US129389A - Improvement in india-rubber overshoes - Google Patents

Description

E. F; B'ICKFORD.

Improvement in india-Rubber Overshoes.

No. 129,389-.V Patentediufyls, 1872.

UNITED STATES PATENT OEEICE.

ERSKINE F. BICKFORD, OF MALDEN, MASSACHUSETTS.

IMPROVEMENT IN INDIA-RUBBER OVERSHOEAS.

Specification forming part of Letters Patent No. 129,389, dated July 16, 1872.

To allpersons to whom thesepresents may come:

Be it known that I, ERsKINE F. BICKEORD,

-of Malden, of the county of Middlesex and State of Massachusetts, have invented a new and useful Improvement in India-Rubber Overshoes 5 and do hereby declare the same to be fully described in the following specication and represented in the accompanyin g drawing, of which- Figure l is a side elevation, and Fig. 2 a longitudinal section, of one of my improved India-rubber overshoes. Fig. 3 is a top view, and Fig. 4 an edge view, of one of the stiffenerplates.

Common India-rubber overshoes as usually made, unlike ordinary walkin g shoes or boots, have what is termed a heel-receiving chamber back of the shank, and depressed below such, and directly over the heel, the object of such heel-chamber being to receive the heel of the shoe or boot to be protected by the overshoe. In consequence of the necessary form of the shank or arch thereof, as shown in Fig. l, (the back of the shank constituting the front boundary of the heel-chamber a,) and in consequence of the shank being generally thin and very ilexible, the shbe, on being depressed at the heel, will bend down so as not to readily slip olf the foot when thereon, and an attempt is made to remove thel shoe from the foot or a boot or shoe thereon. Furthermore, the shoe is liable to give way or break down at the front of the -heel-chamber or junction of such and the shank, so as to let the foot or shoe, when in the overshoe, press forward so as to stretch the overshoe in its front part and loosen its t at the heel; it being frequently the case that an overshoe, when loose-tting at the heel and the shank, is very iiexible, becomes readily accidentally pulled off or detached from the foot of the wearer from causes well understood. A

In carrying out my invention, I combine with the rubber overshoe A (especially what is termed a self-acting7 or low-cut?7 shoe, as shown) a thin strengthening-plate, b, of metal, (as spring-steel, for instance,) arranged within the shank and extended into the heel un- -derneath the heel-chamber a, such plate being generally placed between the insole or solelining c and the sole d and heel b', all being asshown in the drawing, and the plate being cemented to the parts above and below it. The plate, besides stiifening the shank, serves, while the overshoe may be in wear, to prevent vthe heel of the shoe or boot that may be Within the overshoe from being driven forward so as to break down the shoe at the shank, or cut or break the shoe at the junction of the shank and the heel. Besides, the 'stiffener serves to hold the shoe back in place in the overshoe, so as to prevent looseness of t at the heel or stretching of the shoe on the quarters.

With the shank and heel re-enforced in manner as set forth, and the re-enforce or plate b arranged therewith and with the heel-chamber in manner as described, important adva tages or new results are obtained in the Indiarubber overshoe to what follows from a common shank piece or stiifener, as heretofore used in a leather boot or shoe.

I make no claim to a common boot or shoe provided with a shank-stitfener, whether it be a metallic plate or plates, or be composed of wood, such shoes having no heel-chamber.

I claim-' As a new or improved manufacture, an India-rubber water-proof overshoe made with a heel-receiving space or chamber, a, and provided with a thin plate shank-stift'ener, b, arranged in the shank and heel and with respect to the heel space or chamber, as set forth.

ERSKINE F. BIGKFORD.

Witnesses:

l It. H. EDDY,

J. R. SNOW.

Images