US1009433A - Imitation willow plume. - Google Patents

Description

D. METZGER.

IMITATION WILLOW PLUME.

APPLICATION mum APRJY, 1911.

1,009,433, 7 Paten ted Nov. 21, 1911.

DAVID METZGER, OF NEW YORK, N. Y.

IMITATION wrLLow PLUME.

Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented Nov. 21, 1911.

Application filed April 17, 1911. Serial No. 621,658.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, DAVID METZGER, a citizen of the United States, residing at New York, county of New York, State of New York, have invented new and useful Improvements in Imitation WVillow Plumes, of which the following is a specification.

My invention relates to artificial feather plumes and more particularly to an imita-I interspersed with regions of dead or velvety tion of a drooping willow plume.

During the past five or siX years there has been a great demand for willow plumes. These Willow plumes are constructed from real ostrich feathers, in the following manner:-A real ostrich plume is taken and V to the ends of the flues are tied or knotted. additional flues of another plume so that the flue of the real ostrich feather is lengthened, being often twice the'length of the natural flue and thus a drooping or what.

is known to the trade as a willow effect is attained. These willow plumes being made of real ostrich feathers and having the ends knotted by hand are of course expensive and tedious to make.

As is well known, the genuine ostrich plume presents an appearance of rapid gradations and variations of light and shade which eflects are particularly noticeable in the plumes from the male ostrich. This effect is due to the fact that all ostrich feathers have horny but somewhat flexible branch spines radiating from the central quill or spine, and a microscopic examina tion will show that each one of these branched spines has two rows of very fine short radiating hairs very close together,

each series of hairs being located in a defi nite row or series. These hairs may be termed rays and are exceedingly small in breadth being somewhat flat like a blade of grass; they are also opaque and have a highly lustrous surface. These rays being in rows, and exceedingly close together, refleet the light from their flattened surface. The various flues on which are the rays have different positions so that whereas the rays of one flue may happen to be so positioned at one instant as to reflect light to the eye, the rays of another flue or series of flues may be so positioned as to reflect the light in another direction from another part or region of the feather. In this latter case such locality will appear a dead or velvety black because from this region the eye receives no light, the light going off plume constructed of silk strips, etc.

in some other direction. On the other hand where a series of rays happen to be so disposed that their flattened surfaces together reflect the light toward the eye this region will have a lustrous or brightened elfect. The whole result is that the complete plume presents a distinctively variegated appearance of light and shade, that is, of some lustrous areas extending along the flues, and

black. As is also well known, the ends of the flues of the natural ostrich plume have a tendency to curl upward naturally and this tendency is increased by the lengthening or willowing of the flues which has been described. It is to attain these variegated effects of light and shade and also the curl of the natural plume that this invention is directed. As is well known, all the elforts made heretofore to copy the veins of a natural feather, have consisted in making the flues of some fuzzy material such as chenille, worsted, 'etc., which effects have been entirely unsatisfactory.

On July 20th 1910, Letters Patent 96447 6 were issued to me for an imitation willow l\/Iy present invent-ion consists in treating the silk flues of the imitation willow plume in a manner so that each flue has a variegated effect of light and shade and also curls at the ends.

In the accompanying drawings: Figure 1 is a perspective view of an imitation willow plume made in accordance with my invention showing the gradations of light and shade as well as can be possibly shown by a drawing. Fig. 2 is a view of one of the flues treated by my process so as to produce the light and shade effect. Fig. 3 is a straight flue made of strips of silk. Fig. I is a view of one form of making a flue structure. Fig. 5 is another view and a modification.

The flues a of my plume are made of flexible, lustrous ribbozine which is the material referred to in my prior patent. The strip of ribbozine or flue is so treated as to impart to the strip the characteristics of the flues of a genuine feather. In the best construction embodying the invention the crinkly efiect will essentially include a diagonal striation b somewhatas illustrated in Fig. 2 this being the angle of the rays of the flue of a genuine feather. The feather may then be constructed as shown in my earlier patent above mentioned. The flue structure may be made by weaving a number of threads of the silk strips or ribbozine a back and forth in a suitable machine and then running a central seam a down the center to hold the flues together and then cutting the edges and sewing the flue structure thus made to the quill or I may put a spreader (Z underneath the flues if desired in order to give the plume a fuller effect. The flue structure may also be made by having a series of longitudinal central seams to take the place of the spreader. Or the flue structure may be made by simply sewing the threads on to the buckram or other kind of spreader (Z by machine or hand, but this last named process of construction is slow and expensive. I also may make the flue structure with the central longitudinal seam 0 and then sew the structure to the spreader by hand or machine and then pulling out the central longitudinal stitches. The detail manner of forming the flue structure is not important so far as this invention is concerned, the only important thing being to obtain an arrangement of the flues whereby they flow outwardly in a fluffy manner from both sides of the central quill and so as to have the spread which a genuine feather has near the spine. After the flue structure is secured to the quill e, the ends of the flues a are curled. The curling may be done by hand or by machine, preferably by machine.

Feathers embodying the present inven tion will essentially include a flue constituting the most important part of the invention and by virtue of which the distinctive appearance of a real plume is copied Copies of this patent may be obtained for with exact fidelity in the imitation. In the real plume the ends of the flues are so light and feathery in their texture and so flexible that they do not hang side by side in the manner of the main portion of the flues. It is evidently impossible to simulate this light and feathery texture of the extremities in the ribbozine, but the same effect so far as appearance is concerned I have found may be attained by mechanically curling the extremities of the individual flues some what in the manner shown in Fig. 2. With this construction the curves in the different flues cause the extremities to hang or extend in a manner which exactly simulates the appearance of the genuine article.

I claim:

1. An imitation willow plume containing a quill, a fine structure secured to said quill, said flue structure consisting of flues of ribbozine being crinkled diagonal to their length to produce light and shade effects.

2. In a plume of the kind described, a flue composed of silk strips having diagonal striations thereon so as to give the effect of light and shade and curled at the ends.

3. In a plume of the kind described, a flue structure composed of a series of silk strips fastened together by a seam, said strips having diagonal striations so as to give the variegated effect of light and shade.

In testimony whereof I have hereunto set my hand in the presence of two subscribing witnesses.

DAVID METZGER.

Vitnesses M. E. VVARLAND, CHRISTIAN H. ALMsTAEDT.

five cents each, by addressing the Commissioner of Patents, Washington, D. c.

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