US559311A - Toe-cap for boots or shoes - Google Patents

Description

I (No Model.) I

' A. SHAVER.

TOE GAP FOR BOOTSUR $HOES.

No. 559,311. V Patentedlkpr. 28, L896.

\A/ITNEESEEI INVENTDHE amba W- ATENT rricn.

AUGUSTUS SEAVER, OF BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS.

TOE-CAP FOR BOOTS ORSHOES.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent N 0.. 559,3l1, dated April 28, 1896. Application filed September 14,1895. Serial No. 562,540. (No model.)

To all whom it may concern.-

Be it known that I, AUGUSTUS SEAVER, of Boston, in the county of Suffolk and State of Massachusettsfliave invented certain new and useful Improvements in Toe-Caps for Boots or Shoes, of which the following is a specification.

This invention relates to boot and shoe toecaps having permanently glossy facings, such as are produced by the application of japan or enamel to the leather body of the toe-cap. Heretofore' such facings have always been applied to the leather body while the latter is flat and afterward shaped by the operation of lasting or incorporating the leather body into the boot or shoe. The nature of said facing is such, however, that the tension to which it is subjected by the operation of bonding and stretching the leather body is liable to crack the facing and thusgreatly injure its appearance. The cracks are not always formed when the leather body is first shaped or lasted, but often appear subsequently. They are especially liable to appear on an abruptly-curved portion of the facing, such as that formed by applying the leather body to a last having a pointed toe. This liability of the glossy facing to crack is a source of great difficulty, annoyance,and expense, often resulting in the return of the goods to the manufacturer and requiring much expenditure of time and labor in repairing or renewing the facing.

My invention has for its object to overcome this difficulty and to provide for the use of shoe manufacturers a toe-cap ready for incorporation into a boot or shoe and having a glossy toe-facing, which, While possessing the usual characteristics of an ordinary patentleather facing as to permanent gloss and resistance to water, is free from tensile or cracking strain, and can be relied upon to stand in a boot or shoe Without cracking, even at the abrupt curves of pointed toes, a desideratum which has never before been attained.

The invention consists in a toe-cap comprising a lasted body having a flange for attachment to a boot or shoe and a toe-facing of japan or enamel deposited or modeled in toe-cap shape While in a plastic condition and subsequently hardened to make said shape permanent, said facing being waterproof and characterized by freedom from cracking strain.

Of the accompanying drawings, forming a part of this specification, Figure 1 represents a perspective view of a toe-facing embodying my invention, and Fig. 2 represents a sectional view of the same.

In carrying out my invention I take a leather body I) that has been previously lasted or shaped to conform to the shape of the toe portion of a last, so that it requires no further stretching or fitting in incorporating it into a boot or shoe, and deposit or model thereon a permanently glossy waterproof facing c, composed of japan or any other suitable preparation or composition, said facing being applied in a liquid or plastic state to the body I) and then completed or hardened by the application of heat. The characteristics of the facing as to permanent gloss and resistance to water are the same as those of the coating or facing of ordinary patent-leather; but, unlike the ordinary patent-leather toe-facing found in a boot or shoe, it is further characterized by an entire freedom from cracking strain When incorporated into the boot or shoe. It will be seen that the facing formed or modeled while in a soft or plastic condition and subsequently set or hardened is not only free from cracking strain, but is firmly set or fixed in the desired form. The toe-cap may, therefore, be kept in stock by the manufacturer ready for application to a boot or shoe, and when applied the facing may be relied upon to retain both its predetermined form and its continuity without liability of cracking and losing its waterproof character. The leather body I) is provided with a flange or lip extending along its lower edge below the exposed portion of the facing for attachment to a boot or shoe. The said body is here shown as internally reinforced by a layer a of buckram or other stiffening material.

I claim- As an article of manufacture a toe-cap comprising a lasted body having a flange for attachment to a boot or shoe, and a modeled facing composed of a material or composition formed 011 said body While in a plastic contwo subscribing witnesses, this 7th day of Sepdition and subsequently hardened, said. fatember, A. D. 1895.

eing being characterized by a permanently glossy Waterproof surface, free from crack- AUGUSTUS SEAVER.

ing strain. Witnesses:

In testimony whereof I have signed my A. D. HARRISON, name to this specification, in the presence of V. P. ABELL.

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