To all whom it may concern:
Be it known that I, HENRY
ALEXANDER LYMAN, of Cheapside, in
the city of London, England, have invented a new
and useful Improvement in Stays
and Corsets; and I do hereby- declare that the following
is a full, clear, and. exact description thereof,
which will enable others skilled in the art to make and use the same, reference being had to the accompanying drawings, forming part of this specification, in which--
Figure 1 represents one-half of my improved
corset laid out flat. Fig. 2 is a front view of a complete
corset. Figs. 3, 4, 5, and 6 represent, respectively,
the waistband, bust and hip pieces, and the gore.
Similar lectors of reference denote corresponding parts.
This invention relates to an
improvement on the stays
and corsets manufactured under the. patent of Edward Drucker, and
patented in the United States on the 7th day of May, 1867, No. 64,530.
The chief novelty of that invention consisted in obtaining the fullness
required to shape the corset to the
body of the wearer by the use of a waistband with curved top and bottom
edges, and t0 which pieces were sewed, their
contact edges being the converse of the waistband.
This cut of corset had not merely the merit of
simplicity, but it prevented the tension or strain put on the laced
corset being thrown entirely on the
stitching, as heretofore, and enabled the cloth forming tile waistband
to receive the strain.
In order to retain these advantages, and at the
same tinte to, improve the shape of the corset, to insure greater comfort, and to
adapt it to the requirements of the most fastidious
taste; I modify its construction by extending the waistband at its ends
to the upper and lower edges, of the corset, so that the bust and hip pieces
must be put in it as gores. The strain on top and bottom is thereby
removed, and a more comfortable corset produced.
Each half of. the corset consists, mainly, of
three pieces, as in the original Drucker's corset, Which pieces are:
shown detached in Sheet I, and marl:ed, respectively, A, B, and C.
The waistband or main piece A takes somewhat the form of an irregular
letter H--that is to say, it has limbs extending upward and downward at
the ends. The end of the frontt upward limb is forked for the purpose
of receiving the gore-piece D.
The top or bust gore-piece B is so shaped by having a long top edge as
to produce a slight
fullness at the part where it joins the forked limb, and the lower or
hip piece C is shaped elliptic, to produce considerable fullness and to
fit well over the hip.
The forked limb of the H-shaped waistband is intended to receive a
gore-piece, D, which provides for the fullness of the bosom. This
gore-piece D may be increased or diminished in width, to suit busts of more or less fullness, without interfering with the cut of the other parts of the stay or corset.
When these parts are sewed together, ribs of steel or whalebone are
applied to the corset; as usual, to give it a permanent set, as shown in Fig. 2.
The advantages of the common verticallydivided corset are by this
invention combined with those of Drucker's horizontally-divided corset,
greater comfort being thereby insured to the wearer.
I am aware that a corset is in public use which
consists of six pieces-namely, a ton gued front
piece, a back piece, two hip-gores, and two bosom-gores, while mine
consists of eight pieces-namely, two waist-pieces ,A; two bust pieces
B, two hip-pieces C, two
bosom-gores D, and they are different in shape, and arranged
differently w ith regard
to each other.
Having thus described my
invention, I claim as new and desire to secure by Letters Patent--
A corset composed of the
pieces A B C D; shaped and fitted together in the manner described.