US3027578A - Quarter-gauging last and process - Google Patents

Description

April 3, 1962 c. F. BATCHELDER EFAL 3,027,578

QUARTER-'GAUGING LAST AND PROCESS Filed March 11, 1960 &

l/rawvza i- ATTOR NEYS United States Patent 3,027,578 QUARTER-GAUGING LAST AND PROCESS Charles F. Batchelder, Milton, and Jerome A. Ruhico, Boston, Mass, assignors to Batchehler Rubico, Inc.,

Boston, Mass, a corporation of Massachusetts Filed Mar. 11, 1960, Ser. No. 14,435 1 Claim. (Cl. 12-136) This invention comprises a new and improved last for use in the manufacture of shoes designed to facilitate more precise manufacture of more comfortable shoes, with savings of time and cost in their production and elimination of rejects. The invention includes also the novel process of shoemaking advantageously practiced by employing our new last.

Because of the form of the human ankle, it is essential that shoes to be comfortable must be made with the top edges of the uppers lower on the outside of the ankle than on the inside. This difference in heights, inside and outside, is required to avoid any possibility of the top edge of the counter portion of the upper chafing against the under side of the wearers foot at the ankle bone.

Shoe uppers are normally designed, cut and stitched to conform to this principle, but all too often the designed relationship is lost in one and sometimes both shoes of a pair in the shoemaking operations of assembling and lasting. Our invention is directed towards the simplification of the assembling operation, with positive control of the positioning of the back or counter portion of the shoe upper during the critical operations from assembling through side lasting.

In current shoemaking practice the positioning of the heel portion of the upper on the last is performed by the assembler. This operative must rely on his experience, his eye, and his hands to achieve a result that from the nature of the operation cannot be uniform. When the assembler has positioned the stitched upper on the last to a heel height correct in his judgment, he drives a shoe nail or tack through the upper at or near the back seam, and another through the lasting margin of the upper into the heel end of an insole that has been tacked to the last bottom. These tacks are intended to hold the upper in position at the heel end of the shoe during the subsequent operations and until the upper has been side lasted or inseamed to the insole, when these tacks are pulled. The repeated tacking or nailing through the backseam into the narrow back ridge of the last shortens the useful life of the last. The nail hole through the backseam is also a permanent defect in the finished shoe.

Our invention provides a means of increasing the precision of shoemaking in the counter or ankle area, by substituting a positive control gauge for a human judgment. Its use will eliminate the need of nailing through the backseam, and will save time and cost, and the risk of shoe damage or personal injury inherent to the projecting nail head during the operations of pulling-over, side lasting, heel seat nailing, inseam trimming, etc.

The essential feature of our invention is the provision on the exterior or peripheral surface of the upper part of the heel section of the last of a projection or shoulder, the overhanging lower edge of which controls the height of the shoe upper in this area. The contour of this projecting edge is made to coincide with the designed height of the upper around the counter portion of the shoe. In use, the assembler inserts the shouldered last into the stitched upper and brings the top edge of the upper into contact with the shoulder. The tapered form of the heel portion of the last, with its bulging bottom, keeps the upper from dropping down on the last, while the shoulder keeps it from being forced upward. The contact of the top edge of the shoe upper against the ice shoulder provides a positive control and visual indication or check determining that the upper is in its proper position on the last at all times during the operations of pulling over the toe of the upper, side lasting, heelseat nailing, etc. This feature is of especial value to the side laster who has the final responsibility of establishing the relative heights of the upper on the inside and outside of theankle, and of maintaining the reversed uniformity of the left and right shoes of every pair.

The shouldered top portion of the heel or counter section of the last can be formed as an integral part of the last structure at the time of its manufacture, or it can be formed by attaching to a last a cap or band of suitable material such as leather, fibre board, plastic or the like. In any case the underside of the shoulder, or the projecting brim of the cap or band should be established at the designed height of the shoe upper as it varies around the ankle portion. A new or existing last may be readily converted to a shouldered last by applying a band or layer of suitable material around its upper exterior portion. This attachment may be made perma nent by nailing, cementing, etc., or it may be by releasable means such as screws to permit adjustment of the height at any desired point. If the band is attached by screws or similar means through vertical slotted holes, it may be removed, trimmed, replaced, or moved upward or downward to adjust to the desired contour of the shoe upper. A projection of one-eighth inch more or less of the shoulder or brim has been found ample for normal shoemaking.

These and other features of the invention will be best understood and appreciated from the following description of our improved shoemaking process and lasts used in practicing it as shown in the accompanying drawings in which- FIG. 1 is a view in elevation of a lasted shoe.

FIG. 2 is a cross sectional View on the line 2-2 of FIG. 1 and on a larger scale.

FIGS. 3-6 are fragmentary views in elevation indicating various modifications of the last.

The last shown in FIG. 1 is of the conventional divided last type having a rear or heel section 10 and a forepart 11. The heel section of the last is provided with an overhanging shoulder 12 projecting outwardly from its smooth peripheral surface near the top of the last and at a height in conformity to the designed height of the counter portion upper to be lasted thereon. The curvature of the shoulder 12 corresponds to the top line of the counter portion of the upper 13. It varies heightwise from a maximum at the back seam, sloping somewhat forwardly and with its overhanging edge lower on the outside of the last as indicated in dotted lines.

In assembling the upper 13 upon the last, the top edge of the upper is positively gauged by the assembler against the shoulder 12 and this leaves the lasting margin of the upper as projecting beyond the insole 14 which has previously been tacked to the bottom of the last 10. The upper is now lasted while held positively in the gauged relation to the last as above explained. In FIG. 2, the lasting margin 15 is shown as extending inwardly over the insole 14 to which it is secured in. the heel seat lasting operation by adhesive or tacks.

In FIG. 1, the shoulder 12 is shown as being carved or turned in the wood of the heel section 12 while in FIGS. 36 we have shown other mechanical means of securing like results. In FIG. 3, there is employed a band 16 of leather or other flexible material which is folded in U-shaped formation and wrapped around the heel section 10 of the last, The band 10 is shown as secured in place by nails 17 and it is understood that its lower edge is contoured so that its overhanging surface 3 fits the top edge of the counter portion of the upper in the same manner as shown in FIG. 1.

In FIG. 4, the heel section 10* is shown as equipped with a U-shaped band 18 vertically slotted for purposes of adjustment and secured in position by screws 19.

In FIG. 5, the cone of the heel section 20 of the last is reduced in height or lowered as compared to that shown in the other figures and supplemented by a rearwardly tapering block 21 secured by screws 22 to the top of the heel section. The block 21 is of the proper size to project outwardly about the smooth perhiphery of the last section 20 and so provide the desired profiled overhanging rib or shoulder for gauging the position of the top edge of the upper at the proper height for lasting.

In FIG. 6 the last section 10 is shown as provided with a visual gauging band 23 formed by printing or coloring the upper portion of the heel section with a sharply defined design the lower edge of which again corresponds to the top edge of the counter portion of the upper. The edge of the design need not be continuous but may be depicted by a broken line and, of course, a series of closely spaced projections would be the equivalent of a continuou gauging shoulder.

In all cases the shoemaking operation is the same in that the top edge of the quarter of the upper is gauged by accessory means carried by the heel section of the last so that the assembler is relieved of the exercise of judgment and has only to make sure that the top edge of the upper is located in the position indicated or positively determined by the configuration of the last itself.

Having thus disclosed our invention and described in detail illustrative procedure for carrying it out, we claim as new and desire to secure by Letters Patent:

A divided last having its cone reduced in height from normal and a block secured to the lowered top face of the cone overhanging the peripheral walls of the heel section and thus providing a U-shaped shoulder around the heel section for gauging the position of the top edge of the counter portion of an upper to be lasted thereon References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS 1,947,246 Brauner et a1. Feb. 13, 1934 1,985,310 Brauner et al. Dec. 25, 1934 1,991,386 Gerencser Feb. 19, 1935 2,641,004 Whiting et al.- June 8, 1953

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