Improvements in Fabrics Made in Imitation of Fur or Down-bearing Skins.
Year: 1899

page_text: Date of Application, 1st May, 1899-Accepted, 1st May, 1900
COMPLETE SPECIFICATION.
Improvements in Fabrics Made in Imitation of Fur or Down-bearing
Skins.
I, GEORGE R. SHEVILL. of 35, Broome Street, Brooklyn, in the County of
Kings and State of New York, United States of America, Weaver, do hereby
declare the nature of this invention and in what manner the same is to be per-
formed, to be particularly described and ascertained in and by the following
statement:-
The object of my invention is to incorporate with a textile fabric, that is to
say, with a woven or knitted fabric as a base, a superficial layer or covering of
down or fur, and my invention consists in the method of producing the same, as
well as in the article itself.
The natural skins of down-bearing birds and of fur-bearings animals are largely
employed in the manufacture of wearing apparel, but such material is com-
paratively rare and costly.
By my invention it is proposed to artificially produce, at comparatively small
cost, a material having a base or packing of woven or knitted fabric that closely
resembles fur or down-bearing skins.
The range of the applicability of my invention in producing articles of the
kind described is practically unlimited. The material so produced possesses a
distinct advantage in that the backing is continuous throughout and may be made
of any required texture, shape and extent.
Heretofore feather trimming has been made or attempts have been made to
produce feather trimming by interweaving the membrane or quills of feathers
with the barb or vexilla attached thereto, into a fabric with which the membrane
or quill is incorporated. Such material, however, besides being comparatively
costly to manufacture, differs from my material in many respects, and more par-
ticularly in the absence of the downy appearance exhibited in my product.
Moreover, material of the class above described is limited to the incorporation
of feathers with a fabric and is not applicable to the incorporation therewith of
fur or down. So far as my method of manufacture is concerned, it is distinct
from anything known in the art by the incorporation with the fabric of loose
down, or fur, separated from the skin upon which it is produced in nature, and
as respects the article produced by my method, is distinguished by the entire
absence of any skin membrane.
in the accompanying drawings:-
Figure 1. is a plan view of the reverse side of a strip of my material, showing
an extended end of plain fabric, that is of fabric without the covering of down;
or fur, incorporated with it.
Figure 2. is a perspective view of a strip of material showing the reverse side
from that illustrated in Figure 1:
Figure 3. is a detail view showing upon an enlarged scale, an end view of a
knitted fabric forming the base or backing, and illustrating the manner in which
the down or fur is engaged by the thread in the act of knitting.
Figure 4 illustrates my invention applied to an ordinary loom.

page_text: Referring to the figures on the drawings, 1 indicates the strands of a continuous
thread, which in the form of embodiment of my invention illustrated, is knitted
into a fabric 2.
indicates a superficial layer, covering or pile, as of down or fur.
In carrying out the method by which my material as illustrated for example
in Figure is produced. I utilize a knitting machine of any preferred description
such as is well known in the art, and which for that reason, does not require
herein illustration or description.
During the knitting operation. I provide in close juxtaposition to the needles,
or web-forming mechanism, a loose mass of fur or down designed to be incor-
porated with the fabric confining the mass in its loose state in such a manner
as will keep the thread 1 constantly working amongst the mass in such a manner
as will cause it to take in each bend or loop that it makes in being incorporated
into the web, a small quantity of the hair or downy filaments that constitute the
mass of down or fur in which the thread works. The fur or down is fed slowly
by gravity into the path of the needles or web producing mechanism so that the
web is formed as it were. in an atmosphere of down or fur out of which it
continuously feeds and incorporates with itself a portion.
In the manner described, the hairs or downy filaments are severally caught up
and confined within the loops of which the web is composed, and produces upon
the surface of the web so fashioned the downy or furred layer 3 illustrated in
the drawings.
After the web with its covering 8, is formed in the manner described, all loose
particles of fur, or down, not incorporated with or properly adherent to the fabric
may be driven away as by an air-blast or other means.
As above suggested my method is applicable to any fabric-producing mechanism.
If for example the fabric is produced by a loom instead of a knitting machine
the warp and woof threads of the fabric are interwoven in the ordinary manner,
a loose mass of down or fur being arranged at the place where the fabric is made
and the threads intersect in a manner precisely similar to that already described
so that the hairs or downy filaments of the mass of fur or down are caught up
and secured between the warp and woof threads in the reticulations formed by
then. In other words, the hairs or tilaments instead of being secured within
the loops of a continuous knitted thread are secured hetween the numerous inter-
woven warp and woof threads that constitute the woven fabric.
In Fig. 4 have shown an ordinary loom having the warp threads and 5
above which at the point where the woof threads are incorporated with said warp
threads, locate the receptacle i in which I dispose a mass of loose down or
fur 7 which feeds downwardly and is incorporated with the fabric during the
process of weaving, as indicated by the numeral S.
1 deem it desirable in some instances to employ unshrunken, shrinkable thread
in the manufacture of the textile base or backing and after the down or fur
is incorporated with such base or backing to shrink the fabric as by wetting. By
int means an exceedingly strong adherence between the layer 3 and its backing
may be secured.
Having now particularly described and ascertained the nature of my said
invention and in what manner the same is to be performed declare that what
1 claim is
1. The method of producing a material having a base or backing of textile
fabric, and a covering of fur or down, which consists in forming the fabric in
close juxtaposition to a loose mass of fur or down whereby the hairs or filaments
of the mass are caught up by the thread or threads of which the fabric is com-
posed, and incorporated with the fabric, substantially in the manner specified.
2. The method of producing a material having a base or backing of textile
fabric and a covering of fur or down, which consists in incorporating the fur or
down with the fabric during the process of manufacture and afterwards shrink-

page_text: ing the fabric to increase the adherence between the fabric and its covering,
substantially as set forth.
B. An article of manufacture, consisting of a base or backing of textile fabric
having a soft covering or layer of downy substance like fur, the individual hairs
or filaments whereof are incorporated with and project from the fabric, sub-
stantially as set forth.
4. An article of manufacture, consisting of a base or backing of textile fabric,
having a soft covering of down or downy substance like fur, the latter adherent
to the former through incorporation of individual hairs or filaments of the layer
with the fabric, substantially as set forth.
BOULT & WADE,
Agents for the Applicant.