US178031A - Improvement in processes of manufacturing shoe-tlips - Google Patents

Description

J. A. STOCKWE'LL.

PROCESS OF MANUFACTURING-SHOE-TIPS. No. 178,031. Patented May 30,- 1876.

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UNITED STATES JOHNA. srooKwELL, or Bos'roN, MAssAoHUsE'rrs'As'sIeNoR TO THE:

PATENTOFFIGE;

STOOKWELL SHOE TIP COMPANY, OF HARTFORD, CONNECTICUT,

IMPROVEMENT IN PROCESSES OF MANUFACTURING SHOE-TIlPS.

Specification forming part of Letters Patent No. 178.03 1, dated May 30, 1876; application filed 1 April 21, 1876.

To all whom it may concern Be it known that 1, JOHN A. STooKwELL, of Boston, in the county of Suffolk and State ofMassachusetts, have invented a new and useful Improvement in Tips for Boots and Shoes, of which the following is a specification:

Heretofore tips have been made successfully of leather by folding the blank and then pressing it, and forming a tip with a folded edge, as set out in my patent of February 17, 187 4. Tips have also been made of colored rawhide without a folded edge. But the practical difficulty in the manufacture of these rawhide tips, which I have ascertained by my experiments, is, that if the coloring be thoroughly done by the use of coloring matter that will permeate the entire tissue, and will hold, the hide will be partially burned and rendered crisp, and the tips will crack, and hence are correspondingly imperfect and unsuccessful. If, on the other hand, the coloring be less effectively done, the tips will soon appear of a whitish color and become unsightly with use.

The object of my invention is to produce a tip that-will be cheaper of manufacture than one having a folded edge, and for some kinds of work equally satisfactory, and that can be efl'ectually colored without crisping and injuring the tip, which is found to be a great practical obstacle in the employment of raw hide for the manufacture of tips.

In the practical application and use of my leather tips or toe-guards to boots and shoes, as heretofore patented, I have found, for heavy and thick boots and shoes, and more especially for what is known as pegged work, that a firmer and harder tip is desira ble than can be made from leather of the usual tannages, without using stock so thick as to make the tip-clumsy and uncomely.

Oommon' full-tanned leather, while it is susceptible of being pressed and compacted, so as to become sufficienrly solid and firm for tips for the lighter and finer grades of boots and shoes, still retains a degree of 'fiexibility and elasticity, which makes it not so well adapted for tips for the coarserand heavier kinds of boots and shoes as a harder and more compact article would be.

To make an article'of leather adapted to the man ufaoture of hard-leather tips, I have, in my experiments, taken advantage of the well-known fact that there is a very strong affinity between tannic acid and the gelatinous fiber of which the rawhide of animals is principally composed. The union takes place very rapidly, especially in the early stages of the tanning process.

I have discovered that by treating hides prepared in the usual manner for tanning in a sufficiently strong tanning-liquor, with frequent handling or turning in a revolving wheel for a few days, or until the gelatinous fibrous compound of the hides has become substantially fixed and incipient leather formed, which will happen in three or four days, I obtain leather which is not plumped with the tanning material, and is capable of being thoroughly colored with the common leatherblacking without injury to the leather. Rawhide cannot be subjected to the action of ordinary blacking (thebase of which is logwood, or its equivalent, and sulphate of iron) without burning and crisping the gelat'iue and fiber of the hide, and making it brittle, and fully-tanned leather, even when compressed and compacted, still retains somewhat its flexible and elastic nature.

By arresting the tanning process after the gelatinous fiber has become fixed, and before the filling or plumping process has to any appreciable extent proceeded, and properly coloring the leather in the process I have described, the leather so prepared can be pressed into a very compact and hard substance, and made into tips or toe-guards, which, while they are light and neat, are also extremely tough, compact, and hard, and fitted for the roughest service. a

Owing to the compactness and hardness of tips made from leather prepared substantially as I have described, I find a folded, edge is not necessary for tips for many kinds of shoes, as is claimed in my patents for tips made from ordinary tanned leather. A saving of one third in the stock can thus be secured.

Figure 1 of the drawings shows a strip of the prepared material of suitable form for making my tip. Fig. 2 shows a tip partly formed 2 l HS,031

ture, for that is the subject of another pending application; but

What I claim is-- The improved process of manufacturing tips for boots and shoes, consisting in partially tanning the hide or'skin, as set forth, then coloring it, and finally compressing and compacting it into finished tips, all substantially as specified. I

In testimony whereof I have hereunto sub= scribed my name,

JOHN A. STOGKWELL.

Witnesses:

NICHOLAS J. MOONLY, CHAS. G. FALL.

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