Stiffener material for shoes and method of making

Claim 1

IN THE METHOD OF MAKING HARDENABLE SHEET MATERIAL FOR STIFFENING END PORTIONS OF SHOES COMPRISING THE STEPS OF FORMING A SHEET BY STRAINING AN AQUEOUS DISPERSION OF FIBERS AND FINE DISCRETE PARTICLES OF A NORMALLY SOLID, COALESCIBLE STIFFENING AGENT AT LEAST EQUAL IN WEIGHT TO THE WEIGHT OF THE FIBERS THROUGH A THIN RELATIVELY OPEN FIBROUS FABRIC, SAID SHEET COMPRISING A LAYER OF FIBERS WITH SAID PARTICLES DISTRIBUTED THERETHROUGH AND WITH FIBERS OF SAID LAYER INTERSPERSED WITH FIBERS OF SAID FABRIC TO HOLD SAID FABRIC AND LAYER TOGETHER AS A SHEET AND REMOVING A MAJOR PROPORTION OF THE WATER CONTENT OF SAID SHEET, THE IMPROVEMENT COMPRISING COATING THE FABRIC-COVERED SURFACE OF SAID SHEET WITH AN AQUEOUS LATEX OF AN ORGANIC SOLVENT SOLUBLE THERMOPLASTIC MATERIAL, SAID LATEX EXTENDING INTO SAID LAYER TO AN EXTENT LESS THAN ONE-HALF THE THICKNESS OF SAID LAYER, EVAPORATING WATER FROM THE APPLIED COATING AND THEREAFTER SUBJECTING THE DRIED COATING ON SAID FABRIC TO RADIANT HEAT TO FUSE THE DEPOSITED THERMOPLASTIC MATERIAL TO AN ORGANIC SOLVENT PERMEABLE PELLICLE REINFORCING THE UNION BETWEEN SAID FABRIC AND SAID FIBER LAYER.