Year: 1898

page_text: Date of Application, 21st Feb., 1898-Accepted, 30th Apr., 1898
A communication by LOUIS HIRSCH, of the Dyeing, Finishing and Printing Works,
Gera-Reuss, in the Empire of Germany, Dyer.
I, WILLIAM PHILLIPS THOMPSON, F.C.S., M.I.M.E., of the Agency for Foreign
Patent Solicitors, 6, Lord Street, Liverpool, and 6, Bank Street, Manchester, both
in the County of Lancaster, 118, New Street, Birmingham, in the County of
Warwick, and 322, High Holborn, in the County of Middlesex, Civil Engineer,
do hereby declare the nature of this invention and in what manner the same is
to be performed, to be particularly described and ascertained in and by the follow-
ing statement:
This invention has for its object a process for imitating the woollen fabric
generally called beige or vigoureux.
As is well known under these names a woollen fabric is understood, the wool
of which has been dyed, or rather which is made of yarns imprinted in the state
of a combed sliver.
The imprinted sliver is afterwards stretched in a stretching machine and then
spun into yarn. By this stretching the pattern of the imprint is broken and the
markings displaced one against the other so that an irregular blurred effect results
which produces a peculiar effect in the fabric woven therewith which is called
beige or vigoureux process.
By the use of different coloured threads for warp and weft, the effect produced
is variegated. As is well known weavers find considerable difficulty in producing
such fabrics, more particularly as it is impossible for weavers to keep in stock
all shades of yarns which are necessary for producing a special design and which
latter are frequently to be prepared in no considerable quantity. The spinner also
rarely has yarns of a given shade in stock, as according to the pattern of the
fabric desired yarns have to be specially dyed with the respective shades. Thus
in most cases the weaver is dependent on the spinner who in turn can only make
a given shade of yarn always in large lots.
It frequently happens that the weaver has to undergo important loss as he must
stock given lots of warp yarns which he cannot fully utilize, or can only seldom
use which is evident if we consider that a warp must always be employed for each
shade. He is therefore extremely frequently placed in the unpleasant position of
either having considerable loss by waste of warp, or in the case of small orders and
largely stocked warp of having to take into stock a considerable quantity of
finished goods.
All these unpleasant circumstances which become apparent in practical working
are avoided by the improved process of the present invention.
The weaver weaves from undyed or unprinted yarns certain raw goods of various
widths and qualities in advance. The goods are then sent to the printer who
imprints them according to the present process and the imitation itself is a perfect
one even from the point of view of an expert.
The improved process consists in imprinting the bleached raw or dyed fabric
with straight, corrugated, irregular or broken lines imitating the beige weft and

page_text: beige warp characters in such a way that these lines imitate longitudinally and
diagonally the warp and the weft.
The imitations are so successful that it is hardly possible for an expert himself
to discriminate as to whether the fabric under inspection is actually a beige or
vigoureux or an imitation of the same.
If the imitation is to be a perfect one, this process must be employed on both
sides of the goods according to the objects for which the same is destined. For
each given sort of woollen fabric great care must be taken to find the right pattern
in order to produce the intended vigoureux or powerful beige effect.
.
Care must also be taken to limit the steaming period because during the action
of steaming a greater or less blurring or mixing of the outlines of the colour lines
or dye.lines. is produced.
After the steaming the thickening, paste is washed off in the ordinary manner
and after drying the goods are finished, that is to say are trimmed, dressed or
teasled, shrunk and pressed according to requirements in the usual way.
The printing rollers employed for carrying out the process have the peculiarity
that one roller is engraved with the pattern longitudinally and thus repre-
sents the weft, whilst the other is engraved peripherally and thus yields a pattern
which represents the warp.
It must be specially mentioned that jacquard patterns may also be produced by
means of suitable rollers on the fabrics or in the fabrics hereinbefore described.
Having now particularly described and ascertained the nature of the said inven-
tion and in what manner the same is to be performed, as communicated to me by
my foreign correspondent, I declare that what I claim is:-
A process for imitating beige or vigoureux fabrics, characterized by undyed
white or preliminarily dyed goods being imprinted by engraved rollers in such a
way that first weft effects and then warp effects result which in their combined
effect yield an appearance or imitation of a beige or vigoureux fabric, substantially
as herein before described.
Dated this 19th day of February 1898.