US1964049A - Shoe heel - Google Patents

Description

June 26, 1934. .1. GIANNINI El AL SHOE HEEL Filed Aug. 28, 1933 INVENTORS' fo/m fizannz zz /iriuro fie Frisco I ATTorNEY Patented June 26, 1934 SHOE HEEL John Giannini and Arturo De Prisco, Brooklyn,

Application August 28, 1933, Serial No. 687,050

5 Claims.

This invention relates to shoe-heels, and while the same will be described in connection with a use thereof on ladies shoe-heels and illustrated in connection with a ladys shoe-heel of a certain type, the invention can, of course, be applied to any shoe-heel, whatever be the sex and age of the wearer.

The invention aims to provide a novel and valuable attachable and detachable unit for use on a shoe-heel bottom, which includes a wear-lift and above the latter a structure presenting a carrier for said lift and at the same time a complete means for securing the entire device on the shoe-heel.

In the above connection, it is an important object to provide an attachable and detachable bottom assemblage for a shoe-heel, and one particularly valuable for a ladys shoe-heel of the type including a block of wood, metal, composition or other material, which is mountable on and demountable from a shoe-heel while avoiding any special shaping of the bottom face of the latter as well also as any special attachment or attachments to any part of the shoe-heel.

In the same connection, it is an important object of the invention to provide an attachable and detachable bottom assemblage for a shoeheel, and one highly desirable for a ladys shoeheel, wherein there is a dependable carrier for a permanently attached wear-lift, and such carrier has thereon a complete means for securing the entire assemblage on a shoe heel and then to have the exposed elements of such securing means contribute one or more distinctly decorative components to the shoe-heel as a whole.

Another object is to provide a novel and improved attachable and detachable unit or device for a shoe-heel bottom which is simple and inexpensive in construction although including a wear-lift and above the latter a structure presenting a permanent carrier for said lift and also a practicable means for dependably securing the entire device on a shoe heel bottom.

Still another object is to provide a novel and improved unit as last described, which, although incapable of being accidentally detached from the shoe-heel, is nevertheless readily deliberately attachable thereto and detachable therefrom.

A further object is to provide such a device or unit-to be discarded "as a whole when the lift forming a permanent part thereof as become outworn, so that another similar device or unit can be substituted on the shoe-heel botto1nwhich is quickly and easily attachable to and detachable from the shoe-heel without the necessity of having to employ any special tool or a nailing or nail-removing operation or the like.

The above stated and various other objects and advantages of the present invention will be fully appreciated, and the invention itself more clearly understood, from the following description of an embodiment thereof as now preferred and as illustrated in the accompanying drawing, in which Fig. l is a view showing a ladys shoe-heel with said embodiment secured thereto, the heel being shown in side elevation and the attachable device of the present invention being shown in vertical central longitudinal section;

Fig. 2 is a view looking toward the left in Fig. 1, showing said heel and device in front elevation;

Fig. 3 is a rear elevation; and

Fig. 4 is a top plan view of said device, removed from the heel, and with its parts disposed for rendering the device attachable to and detachable from the heel.

Similar reference characters refer to similar parts throughout the several views of the draw- Referring to such drawing in detail, the new shoe-heel unit as shown includes a carrier 10 of a flexible metal such as soft brass or aluminum or other suitable material; which carrier is now preferred to be made of such a resilient sheet metal as steel, spring brass or the like. This carrier is cup-shaped, for receiving the lower end of the shoe-heel, and it has permanently secured to and below the same, as by rivets 11, a wear-lift 12 of rubber, leather or other suitable material.

A shoe-heel of a type to which said unit is advantageously applied is illustrated at 14.; such heel being rotund at its back and side portions, up to a forward breast portion 14a running up the heel and across the shoe, all as is familiar in the art. As here shown, said heel is downwardly outwardly flared around the same in the lowermost part thereof marginal to its bottom face. A ladys shoe heel is often a Wooden block, and for purposes of convenience only, and not in any sense by Way of limitation, the heel 14 Will hereinafter be referred to as the heel block.

The carrier 10 includes a flat bottom wall, through suitable apertures in which wall are sent as illustrated securing rivets 11 for the lift 12; such rivets as here shown having their upper heads countersunk in said wall so as not to make uneven the upper surface of the same. Also, as shown, this fiat bottom wall of the cup is shaped all around to match the outline of the bottom face of the heel block 14; and the cup is provided with an integral upstanding wall all around the same divided into a breast wall 10a which here is shown as uninterruptedly continuous across the breast of the heel block, and a curved wall which is vertically slit or slotted at intervals to provide shown a plurality of upstanding prongs or fingers 102) having their upper ends curled over as illustrated, not only to form a decorative line of beads around the rotundity of the back and side portions of the heel block, but also to provide horizontal bores extending longitudinally of said beads through which a fiexible element may run for longitudinal movement of said element relative to said beads.

Said flexible element is here shown as a fairly fine metal wire 15, strong yet flexible, of brass, steel or the like; this wire being preferably a corn tinuous or closed loop including beyond the beads a straight stretch running over and just forward of the breast wall 10a of the cup 10, and desirably made continuous by soldering, brazing or welding the meeting ends thereof at a suitable point around the generally D-shaped formation thereof, say at a point at the back of the heel before the beads at the tops of the fingers 101) are curled over the curved stretch of the wire.

Before the wire is thus closed into a continuous D-shaped loop, there is swingably mounted on the straight stretch thereof aforesaid a horizontal sleeve 16a forming part of a fitment 16 also ineluding a leaf 16b integral with said sleeve and laterally offset therefrom. This fitment is desirably of brass, steel or some other suitable metal, and, with due regard to their operative functions, the sleeve 16a and the leaf 161) are preferably shaped to add to the general decorative effect of the device when attached to andlockedon theheel block 14 as shown in Figs. 1 and 3. For instance, the sleeve 16a is shown here as laterally rounded at the portion thereof exposed at the front or breast of the heel when the leaf is uppermost as in Figs. 1 and 3, and the leaf is cut away at its central portion to present an open frame; while the said exposed portion of the sleeve and said frame can be chased or die-cut or otherwise given various decorative elaborations as desired, as may the beads at the tops of the fingers 10b and other exposed parts of the carrier 10.

As to the operative coactions between the carrier 10, the wire 15 and the fitment 16, provisions are made whereby when the fitment is arranged on the wire so that the leaf 16b extends horizontally as shown in Fig. 4, the device is instantaneouely attachable to and removable from the bottom of the heel block 14, despite the downwardly outwardly flared bottom portion of the heel block, and when the fitment 16 is arranged as in Figs. 1 and 3 as the result of swinging thev same through approximately 90 degrees upwardly and inwardly toward and against the breast 14a of the heel block 14, the device is securely clamped and locked on the heel block by the aid of said flared bottom portion of the heel block. These provisions are the following:

As seen best in Fig. 1, the fitment 16 is so shaped along its sleeve 16a that the latter constitutes a cam or swinging wedge; that is, when the fitment is arranged as shown in Figs. 1 and 2 to clamp and lock the device on the heel block incident to or rather as the result of arranging the leaf 16b upstandingly against the breast of the heel block, a portion 160 of said sleeve, now between the straight front stretch of the wire 15 and the breast wall 10a of the carrier 10, and of greater thickness than the portion of the sleeve now below said stretch of the wire, has been forced into locking position between said wire and wall 100, so to draw the curved portion or stretch of the wire at the rear and sides of the heel toward the front of the latter, thereby to pull on the fingers 10b spread as in Fig. 4 and gather them together as best shown in Fig. 3 to take up the previously existing spacings therebetween. The metal or other material of which the carrier 1D is formed can be merely flexible, to allow the fingers 10b to be separated or spaced as in Fig. i by outwardly bending the same before applying the device to the heel block 14; but it is preferred to stamp or press or otherwise suitably form the carrier 10 from a sheet of some resiliently flexible metal, and then to bias the fingers 12b for normal disposition as shown in Fig. 4. In either case, the design of the parts is such that when the fingers 121; are spaced as in Fig. 4, with or without an upwardly outward bending of the breast wall 10a, the top opening of the cup established by the carrier is of the same size and outline as the bottom face of the heel block. Finally, the curved stretch of the wire 15 which passes through the beads at the tops of the fingers 12b is of sufficient length to allow of such an opening of the top of the cup by diverging the fingers 12b as shown in Fig. 4.

It will be noted that the device above described is locked to the heel block 14 by the aid of the bottom downward outward flare thereof, with the result that accidental disengagement of the device from the heel block is impossible. When, however, the lift 12 of said device has become so much worn as to require discarding of the device and the substitution of another carrying a new lift, it is only necessary to swing the leaf 16b away from the heel breast 14a and then downwardly to a horizontal position as shown in Fig. 4; whereupon the device will open up as shown in Fig. i for easy and instantaneous removal. The replacement device, while in the condition last described, is just as easily and quickly placed on the bottom of the shoe heel block, and then looked and clenched thereon by swinging its leaf 16b to the position shown in Figs. 1 and 2. These operations can all be performed even by the wearer of the shoe; and without the use of any special tool. Moreover, the heel block i l can be an ordinary standard one; without any special bottom or other attachment or attachments. There is no necessity for any nailing or nail removing operation at any time. There is finally no possibility of marring or otherwise injuring the bottom portion of even a wooden heel block. The new device can be made in large quantities at nominal expense, and therefore can sell at an economical price. With the carrier 10 of metal, the engagement of such metal with the pavement at the rear or a side of the heel bottom acts as a tell-tale to advise that the wear-lift has become worn to a point where another one should be substituted. Very importantly, especially for ladies shoe heels, the wear-lift carrying device of the present invention, when mounted on a heel block as in Figs. 1, 2 and 3, is highly ornamental; the curved line of beads at the tops of the fingers 102) being apparently a continuous and unbroken decorative band element resembling a closely-strung necklace around the shoe heel at a pleasing height thereon, and apparently secured in place by a decorative buckle, in the front, the fitment 16 giving this buckle effect.

The hereinabove described construction admits of considerable modifications without departing from the invention; therefore, we do not wish to be limited to the precise arrangements herein shown and described, which are, as aforesaid, by way of illustration merely. The scope of protection contemplated is to be taken solely from the appended claims, interpreted as broadly as is consistent with the prior art.

We claim:

1. A detachable device for attachment to a heel block having a downwardly outwardly flared bottom portion, including, in combination, a wear lift, a carrier to the bottom of which said lift is permanently secured, and means on the carrier for mounting the latter on the heel block, said means including an upstanding element at the breast of the heel and a plurality of upstanding fingers arranged along a curved line following the rear and sides of the heel, said fingers being bendable outwardly to diverge them relative to one another, a wire running around the carrier and in front of said element and engaging said fingers near their tops and of a length to allow said fingers to be diverged as aforesaid, and a device including a cam rockable on said wire in front of said element to pull on said wire to redispose said fingers to draw them together.

2. The device defined in claim 1, wherein all of said fingers and said element are integral with a fiat plate constituting said carrier bottom and all the said fingers have aligned bores near their tops through which said wire runs, said wire being a closed loop.

3. A detachable device for attachment to a heel block having a downwardly outwardly flared bottom portion, including, in combination, a wear lift, a generally cup-shaped carrier for said lift, said lift being permanently secured to the bottom of said carrier, said carrier having an upstanding wall following the outline of the bottom face of the heel block and said wall in its portion following the rear and side roundings of the heel being formed as a plurality of separate upstanding fingers having horizontal bores at their tops, said fingers being resiliently biassed to diverge and thereby suffieiently open the top of the cup to permit the latter to be mounted on the heel block with the bottom of the cup against the bottom of said block, a flexible element running all around said wall and through said bores, and means for readjusting said flexible element to draw said fingers together and thereby lock the device on the heel block, said means including a stretch of said flexible element extending across the breast of the heel-block, a cam rotatable on said stretch, and a finger-piece for rotating the cam.

4. The device defined in claim 3, wherein said flexible element is a closed wire loop and said bores are provided by curling down the upper ends of said fingers.

5. The device defined in claim 3, wherein said cam and said finger-piece are parts of a single unitary fitment, said fitment also including a straight sleeve substantially as long as the width of the heel breast, said sleeve carrying said cam and having said straight stretch of the flexible element extending therethrough, said finger-piece being a leaf oifset from the sleeve and so positioned thereon relative to said cam that when the device is locked on the heel block said leaf extends above the sleeve and against the breast of the heel block.

JOHN GIANNINI. ARTURO DE PRISCO.

Images