US21806A - Skeleton skirt - Google Patents

Description

UNITED STATFS PATENT OFFICE.

E. G. A'IWOOD, OF DERBY, CONNECTICUT.

SKELETON SKIRT.

Specification forming part of Letters Patent No. 21,806, dated October 19, 1858; Reissued July 26, 1859, Nos. 784 and 785.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, E. G. A'rwoon, of Derby, in the county of New Haven and State of Connecticut, have invented a new and useful Improvement in Skeleton Skirts; and I do hereby declare that the following is a full, clear, and exact description of the same, reference being had to the accompanying drawing, making a part of this specification, in which- Figure l is a side View of a skirt constructed according to my invention. Fig. 2 is a view on a larger scale than Fig. 1, of parts of three hoops, showing the manner of connecting and suspending them.

Similar letters of reference indicate corresponding parts in both figures.

The nature of my invention consists in a skirt formed of tape or similar material and a series of circle hoops, when the tape is passed over one hoop and under the next below it in opposing oblique directions and the tapes fastened at the points where they interlock on the hoops themselves by clasping, sewing or tying. By this method of constructing a skirt the hoops are entirely supported by the tapes or straps without depending upon the strength of the clasps, sewing or the tying by which the tapes are held in proper position on the hoops and thus increased durability is secured. The oblique arrangement of the straps or tapes gives a more steady motion to the skirt and carries the dress more evenly and symmetrically as the straps are disposed more universally throughout the skirt in a manner to give the dress a support at every point.

Said oblique arrangement also prevents that painful swinging or wiggling of a ladys dress so common to those skirts having the straps placed perpendicularly and not braced laterally or diagonally. These benefits, I am aware are not altogether peculiar to my skirt, for in the knit fabric the threads fill up all the spaces between the hoops, the thread running diagonally and tying or interlocking midway of the spaces between the hoops. This construction of knit skirt gives as perfect and symmetrical set to the dress as mine, but there are objections to its use because it hangs into objects and has its meshes broken and when one mesh breaks there is nothing to prevent a series of others giving way with it and the consequent formation of a very large rent, whereas, with my skirt, the anglesof the tapes are .inde pendent of each other and when one angle is broken, none of the other angles are afiected thereby; this results from confining the interlocking portions of the tapes on the hoops by clasps sewing or tying. One of my skirts with eleven hoops will, owing to the peculiar universal disposition of the tapes or straps answer as well, if not better for all purposes than a skirt with thirteen hoops.

A, A, are the hoops which extend all around the skirt and which may be of any kind commonly used.

B, B, are springs which form the bustle.

C, .C, are the straps which connect and suspend the hoops. The manner of applying these straps is best illustrated in Fig. 2, where the metal clamps are omitted and where it will be seen that each strap is passed over one hoop, then obliquely down to and under the one below it, and thence obliquely in the opposite direction up to and over the first one, and so on continuously all the way or as far around the hoops as may be desired. This arrangement forms a series of loops where the straps pass over and under the hoops and each strap is passed over and under its respective hoops so as to interlace with the loops of the straps above and below it, excepting of course the top and bottom straps the former of which can only pass through loops in a strap below and the latter through those in the strap above as will be obvious. The several tapes thus combine to form as it were a latticework, which gives a more nearly continuous support to the garment outside it than when the straps are arranged vertically, and which thus makes the skirt Very superior. In the skirt represented in Fig. 1, this arrangement of straps is discontinued in a portion of the front where the lap joints in the hoops are made to permit the circumference of the hoops to be adjusted or varied, and straps D, D, running directly up and down are employed in this portion of the skirt.

a, a, (Fig. 1) are the metal clamps, which are composed simply of narrow strips of metal plate of a length sufiicient to lap nearly or quite around the width and thickness of the hoops. These clamps are applied around the hoops and straps at the points where the loops in the latter hang on and suspend the former and also to form junctions between the extremities of the is passed over one hoop and under the next straps and the hoops; the said clamps being below it in opposing oblique directions and pinched tightly upon the hoops and straps the tapes fastened at the point Where they so as to attach them securely and prevent interlock on the hoops themselves by clasp- 15 5 any slipping either of the straps or hoops. ing, sewing or tying, substantially as and I do not confine myself to any form for for the purposes set forth. the metal clamps a, a. 7

What I claim as my invention and desire ATWOOD to secure by Letters Patent, is Witnesses: 10 A skirt formed of tape or similar material GEO. PLATT,

and a series of circle hoops, When the tape CHAS. A. STERLING.

[Fmsr PRINTED 1911.]

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