US1396160A - Softening apparatus - Google Patents

Description

M. BROOK.

SOFTEN |NG APPARATUS. APPLICATION FILED MAY 4, 191B- 1 ,396, 1 60. Patented Nov. 8, 1921.

PATENT OFFICE.

stairs!) STATES v ITED SHOE NERY CORPORATION, OF PATERSON, NEW JERSEY, A CORPORATION OF NEW JERSEY.

SOFTENIN G APPARATUS.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, MATTHIAS BROOK, a. citizen of the United States, residing at Boston, in the county of Suffolk and State of Massachusetts, have invented certain Improvements in Softening Apparatus, of which the following description, in connection with the accompanying drawings, is a specification, like reference characters on the drawings indicating like parts in the several figures.

This invention relates to softening apparatus and is herein disclosed as embodied in an apparatus especially designed for softening the heel portions of shoe upper materials preparatory to a molding or lasting operation.

I contemplate the application of a softening agent to the inside of the rear part of a shoe upper, and an important feature of the invention consists in a treating chamber adapted to apply a softening agent to this part of a shoe.

More particularly, a further feature of the invention consists in a chamber arranged to receive the counter portion'only of a shoe upper. In the apparatus shown, the treating chamber has a U-shaped slot adapted to receive the margin of the counter portion of the shoe upper.

It is of great importance in the softening operation to treat only such parts of the shoe as need it and to protect the other parts from being moistened or otherwise softened. Furthermore, it is desirable in some cases to perform the operation of molding the counter portion of a shoe upper before the last hasbeen inserted and since the softening treatment precedes the molding operation there is not, at the time of administering the softening treatment, any last to protect from the treating agent those parts of the upper which should not be subjected to it.

ccordingly, another feature of the invention consists in a novel structure arranged to support a shoe upper for treatment and adapted to shield those parts of the upper that should not be subjected to the action of the treating agent. In the apparatus shown this supporting structure is arranged when in one position, to transform and to restrict the shoe receiving aperture of the treating chamber, and to be movable to another oper- Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented Nov. 8, 1921. 1918. Serial No. 232,526.

ative position in which the aperture.

In the following specification and claims have used the term upper to denote the assembled upper materials, including, if de sired, the box toe and counter stiffener.

it completely closes binations of parts will be better understood from the following description of a preferred embodiment thereof selected for purings in which:

Figure l is a front elevation, and

Fig. 2 is a sectional detail.

The illustrated machine comprises a hollow standard 10 provided with an inlet pipe 12 and an outlet pipe 14. The standard will preferably be kept full of water as far as the pipe lat, and steam will be blown in under the water surface through the pipe 12, being controlled by a suitable valve, not shown, and will then bubble up through the water 16, being delivered at the surface at substantially 212 F. and fifteen pounds (atmospheric) pressure.

The top of the column is provided with a flat inclined chest or treating device having a chamber 18 in communication with the hollow interior of the column 10 and having (in the example shown) two openings 20. Near each opening a pivot 22 is provided, on which is mounted a cover 241-. This cover is oblong in shape with one end wider than the other. The wider end 26 is sufficiently ample to close the opening 20 entirely when placed across it, but the narrow end 28, when turned up over the opening 20, covers its central portion only and leaves a channel 80 of inverted U shape.

The shoe 'upper, having been assembled and sewed and preferably containing an unmolded counter stiffener, is placed in the apparatus as indicated in Fig. 2 with the cover-end 28 projecting into the upper through the bottom and supporting it around the top of the counter portion while the end 26 supports its toe. The treating device and the cover-plates 24 are inclined to facilitate the insertion and support of the shoe. Thesteam rises, comes in contact with the inside and outside of the counter portion of the shoe, and is kept from rising means for supplying within the forepart of the shoe by the coverend 28. Ihe counter portion of the shoe, after being softened, may be then molded and lasted.

\Vhen an aperture is not in use its cover 2t may be inverted, as shown in dotted lines in Fig. 1, in order to close the aperture and confine the steam or vapor and maintain its temperature in the chamber 18.

Having described my invention, what I claim as new and desire to secure by Letters Patent of the United States is 1. In an apparatus of the class described, means for supplying a softening agent to a treating locality, and means constructed and arranged to support an unlasted shoe-upper off the last so that the interior of the counter-portion will be presented to the softening agent.

2. In an apparatus of the class described,

means for supplying a softening agent at" a treating locality, and work-supporting means constructed and arranged to maintain the counter-portion of a shoe-upper in distended form without a last and in the treating locality.

3. In an apparatus of the class described, a softening agent at a treating locality, and a work-supporting member constructed and arranged to engage one end of an unlasted shoe-upper off the last so as to support that end and to extend into the upper so as to keep the other end distended and in the treating locality and so as to prevent-the softening agent from reaching the first said end.

4t. In anapparatus of the class described, means for supplying a softening agent at a treating locality, and a guard constructed and arranged to conform to the interior of the counter-portion of an unlasted shoe-upper off the last and to exclude the treating agent from the forepart of the upper while admitting it into the counter-portion.

5. In an apparatus of the class described, a treating device having means constructed and arranged to project into the counter portion of a shoe upper to maintainthe latter distended and to protect portions of the upper other than the counter portion from the treating agent.

6. In an apparatus of the class described, a treating device having an opening formed and arranged to receive the counter portion of a shoe upper for treatment, a portion of prevent agent is prevented from gaining access to the forepart of the upper..

8. In an apparatus of the class described, a treating device having a treating chamber and acurved slot formed and arranged to 7 receive the counter portion of an upper, the

part forming the inner edge of the slot being adapted to occupy the counter portion.

- 9. In an apparatus of the class described, a treating device having a treating chamber, one or more slots each formed and arranged to receive the distended counter-portion of a shoe-upper, the chamber being closed to the escape of the treating agent eX- cepting the escape through said slot or slots. 10. In an apparatus of the class described, atreating device having a chamber formed with an opening for receiving a portion of a shoe upper for treatment, and a movable closure for the opening constructed and arranged to uncover the opening and to support the shoe upper in position for treatment.

11. In an apparatus of the class described, a treating device having an aperture to receive a portion of a shoeupper for treatment, a closure for the aperture having two operative positions in one of which it shuts the aperture completely and in the other of which it leaves a portion of the aperture uncovered to receive a shoe upper.

12. In an apparatus of the character described, a treating device having an opening for the egress of a treating agent with which to treat a portion. of a shoe upper, and a member movably connected to said device,

I said member being formed and arranged to close said opemng when in one position and.

to uncover a portion of the opening and to support the work in position for treatment when in another position,

In testimony whereof I have signed my name to this specification.

' MATTHIAS BROOK.

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