US17431A - Block fob blacking- boots and shoes - Google Patents

Description

PATENT ernten.

F. G. HARDING, 0F BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS.

BLOCK FOR BLACKING BOOTS AND SHOES.

Specification of Letters Patent No. 17,431, dated June 2, 1857.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, FRANCIS G. HARDING, of Boston, in the county7 of Suffolk and State of Massachusetts, have invented a new and useful article of manufacture designed to facilitate the blacking of shoes, whereby the interior of the shoe may be filled and the leather distended and stretched smoothly over the block for the purpose of facilitating the operation of blacking the shoe; and 1 do hereby declare that the following is a full, clear, and exact description of the same, reference being had to the annexed drawings, making a part of this specification, in which- Figure l is a longitudinal vertical section of my improvement; the plane of section passing through the center. Fig. 2 is a plan or top view of ditto.

Similar letters of reference indicate corresponding parts in the two figures.

To enable those skilled in the art to fully understand and construct my invention, I will proceed to describe it.

A represents a cast iron shell which corresponds in form to the front part of a shoe including the sides and instep. B is a cast iron shell corresponding in form to the heel of the shoe. These shells may be cast quite thin so as to be light and still be sufficiently strong for the purpose intended.

The upper end of the shell B is connected by a joint to the upper part of the shell A, and the shell A has a curved extension (Z2) at its upper end to serve the purpose of a handle. Through the upper end of the shell B a screw C passes, and the inner end of this screw bears against a projection (c) formed on the inner `side of the shell A.

D represents a spindle spring, the ends of which are connected to the inner sides of the two shells as shown in Fig. 1. This spring has a tendency to draw the two shells together or toward each other.

The two shells, by screwing out the screw C, are allowed to approach each other suiiciently close so that they may be readily placed within the shoe, shown in red Fig. l, and the two shells are then distended or forced apart by turning the screw C so that the shoe will be stretched snugly over the shells and all wrinkles removed from the leather. The shoe thus blocked and stretched may be blacked and polished with much greater facility and in a more perfect inanner than usual in consequence of wrinkles being removed from the leather and all its elasticity or spring destroyed, so that the requisite friction to produce the desired result is obtained with a comparatively small expenditure of labor.

I do not claim two shells in connection with a spring and screw, irrespective of peouliarity of construction and merely viewed as a stretching block or tree, for such devices are now used for such purposes. But

I claim as new and desire to secure by Letters Patent,-

The abovedescribed new article of manufacture, consisting of the thin metallic shells A and B, hinged at (a) the former having an extension (ZJ) to serve as a handle to the implement and fitting the front inside of the shoe, and the latter fitting the inside of the heel; the said shells being distended and the shoe thereby firmly held by means of the screw C, passing through the shell B, and abutting against the projection (o) of the shell A, in the manner and for the purpose specified.

F. G. HARDING.

lVitnesses VH. P. Ci-IEEVER,

C. F. JOHNSON.

Images