US1550715A - Shoe insole - Google Patents

Description

' Patented Aug. 25, 1925.

UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

EDWARD E. STOUT, QF INDIANAPOLIS, INDIANA.

SHOE INSOLE.

Application filed June 7,

To all whom t may concern:

Be it known that I, EDWARD E. S'roUT, a citizen of the United States, residing at Indianapolis, in the county of Marion and State of Indiana, haverinvented a new and useful Shoe Insole, of which the following is a specification.

It is the object of my invention to produce an in-sole which combines in one structure the goed features of a cushion in-sole and a non-cushion in-sole, with none of the\dis advantages of either; which supports the arches of the foot while cushioning the heel and the front part of the foot; which furnishes a better rest for the heel bone] or oscalcis, by both supporting its inner side and thus forming a socket, and by cushioning it if desired; and which avoids the objectionable creeping and wadd/ing of the cushioning material which so frequently occurs with cushion shoes, probably because the cushioning material is pushed up into a wad by the back-and-forth action of the ball of the foot in the shoe.

The accompanying drawing illustrates my invention; Fig. 1 is a vertical central section through a shoe sole which carries an in-sole embodying my invention, with the relative position of part of the shoe-upper and of the foot indicated in dotted lines; Fig. 2 is a perspective view of the in-sole shown in Fig. 1, with the sock lining turned back; Figs. 8, 4, and 5 are sectional views substantially on the lines 3-3, 4-4, and 5-5 of Fig. 1; Fig. 6 is a perspective view, looking upward, of the lambs-wool cushioning material which I prefer to use; and Fig. 7 is a view similar to Fig. 2, showing this lambswool cushion at the front part of the shoe, and a cushion at the heel.

My in-sole is arranged to be used in the usual manner on the inside of a shoe, and to rest on the shoe out-sole 10. The insole usually comp-rises a supporting piece 11, usually of leather, beneath which at the edge the usual shoe-upper 12 extends in the regular way. As so far described, this is standard practice.

Upon the shank of the in-sole I mount a comparatively hard shank-piece 15, which extends below and supports the various arches of the foot. This shank-piece 15 may be made of any suitable, light, relatively hard material, such as leather, courqk, or some suitable porous moldedrm-cgjgining compositiorlgjs properly slape as by 1923. Serial No. 643,824.

cutting or molding, to support firmly but without too great rigidity the various arches of the foot, including both the inner and outer longitudinal arches and the front and rear transverse arches. This shank-piece 15 rises highest at its internal edge 16, as is clear from Figs. 1, 2, 3, and 7, where it follows a line substantially like the dotted line 16 in Fig. 1, and gradually slopes downward and outward to its external edge, where it is usually substantially flush with the top of the in-sole piece 11. This slant of the upper surface of the shank-piece 15 from its inner edge to its outer edge is itself arched, to provide a support for the transverse arches of the foot. At the front, the middle part of the shank-piece projects further forward than do the sides, to form a metatarsal support 17 which lies behind the heads of the second, third, and fourth metatarsal bones but allows the heads of the first and fifth metatarsal bones to lie beside it. This metatarsal support 17 is itself transversely arched, as is clear from Fig. 5, and thus supports the anterior transverse arch of the foot. At the rear, I prefer to continue the shank-piece 15 backward on the inner side, to form a rear fingerlaih lies beneath the inner side of the ieel bone or oscalcis. This linger 18 is transversely tapered, so that it is thickest at its edge toward the inside of the foot and tapers of to zero thickness at about the middle longitudinal line of the heel bone, as is clear from Figs. 2 and 4. Thus the upper surfaces of the finger 18 toward the inside and the in-sole 11 toward the outside form a sort of socket in which the heel bone rests, which socket assists in the support of the heel bone and helps to put the foot in the right position so that the weight will not bear on the inside of the longitudinal center of the foot and cause it to turn inward. This finger 18 and the shank-piece 15 work together to this en Preferably beneath both the heel and beneath the ball of the foot and the toes I provide cushions 2O and 21. These cushions do not extend over the bulk of the shank-piece 15, so that the shoe has a hard shank but provides cushions at the heel and at the ball and toes. The cushion 20, when used, preferably overlies the nger 18, as well as the heel end of the in-sole 11, but does not extend forward over the body of the shank piece 15. The cushion 21 preferably underlies the metatarsal support 17 of the shank-piece, as is clear from Fig. l, and eXtends backward at the sides of this metatarsal support, as is clear from Figs. 2 and 7.

Over the complete in-sole, and covering the shank piece l5 as well as the cushions 2O and 21, I prefer to provide a sock lining 25, as is common with in-sole structures. This sock lininO` is shown lifted and turned forward in Fig. 2, and is completely omitted in Fig. 7.

For the cushions of the in-sole, I prefer to use a material formed of a multitude of fibers having their upper ends anchored in a membrane, which cushion material forms the subject of my co-pending application Serial No. 643,825 of even ling date herewith. The best form of such material I know of is lambs-wool (including wool from either sheep or lambs), with the skin 26 uppermost so that the wool 27 is downward, as set forth in such co-pending application. lVhile this lambs-wool cushion material may be used for both the front and the rear cushions I have shown it (Fig. 7 used only as a front cushion, with ordinary felt or similar material as the rear cushion; for `the lambs-wool cushion is especially desirable for the front cushion, because it is there that the tendency to crowd out the cushioning material from beneath the front ends of the inetatarsals and to wad it into a ball just ahead of the socket which such front ends thus work for themselves in the cushioning material is especially aptto occur. This wadding of the cushioning material is oftentimes a source of considerable discomfort, if not of serious foot trouble. By the use of the lambswool cushion, with the fiesh side or skin 26 upward and the wool 27 downward, I find that this creeping and wadding of the cushioning material is practically wholly avoided, because each individual liber or hair of the wool is anchored at its upper end in the lamb-skin, and so is held from being pushed out of place. When the rear end of the first cushion 2l extends beneath the metatarsal support 17, the wool of such cushion is conveniently cut off slopingly to avoid bulging.

I claim as my invention:

l. A shoe in-sole, comprising a supporting base, and a raised shank-piece of relatively hard material mounted over the supe porting base and having a finger projecting rearward below the heel on the inner side only.

2. A shoe in-sole, comprising a supporting base, and a raised shank-piece of relatively hard material mounted over the supporting base and having a finger projecting rearward below the heel on the inner side only, said finger being wedged-shaped in transverse cross-section with base of the wedge toward the inner side of the finger.

3. A shoe in-sole, comprising a supporting base, a raised shank-piece of relatively hard material mounted over the supporting base and having al linger projecting rearward below the heel on the inner side only, said finger being wedge-shaped in transverse cro-sssection with base of the wedge toward the inner side of the finger, and a heel cushion overlying said finger and the` rear end of the supporting base.

4. A shoe in-sole, comprising a supporting base, a raised shankepiece of relatively hard material over the shank of said base, and a cushion over the front part of said supporting base, said cushion comprising the lambswool with the skin-side upward.

5. A shoe in-sole, comprising a supporting base, a raised shank-piece of relatively hard material over the shank of said base, and a cushion over the front part of said supporting base, said cushion comprising a multitude of fibers and a membrane in which the upper ends of such fibers are anchored.

In witness whereof, I have hereunto set my hand at Indianapolis, Indiana, this 7th day of May, A. D. one thousand nine hundred and twenty three.

EDWARD E. STOUT.

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