"The ribs bear about the same proportion (as in modern umbrellas) as
regards length, to the stick, but the stretchers are much shorter,
being less than a quarter of the length of the ribs. They are double,
each rib having a pair joined, one on each side of the rib, at the
same point. The ribs are joined at the top by being strung on a ring,
as in old English umbrellas, but the runner is made of precisely
similar construction to the modern runner, and seems almost identical
with that described in Caney's Specification (patent No. 5761, A.D.
1829). Ribs and sticks are jointed, the latter in two places. There
is no catch to hold the umbrella closed, but this upper catch is the
ordinary bent wire one. The upper joint of the stick is made with a
screw, the lower of a hinge with a slide, as in a modern parasol. The
slide has a catch, resembling the ordinary runner catch. At the top
is a ring for carrying or suspending the umbrella."

Such was the old French Umbrella, and that used in England was of
much the same sort. The old French folding Parasol is thus described
in the "Report of the Jurors for the Exhibition of 1851:"--

"The folding parasol was constructed with jointed ribs so as to fold
back, and was likewise self-opening. The rod was a metallic tube, and
contained a spiral spring which acted upon and pressed upwards an
inner rod. To this inner rod were jointed the stretchers, which in
this construction were placed above the ribs instead of below, as in
the ordinary form, beside which they were much shorter, so as to
admit of their being concealed by the covering. By the elasticity of
the spiral spring contained in the hollow stem, the inner rod was
pressed outwards and lifted the stretchers, and by their means raised
the ribs also, so that in its ordinary or natural state the umbrella