156 A SHOE ENABLING OPENING QUARTERS AS DESIRED. 



It is seen the heels must nd\v spread so far as the shoe 

 is opened, and that you have the power to open the quarters 

 as little or much as you desire, at will, with the spreaders. 

 You can put the tongs between the heels, and spread them ; 

 but the difficulty will be the pressure coming equally on 

 both sides ; the side that is the weakest, or filed away the 

 most, will do all the bending, thereby bringing pressure only 

 no the quarter outside the part so bending outward. This 



will not do ; for we 

 must not only be ex- 

 act in fitting this form 

 of shoe in the first 

 place, but we must be 

 equally exact in our 

 ability to open either 

 or both quarters as lit- 

 tle or much as we de- 

 sire, with certainty. 

 And this little point, 

 small as it may seem, 

 caused me a great 

 deal of trouble to de- 

 vise a means to do. 

 The spreaders are the 

 result of the effort, the 

 idea of which the 

 reader can easily catch 

 from the engraving, 

 and make the cure of 

 contraction easy and 

 sure. This illustration 

 does not, however, 

 give the right propor- 

 tions, the part to the right from the fulcrum of bearing against 

 each other to the part resting against the heel appearing too 

 long. With this simple means of getting a strong lever- 

 power upon each heel, outward, independent of the other, 

 we can open the heels with great* ease, as we desire. I 

 would caution you not to spread too much when the shoe is 

 first put on, which you will be liable to do because you can 

 do it so easily, or at any time afterwards. Measure accu- 



(STo. 27.) 



The spreaders as they are 

 placed to spread one heel 

 independent of the other. 

 See models carried by the 

 author for inspection. 



