US1285533A - Heel-blank for boots and shoes. - Google Patents

Description

E. E. WlNKLEY. HEEL BLANK FOR BOOTS AND SHOES. APP llllllllllllll AR. 111111 a.

1 ,285,533. I Patented Nov 19, 1918.

"UNITED STATES PATENT @FFIQE.

ERASTUS E. WINKLEY, 0F LYNN, MASSACHUSETTS, ASSIGNOR T0 UNITED SHOE MACHINERY CORPORATION, OF PATEBSON, NEW JERSEY, A CORPORATION OF NEW JERSEY.

HEEL-BLANK FOR BOOTS AND SHOES.

Specification of Letters Patent.

Original application filed November 19. 1914, Serial No. 872,989. Divided and this Epplication filed. March 23, 1918. Serial No. 224,172.

To all whom it may concern Be it known that I, ERAsTUs E. WINKLEY, a citizen of the United States, residing at Lynn, in the county of Essex and State of Massachusetts, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Heel-Blanks for Boots and Shoes; and I do hereby 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 heel blanks for boots and shoes, more particularly to heel blocks from which finished heels are ultimately produced, and is particularly, although not necessarily, applicable to the manufacture of heels from the cheaper heelstock material such as leather-board or an analogous composition.

In the inventors co-pending application for a method of making heels, Serial No.

872,989, filed November 19, 1914, from which the present application is a division, it is pointed out that under the present commercial method of making heels, in which the lifts are dinked from the sheet heel stock by means of dies, much expense is incurred in maintaining the special dies as well as an undesirable waste of stock in using the dies. Accordingly the inventor conceived the method described in said application which eliminates the use of dies in the production of heel lifts substituting therefor straight edged knives which will produce lifts of polygonal form. These lifts are produced, preferably, in series, graded as to area, and are assembled together in heel piles the same as the old style lifts. After the heel pile has been formed by securing together a definite number of lifts the heel block thus produced is shaped to the usual heel form and is then compressed, by any suitable heel compressing machine, into a commercial heel blank.

Important and useful advantages flow from the use of this method of making heels one of which is the production, by inexpensive stock cutting machinery, of lifts which are polygonal in plan. These are built in the usual way into a heel block, or unshaped heel, which can later be shaped to any required style of heel. Obviously the heel blocks may advantageously be made by the heel manufacturer in a few general sizes which will simplify the machinery and provide for speedy production of the heel blocks in large quantities. These will then be shipped to the shoe manufacturers who will have the special knives required to shape the heel blocks to the size and contour of any particular style of heel which he is making. The heel manufacturer is thus enabled to eliminate the cost of all machinery for producing heel lifts, by dies or otherwise; and the shoe manufacturer obtains the blanks for his heels at less cost than formerly.

The object of the present invention is to produce a heel block of such contour as to provide for the advantages just described. To the accomplishment of this object the invention comprises a blank, for use in the production of heels, having the characteristic features hereinafter described and defined in the appended claims.

In the accompanying drawings, which serve to illustrate the invention, Figures 1 and 2 show two steps in the manufacture of polygonal lifts; Fig. 3 shows a plan of a heel block built by assembling a series of rectangular lifts, graded as to area as shown in Fig. 2, and Fig. 4 shows a perspective of a heel block built from rectangular lifts and then having its rear corners slabbed off.

In the following description the heel stock material of whatever character it may be, will, for convenience of nomenclature be referred to as leatherboard simply.

One method of producing the heel block shown in Fig. 3 is illustrated in Figs. 1 and 2, the leatherboard sheets being first severed into strips 10, which for the production of pitched heels are graded as to width, from which rectangular lifts 12, graded as to area, may be produced. The waste pieces 14, which are not large enough for lifts, are sold to the leatherboard manufacturer and used again in making new sheets of leatherboard.

In cutting the lifts from the leatherboard sheets straight-edged knives are used having cutting edges which will produce a beveled edge 16 at one side of the severed lift, and in assembling the lifts in a heel pile care is taken to place these beveled edges all at one side of the pile to provide for an Patented N 0v. 19, 1918. 4

bly produces a "truncated,stepped pyramid having one vertical side, which provides the heel. body shape required for a large majority of the heels which are made, especially for mens wear; For other heel styles, for example, French heels having a cut-under breast, the vertical side of the stepped heel pile is not essential. lateral surfaces of the heel block thus prepared, lie in planes closely approximating the pitch or angularity of the lateral surfaces of the finished heel which is ultimately produced therefrom. Furthermore, lifts can be so cut, with respect to gradations in area, that a heel block can be formed that will have this characteristic relation to the lateral surface of any shape of heel that is required. This is important, as by reason of such selection of the lifts, stock is not wasted and the later shaping of the heel blocks is facilitated.

In order that the shaping step may be made as easy as possible, both for the operative and the shaping cutter, it has been found to be advantageous, although not es sential, to bevel or slab off, with a straightedged knife, the two rear corners of the heel block shown in Fig. 3. This produces the form of heel block shown in Fig. 4, with five sides surrounding the lateral surface of the heel. By reference to the dot-ted lines in- Figs. 3 and 4: it will be observed that each of the sides of the heel block lies in a plane generally tangential to the curve required in the adjacent lateral, surface of the finished heel, the block of Fig. 4 giving the closer approximation to the final form. It will be noted that in Fig. i a heel block of the wedge type is shown, that is, a wedge lift 18 has been introduced at a convenient point between the straight lifts so as to produce a,

blank high at the back suitable for shaping into such styles of heels as the Cuban and military. It should be understood that the invention is not confined to the making of this particular type of heel. In preparing the usual wedge strips, from which Copies of this patent may be obtained for five cents each, by addressing the Commissioner of latents,

It will be observed that the r the polygonal wedge lifts are to be severed, care is taken to provide a beveled edge at the thick side of the strip. The wedge lifts will then fit to the best advantage into the pitched side of the heel block.

The present inventor believes himself to be the first to conceive of a heel blank composed of a series of lifts any lateral section of which is polygonal and the sides of which lie in planes closely approximating the variations in the pitch or angularity of the lateral surface of the finished heel to be pro duced therefrom.

Having thus described the invention and pointed out its characteristic features, what is claimed as new, is:

1. A blank for use in the production. of heels, composed of a pile of superposed lifts any lateral section of which is polygonal, and the sides of which lie in planes closely approximating the variations in the pitchor angularity required in the finished heel at its lateral surface.

2. A laminated heel block, for use in the production of a heel blank, composed of a series of lifts "polygonal in plan and graded as to area, superposed on each other with their edges at one side relatively arranged in a stepped formation to provide a pitch for the back of the heel blank.

3. A laminated heel block, for use in the production of a heel blank, having polygonal heel seat and tread faces, a flat breast surface, and a slanted, stepped rear surface.

l. A laminated heel block, for use in the production of a heel blank, composed of a series of polygonal lifts, graded as to area, piled in the general form of a truncated pyramid. i

5. A blank, for use in the production of heels, composed of a pile of lifts graded as to area, each of which is polygonal in plan and provided with one beveled edge, said beveled edges being laid in stepped formation all at the same side of the blank.

6. A blank, for use in the production of heels, composed of a series of lifts piled in the form of a truncated pyramid, any lateral section of which is polygonal, and the sides of which lie in planes which are generally tangential to the curve required in the adjacent lateral surface of the finished heel.

ERASTUS E. \VINKLE Y.

Washington, I). 0.

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