORE D. DAY, OF BROOKLYN, NEW YORK.

IMPROVEMENT IN SKIRT-WIRE.

Specification forming part of Letters Patent No. 38,377, dated May 5, 1863.

To all whom it may concern.-

Be it known that l, THEODORE D. DAY, of Brooklyn, in the county of Kings and State of New York, have invented, made, and applied to use a certain new and useful Improvement in Wire for Skeleton Skirts; and I do hereby declare the following to be a full, clear, and and exact description of the said invention.

The flat wire or springs employed in skeleton skirts is usually covered with braiding,

and this braiding has been more firmly affixed to the wire by sizing, through which the braided wire is passed and afterward dried and pressed. In all instances where steel wire is employed for skirts it is liable to rust, which immediately stains the braiding and disfigures the skirt. Besides this, the lower parts of the skirt very quickly become soiled by mud, water, and dirt in walking, and these parts of the skirt are always those observed if the dress is slightlylifted; hence ladies very often desire to have the skirt washed around the bottom to remove the soiled appearance. This heretofore could not be done, because the wire would rust and injure the appearance still more.

The nature of my said invention consists in a water-proof skirt-wire that will not be rusted by the dampness or wet to which it is exposed in wear, and will allow of the wire being washed to remove mud, or the fabric surrounding said wire to be washed for cleansing the same without being injured by rust from the wire. To accomplish this object, I employ a water-proof coating, applied to the wire in any of the modes practiced in the arts. In illustration I may state the following methods: First, the wire may be coated with such water-proof material by applying it with a brush or passing the wire through the same and allowing it to dry, and then braiding on the covering in the usual manner; or, second, thebraiding may be applied to the wire immediately after the application of the first or second coat of said water-proof material, in which instance the braiding or covering will be held to the wire,

and not slip on the same when in use, by the said water-proofmaterial as itdries; or, third, the braiding or covering may be covered with or dipped into the water-proof material with the wire after the wire has been covered, and in all instances any desired color may be employed for the waterproofing-coating; or, fourth, the ordinary braiding may be applied outside the waterproof braiding applied as aforesaid.

In cases where skirts are made of muslin with tucks or pockets containing wires the skirt can be washed without removing the wires, where said wires have been rendered water-proof in the manner aforesaid.

The article which I thus produce of waterproof wire for skeleton skirts is a new article of manufacture, very useful and much needed in the skirt business, for the best-made skirts become unfit for wear in consequence of the dirt before they are injured by use; hence a great saving will be effected and agreat convenience obtained by the em ploymentof waterproof skirt-wire.

I am aware that it is common to paint and varnish wire and other manufactures of iron and steel. I am also aware that common wire has been insulated by wrapping and coating for philosophical purposes. These processes I do not claim. My improvement relates solely to preventing the oxidizing of the peculiar manufacture of flat spring-steel known in commerce and the arts as skirt-wire, and has for its ultimate object the preservation of a portion of the apparel of women, in a manner heretofore unknown in the arts. Therefore I claim- Water-proof skirt-wire prepared substantially as described.

In witness whereof I have hereunto set my signature this 18th day of July, 1862.

. THEO. D. DAY.

Witnesses:

' LEMUEL W. SERRELL, CHAS. H. SMITH.