US765455A - Dress-form. - Google Patents

Description

PATBNTED JULY 19', 1904.

0. BORGHERT. DRESS FORM.

APPLICATION FILED MAR. 24, 1904.

N0 MODEL.

UNITED STATES Patented July 19, 1904.

PATENT OFFICE.

DRESS-FORM.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 765,455, dated July 19, 1904.

Application filed March 24, 1904:.

To aZZ whom it may concern.-

Be it known that I, OSCAR BOROHERT, a citizen of the United States, residing in West Hoboken, in the county of Hudson and State of New Jersey, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Dress Forms, of which the following is a specification.

Recently the fashionable skirts are made with a straight front and bulging or flaring backs and sides. Consequently the old style of dress-forms are not well adapted for supporting the newer styles of skirts made with straight fronts and flaring backs and sides, so that when these newer forms of skirts are placed on the old style of dress-form the skirts lose their required shape.

The object of this invention is to construct an improved dress-form on which skirts with straight fronts and bulging sides and backs may be supported so as to keep their proper shape; and for this purpose the invention consists of an adjustable dress-form, the springwire ribs forming theback part of said dressform being supported at their upper portion by means of radial non-extensible braces and 1 having the upper part of the ribs forming the sides and front of said dress-form supported by slidable braces which readily adjust themselves to the straight shape of the front, while the lower sliding braces or stretchers are made radially or otherwise adjustable in the same manner as the corresponding braces or stretcher-rods heretofore in use for dressforms.

The invention consists, further, of an adjustable dress-form composed of an upright sup porting-standard, two groups of braces supported by blocks or sleeves sliding on said standard, the side and rear braces of said groups being single non-extensible pieces, while the front groups are formed of two slidable parts, one part being guided on the body portion of the other, so that the slidable braces adapt themselves to the form of the skirts having straight fronts and bulging sides and backs and permit the form to hold the skirt in a more satisfactory manner than the dressforms heretofore in use.

.In the accompanying drawings, Figure 1 represents a perspective View of my improved Serial No. 199,887. (No model.)

dress-form. Fig. 2 is a vertical longitudinal section through Fig. 1, drawn on a larger scale and showing clearly the arrangement of the upper and lower braces of the dress-form and connections therewith; and Fig. 3 is a plan view of Fig. 1.

Similar letters of reference indicate corresponding parts.

Referring to the drawings, a represents an upright standard,which is supported by a pedestal Z) of the usual construction.

0 0 are two groups of braces which extend from clips Z on the ribs Z6 is to the sliding blocks or sleeves (Z d, that are supported on the standard a and held in place by means of thumb-screws e e. The position of the sliding blocks d d on the standard is varied, so

as to conform to the size of the skirt to be supported on the dress-form.

f is a group of single upper braces or stretchers which extend from the clips Z at the upper ends of the ribs to the sleeve d that is clampedto the standard a by the thumbscrew 6 while f is a group of stretchers which extend from clips Z of the ribs 70 to a block or sleeve 0Z on the standard a, said sleeve 0Z being clamped thereto by a thumb-screw 6 The ribs k are made of spring metal, preferably steel wire or round spring-steel, as shown in the drawings, and more particularly in Fig. 1, each rib extending from the bottom of the form to the top thereof and down again, the upper ends Z being connected by clips Z, which are provided with loops Z, through which a non-elastic encircling band or tape m is passed. Two of these bands or tapes are preferably arranged on the dressform, one being located on the loops of the upper clips Z, while the other band passes through loops of clips Z below the upper clips Z. The adjacent intermediate portions of the ribs and the lower adjacent ends of the same, respectively, are connected by clips Z and Z as shown clearly in Fig. 1. The lower braces or stretchers f f are connected with the inwardly-projecting flange n of the clips Z and made in such a manner as to permit of adjustment in radial direction, the adjustment of said lower braces being controlled by means of sliding friction-sleeves s, so that the shape and size of the lower part of the dressform can be varied to the desired size and style of skirt. The non-elastic tapes or hands m, which are passed through the upper and intermediate loops of the connecting-clips Z Z, are each provided with a scale divided into inches for the purpose of measuring and controlling the adjustment of the upper and middle portions of the dress-form, so that it conforms to the required size of skirt.

The new features of my improved dressform consist in making the rear and side braces of the groups 0 c of one single wire radially non-extensible and having each rod of such length and so connected at its outer end with the clips attached to the ribs and at its inner end connected with the proper sliding block on the standard ct, cooperating with said clips, that when the sliding blocks are moved upwardly upon the said standard a the rear and side braces or stretcher-rods connected therewith are moved with them in an upward and outward direction, causing the ribs is, attached to the said rear andside braces, to be moved or pressed outwardly, giving to the back and sides of the dress-form the bulging or flaring shape desired, which bulging or flaring shape can be controlled by adjusting the sliding blocks connecting with the rear and side braces upwardly or downwardly as the bulging effect is required to be either greater or less.

The front braces of the groups 00' are constructed of two. slidable portions, which overlap and engage each other by eyes at their ends, so as to permit the portions of the braces to slide on each other for the purpose of adjustment, as shown in Fig. 2. This construction of the slidable front braces 0 0 permits their shortening or lengthening, so that they may be adapted to cooperate with the sliding blocks and front ribs, to both of which they are connected in such amanner as to impart to the back and side ribs a flaring or bulging shape by the adjustment or moving of the sliding blocks on the standard, while the said front ribs take a position relatively to the said back and side ribs that gives the dress-form a flattened or straight shape in the front to conform to the present prevailing style of straight-front skirts as distinguished from the form of the curved or bulging side and rear portions of the skirt. This straight shape of the front of the dress-form may be slightly altered by moving the sliding adjusting-blocks cZcZ, to which the upper and lower series of the said front braces are respectively attached, toward each other on the supporting-standard until the inner ends of the front braces, which are connected at their outer ends to the front ribs of the frame, abut against the crowns of the sliding blocks d d and producean outward pressure on the front ribs, which results in giving the said ribs a slightly outward bulging or curving shape at their intermediate portions, but without changing the general flattened character or form of the straight-front skirt supported on the improved dress-form.

The lower series of sliding braces or stretcher-rods f are similar to the sliding front braces c c and are inwardly and outwardly adjustable and arranged to give the desired position and inclination to the braces. The upper slidable front braces, the upper side and rear non-extensible stretcher-rods, and the lower adjustable stretcher-rods are made of such lengths that when the dressform is distended into proper shape and size to conform to the shape of the skirt the distance of each rib from the supporting-standard a and the sliding blocks thereon and the lengths of the braces or stretcher-rods connecting said ribs with said sliding blocks or sleeves is of less length at the front portion of the dress-form and increases gradually at the sides and rear of the dress-form, the greatest distance from the central back rib to the standard being at the rear portion and the least distance from the central front rib to the said standard, the corresponding ribs arranged on each side of the form between the central front rib and the central back rib being equal distances from the standard a, but increasing as the ribs are taken in order from the front to the back of the dress-form. This feature of my improved dress-form is clearly shownin Fig. 3 of the drawings.

Having thus described my invention, I claim as new and desire to secure by Letters Patent In a dress-form, the combination with a standard and a plurality of ribs surrounding the same, of a group of'non-extensible braces for supporting said ribs at their upper or waist portions, two groups of braces, an upper and lower group, for supportingthe middle portions of said ribs, each of said groups consisting of extensible front and side braces and non-extensible rear braces,said front and side braces increasing in length from the front toward the rear braces, stretcher-rods for supporting the lower ends of said ribs, and means for locking the upper braces, the intermediate braces, and the stretcher-rods, to said standard.

In testimony that I claim the foregoing as my invention I have signed my name in presence of two subscribing witnesses.

- OSCAR BORCHERT. -Witnesses: I HENRY J. SUHRBIER,

J. HENRY GLEssER.

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