US130026A - Improvement in boots and shoes - Google Patents

Description

T. H. DODGL ir nlprovement in Boots and Shoes.

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units IMPROVEMENT IN BOOTS AND SHOES.

Specification forming part of Letters Patent No. 130,026, dated July 30, 1872.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, THOMAS H. DODGE, of the city and county of Worcester and Commonwealth of Massachusetts, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Boots and Shoes; and I do hereby declare that the following is a full, clear, and exact description of the same, reference being had to the accompanying drawing, which forms a part of this specification, and in which Figure 1 represents a side view of a shoe embracing my improvements, the heel and a portion of the sole being shown in section. Fig. 2 represents, on a greatly enlarged scale, a section of a boot or shoe sole along the line of nailing, illustrating my improvement as applied to a boot or shoe having a double sole; and Fig. 3 represents a side view of a piece of the wire from a coil, of which the inetalpegs or rivets are cut off to be used for nailing on or attaching the soles.

To enable others skilled in the art to which my invention belongs to make and use the same, I will describe it in detail.

The nature of my invention relates to the. use of metal pegs or rivets cut from a wire for securing the soles to boots and shoes, which wire has a fine rib-burr or spiral thread raised upon its outer surface by means of passing the wire through a suitable die or dies, as hereinafter described; and also in the combination, with the surface of the wire, of a wax or other adhesive coating, as and for the purpose hereinafter set forth.

In the drawing, the part marked A A represents the outer sole. B indicates the inner sole, 0 the upper, and D the .heel of the shoe. I employ, for securing the soles AA and B to each other and to the upper 0, metal pegs or rivets cut from peculiarly-constructed wire, E, said wire having a fine continuous screw thread or raised spiral burr or rib, having a very slight pitch upon its outer surface, and the soles are attached by short pieces of said wire, which are cut off into pegs or rivets the proper length and driven through the soles by suitable machinery. The positions of the metal pegs or rivets are indicated at E, Figs. 1 and 2. The fine screw-thread, burr, or rib a is formed upon the wire E, which is first drawn smooth by passing the latter through a rapidly-revolving screw-cuttin g die or dies,

whereby a continuous spiral rib or thread is produced upon the surface of the wire, while at the same time such rib a upon the body of the wire is condensed or hardened to such an extent as to add greatly to the stiffness of the wire, in addition to the stiffness resulting from the rib or thread itself. This wire may be put up in suitable coils, of a size convenient to use upon the machines for cutting and driving it into the soles of the boots or shoes, and it may be coated with wax, gutta-percha, asphaltum,

and not screwed, into the work. The latter operation, owing to the fineness of the burrthread and the degree of pitch given it, would be not at all economical or practicable in a manufacturing sense. The roughness of the burr-edge, while it does notcut the leather to such an extent as to injure it, serves to hold the peg in place, bringing the leather around the peg to a slightly-ragged condition, with the fibers somewhat torn and spread so that they will engage in and take hold of the minute teeth of the burr-thread of the peg; and the wax or other adhesive material, em-

ployed as specifled,-con1pletes the union of the leather and peg, being peculiarly adapted for use in this connection, and with a peg having the above-described characteristics. The burredge of the wire prevents the wax from being scraped off from the peg when it is driven into the leather, and enables the peg to carry in with it all the wax needed to render secure the union of the fibers of the leather with the burr-edge of the peg.

When the pieces of wire E are driven into the leather the fibers of the leather press into the depressions between the threads or ribs of the wire, [and thereby render its hold in the leather very firm and secure, while the wax upon the wire adhering to the fibers of the leather prevents the latter from rusting, and precludes the possibility of any water working up through the soles of the boot or shoe around the wire, while at the same time forming an elastic connection between the metal pegs and leather.

This method of securing the soles possesses many advantages over the method of securing them with what is known as the cable screw-wire, or the Townsend method, so called, and upon which my method is an improvement. Among these advantages may be mentioned the following:

The cable screw-wire requires to be clinched upon the inner side of the sole in order to give the required hold upon the leather; whereas, with my improved method, the wire will have suflicient hold by simply driving it into the leather without clinching consequently it can be used in the construction of boots or shoes having much thinner soles than can be properly secured by the cable screw-wire, while it is equally applicable to heavywork. Another advantage is that the water does not work up through the soles around the wires or in the depression of the screw-thread or burr, as it sometimes does with the cable screw-wire, and as the ends of the pegs or wires do not necessarily require to be clinched they can be left below the surface of the inner sole, so that they will not rust and discolor the stockings of the wearer or press into and injure the bottoms of his feet. As the pitch of the thread or burr a is very slight, the pegs or rivets E do not have a tendency to work up through and project from the inner sole, even after the boot or shoe has beenworn for a long time.

The holding capacity of the pegs or rivets, made by my method, being much greater, as before explained, even without clinching, than that of the Townsend or cable -wire, so called, enables me to use a much smaller size of wire for similar classes of work, and the soles are thus rendered more pliable or elastic when bent, as in walking, thereby producing a more desirable boot or shoe, while a considerable saving is produced in the cost of metal or wire for the pegs or rivets.

It will be observed that my invention seems to accomplish what has been sought after for many years, viz., the proper and secure attachment of the soles of boots and, shoes by such instrumentalities as obviate the obj ections to the clinching of metal pegs or rivets,

as is practiced by the various methods heretofore in use, while at the same time rendering the shoe as unobjectionable in walking as sewed shoes, without the objections to sewed work, the greatest of which are the presence of the waxed threads on the inside of the inner sole and the liability of'the soles to separate as soon as the loop or lock of the thread upon the outer sole is worn off. In the drawing the metal'pegs are shown as having been driven into a furrow, and afterward the leather turned back over the ends of the heads or outer ends of the pegs, as is the practice in the other styles of using metal pegs; but this is not necessary, since the wire can be used so small and driven so accurately that the work will not appear more objectionable than ordinary wood-pegged work. The heel D is composed of hard rubber, pressed and vulcanized around a wooden case or center, D, and is the invention of H. H. Bigelow. 1

Having described my improvements in boots and shoes, I would state that I do not claim, broadly, the use of screw-threaded wire for fastening the soles to the uppers of boots and shoes, for I am aware the same is not new; nor do I claim a metallic peg, with a smooth or rounded thread upon it, as shown in Wickershams patent of August 9, 1870. But I am not aware that a metallic peg, expressly adapted to be driven and provided with a fine continuous raised spiral burr of very slight pitch, as herein shown and described, has ever before been known or used for the purposes herein specified; therefore,

What I claim asiny invention, and desire to secure by Letters Patent, is-

' The means herein described for fastening together the soles and uppers of boots and shoes,

-consisting of metal pegs or rivets cut from ribbed or burred wire, made in the peculiar form shown and described, with or without a waxed or other adhesive coating, substantially as set forth. THOS. H. DODGE. Witnesses:

GHAs. H. BURLEIGII, E. E. MOORE.

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