Bohemian style was not really until the First World War that "many working women ... embarked on a revolution in fashion that greatly reduced the weight and restrictions imposed on them by their clothing". Some women working in factories wore trousers and the brassiere (invented in 1889 by the feminist Herminie Cadolle and patented in America by Mary Phelps Jacob in 1914) began gradually to supersede the corset. In shipyards "trouser suits" (the term, "pantsuit" was adopted in America in the 1920s) were virtually essential to enable women to shin up and down ladders. Music hall artists also helped to push the
William Preston Phelps was struck dead by the train. Phelps' wife Anna died just six months later. Phelps began to drink heavily, and in 1906 he remarried but divorced in 1909. By his late 60s, William started to fade with the sadness of his wife Anna and son Edward passing away, and his finances weakened. In 1914, he began to borrow money from a Lowell financing firm, and quickly got into debt. After Phelps pulled a gun on his friend and neighbor in the winter of 1917, the authorities were notified. The police came and escorted the aging artist away, and was labeled