US1115922A - Flexible outsole. - Google Patents

Description

F. M. FURBEB. FLEXIBLE OUTSOLE.

APPLIGATIQN FILED DEC 16, 1912.

Patented Nov. 3, 1914.

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UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

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Specification of Letters latent.

Application filed December 16, 1912. Serial No. 736,997.

FLEXIBLE OUTSOLE.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, FREDERICK M. FUR- nan, citizen of the United States, residing at Beachmont, in the county of Sufiolk and State of Massachusetts, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Flexible Outsoles; and I dohereby declare the following to be a full, 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.

This invention relates. to soles for boots and shoesand more particularly to flexible outsoles.

Some trouble has been ex erienced in having boots and shoes rip in t e shank portion and this is due, to some extent to the stiffness of the outsole. In securing the outsole to the shoe it is drawn up in an arch at the inside of the shank and owing to its tendencyto straighten out exerts a continual pull on the line of stitches which-in time, from this.

and additional causes, rip.

The object of the present invention is to produce an outsole that will retain itsiarched shape at the inside of the shank and thus relieve the strain on the stitches.

With this object in view-it is contemplated to provide the outsole with a flexible shank at the inside, and while this may be accomplished in several ways, it is proposed to provide the inside of the shank, on the flesh side of the sole, with one or more cuts or slits permitting this portion of the shank to give or flex as 1t is arched when the sole is applied to the shoe. In the preferred form 0 the invention the cuts or slits comprise a series of transverse, marginal slashes.

To the accomplishment of this object the invention comprises the novel, flexible outsole hereinafter described and defined in the appended claims. a

In the accompanying drawing, showing the best form of the invention at resent known, Figure 1 is a plan, showing t e flesh side of the outsole, Fig. 2 is view showin the novel outsole as applied to a shoe, whic is shown in dotted lines and Fig. 3 is a crosssection on the line 3-3 of Fig. 2.

In the illustrated embodiment of the invention the outsole a, which may be a dinked-out sole as shown or 'may be any other commercial form of outsole, is provided, on its flesh side with a seriesof trans,- verse, marginal slashes 6 located, at the instantially as described.

not be injured, although their depth is suflicient to sever the fiber of the leather in the fleshy surface of the sole. Owin to the fact that the arch at the inside of t e shank merges into a substantially straight line at the outside of the shank the necessit for flexibility decreases as the center 0 the shank is approached. It is therefore pre ferred, in order to obtain a better set of the outsole on the outside shank and so as not to undul weaken the outsole, to decrease the depth 0 the cut from c to d as shown in Fig. 3. When the outsole is sewed in place the openin of the slashes b, as shown in Fig. 2, rea ily permit the necessary bending at the shank and afford suflicient flexibility to overcome the strain present in the stiff shanks ofordinary outsoles. 1

While in the illustrated form of the-invention the cuts or slits b are shown as extending to the inside edge of the outsole, this is not essential in practising. the invention as the importance of the cutting of the outsole resides in such treatment of the sole as will make its margin at the inside shank flexible and not in the particular form or position of the cuts.

The nature and scope of the present invention having been indicated and the preferred embodiment of the invention having been Patented Nov. 3, 1914. i

specifically described, what is claimed as new, is

' 1. As an article of manufacture, a flexible 'outsole for boots and shoes having one or more cuts or slits in its flesh side at the inside of the central portion of the shank onl leaving the outside of the shank uncut, sn

2. As an article of manufacture, a flexible outsole for boots and shoes havin a series oftransverse slashes in its flesh side at the shank extending from the inner ed e of the sole part way across the width of t e shank and part way through its thickness, substantially as described. v

outsole for boots and shoes having a series of transverse slashes in its flesh side at the shank arranged radially with respect to the curvature of the edge of the shank, sub stantially as described.

FREDERICK M. FURBER.

Witnesses:

CHESTER E. ROGERS, RUTH E. \VARD.

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