US159595A - Improvement in corset-steels - Google Patents

Description

' NTTED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

YGEORGE W. MCGILL, OF NEW YORK, N. Y.

IMPROVEMENT IN CORSET-STEELS.

Specification forming part of Letters Patent No. 159,595, dated February 9, 1875; application liled December 2, 1874.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, GEORGE W. MCGILL, of the city and county vof New York, in the State of New York, have invented a new and Improved Corset-Steel or Busk; and I do hereby declare the following to be a full and exact description thereof, reference being had to the accompanying drawing, making part of this specilication, and to the figures and letters of reference marked thereon.

The object of my invention is to lessen the liability of corset-steels to break while in use, and to remove the discomt'orting rigidity of their centers, which prevents the free movement of the body of the wearer.

The part of a corset-steel or busk which receives the most strain while in use is its cen ter, and this strain is caused by the sitting or stooping of the woman wearing the corset, for in both these positions the swell of her bust and abdomen is increased, which bows the steel in her corset, and thereby throws the entire strain upon its center, and it is at this point that the steel breaks.

In the steels now in use the center, which is thus subjected to the entire strain, possesses no more flexibility than that portion of the steel which is subjected to no strain at all; and in some other steels the rigidity of the center is doubled by riveting to them an extra piece of steel at that point, under the false supposition that it is rigidity in the center that is required instead of flexibility.

My invention consists in making the centralportion of the length of the steel more iiexible than the rest of it, and thus neutralize the increased strain to which that portion of it is subjected. This central flexibility can be given the busk in many different ways. The mode which I have selected as preferable to all others is, to provide the steel in its center with a number of creases or corrugations running across it, as shown in the figures. These corrugations may be all of the same dimensions, as shown in Figures l and 2, or they may be deep and narrow in the center of the steel, and diminish in depth and increase in width toward its ends, as shown in Figs. 3 and 4.. They may be rolled in the steel in sections, as shown in Fig'. 2, or for nearly the entire length of the steel, as shown in Fig. 3. Either way will answer my purpose, although I give preference to that form shown in Fig. 1.

By means of these corrugations the strain on the center of the steel caused by the bending or bowing of the saine while the wearer is stooping or sitting is removed from one point or focus, and is divided and distributed over the entire corrugations, each corrugation forming a separate focus, and receiving a nearly equal amount of the strain. By this division of the strain the principal cause of the breakage of steels at this point is removed, as is its discomfortin g rigidity, which prevents the free movement of the body of the wearer.

rIhe corrugations or creases may be either rolled or stamped in the steel; but I prefer rolling them in it, as producing a better article.

The hooks and eyes may be attached to the steels by riveting them to the blank portions of the same, as shown in Figs. l and 2, or they can be attached without rivets by providing them with arms that will turn over the steel and lie in the corrugations; consequently I do not confine myself to any particular Inode of attaching them.

The steels may be nickel-plated, japanned, or covered with skin, linen, or other suitable material, and used singly, or doubled one upon the other and suitably connected.

What I claim as my invention, and desire to secure by Letters Patent, is

A corset-steel or busk corrugated or creased transversely, as herein shown and described, for the purposes specified.

GEORGE W. MGGILL.

Witnesses:

P. M. MoGILL, JOHN W. MCGILL.

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