US575598A - Dress-stay - Google Patents

Description

A (No Modl.)

B. T. DURFEE.

DRESS STAY. 5

No. 575,598. l v Patented Jan. 19, 1897.

UNITED STATES BENJAMIN 'l. DURFEE, `OF WICHITA, KANSAS.

DRESS-STAY.

` SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 575,598, dated January 19, 189'?.

` Application tiled January 13, 1896. Serial No. 575,314. (No model.)

To @ZZ whom t may concern:

Be it known that I, BENJAMIN T. DURFEE, a citizen of the United States, residing at Wichita, in the county of Sedgwick and State of Kansas, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Dress-Stays; and I do hereby declare the following to be afull, clear, and exact description of the invention, such as will enable others skilled in the art to which it appertains to make and use the same.

A dress stay or stiffener as usually constructed consists of a thin flat strip or piece of steel or other similar flexible and resilient material enveloped in a casing of textile material permanently secured thereto. These stays generally come from the manufacturer in lengths of seven, eight, nine, and ten inches, requiring the dealer to keep all of such sizes in stock. In tting these stays to dresses to adjust them to fractions of an inch it is necessary to cut off the required length when too long, which is a very vexatious operation and which frequently results in ruining the stay or so injuring the same as to make a perfect fit impossible. Vhen the stays are too short, it is necessary to replace them with longer ones.

The object of my invention is to produce a dress-stay which can be readily adjusted, so as to increase or decrease its length; and it consists, essentially, in two sections, the inner ends of which overlap each other and are provided with a series of holes adapted to register with each other, an inclosing casing of textile material permanently secured at one end to one of said sections, but disconnected from the other section, and means for holding said sections in their adjusted positions, as will be hereinafter fully described and claimed.

In the accompanying drawings, Figure lis a dress-stay constructed in accordance with my invention. Fig. 2 is a similar View with the casing cut away to show the resilient sections. Fig. 3 is a cross-section of the stay.

In the said drawings the reference-numeral 1 designates one of the sections, consisting of a thin fiat strip of steel or other similar flexible and resilient material, provided with a hole 2 near its outer end, one or more holes 3 near the center, and a hole 4 near the inner end.

The numeral 5 designates the other section, of similar material, having a hole 6 near its outer end and a series of holes 7 at the inner end at short intervals or distances from each other.

The numeral 8 designates the casing or covering, consisting of two strips of any suitable textile material somewhat wider than said sections and stitched together near the edges, forming a pocket in which said sections are located. One end of this casing or pocket is secured to section l by an eyelet 9, passing therethrough and through the hole 2, and is also secured to one of the strips of the section between its ends by a similar eyelet passing through the hole 3. rlhe opposite end of the casing is open and disconnected from the section 5, which fits loosely therein. The said casing is of a length equal to the greatest extent to which the sections can be adjusted, and the said sections may be held stationary with respect to each other by stitching or sewing through the casin g and the holes 3 and 7 in the said sections.

When fitting the stay to a dress, the threads which hold said sections together are cut, where the inner ends of the sections can be moved upon each other, so as to bring the outer ends of the same nearer together or farther apart, as the case may be, and thus decrease or increase the length of the stay. The said sections are then secured in their adjusted positions by again sewing through the holes 3 and 7 or the holes 4 and 7, and the disconnected end of the casing or that end which is not secured to the section 5 is turned back upon the stay and stitched to the casing, or said end may be cut oif and the casing secured to the section 5 by an eyelet passing through the hole 6 in the outer end thereof, or said end may be simply sewed.

From the above it will be seen that the stay can be readily adjusted to vary its length without the necessity of cutting off the stiffening material or strip, enabling dressmakers to easily fit them to dress-waists of different lengths and rendering it unnecessary for dealers to carry a number of different lengths of stays in stock, as is now the custom.

Having thus fully described my invention, what I claim is l. As an improved article a dress-stay consisting of two iiexible and resilient stiieners, the inner ends of which overlap and are movable upon each other, each having` a hole near its outer end and a series of holes near its inner end, the two series being so located as to register with cach other and the casing or pocket of textile material in which said sections are located, permanently secured to one of said sections but disconnected from the other section, substantially as described.

2. As an improved article a dress-stay consisting of two flexible and resilient sections, the inner ends of which overlap and are Inovable upon each other and formed with a hole near the outer ends and with a series of registering holes at the inner or overlapping ends, the casing` or pocket of textile material in which said sections are located, permanently secured at one end to one of said scctions but the other end free or disconnected from the other section and means for temporarily securing1 the free sections to the casing, substantially as described.

3. In a dress-stay, the combination with the overlappin g' sections movable upon each other and having a series of holes at their inner ends and a hole near their outer ends, of the casing or pocket of textile material in which said sections are located, the eyelet at 011e end thereof passing through the hole at the outer end of one of said sections, the eyelct passing through the intermediate hole and the opposite end of said casing closed but not connected with the other section, substantially as described.

In testimony whereof I affix my signature in presence of two witnesses.

BENJAMIN T. DURFEE.

Titnessesz L. F. IIARsoN, JOHN C. KELLY.

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