A NEW OR IMPROVED FABRIC, TERMED FOULARDINE
Year: 1864

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by William Edward Gedge at the
Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the 3rd
August 1864. A communication from abroad by Jean Wild and Octave
Zindel, both of Mulhouse, France, Manufacturers.
I, WILLIAM EDWARD GEDGE, of the Firm of John Gedge and Son, of No. 11,
Wellington Street, Strand, in the County of Middlesex, Patent Agent, do
hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for "A NEW OR IMPROVED
FABRIC, TERMED FOULARDINE,'” (a communication to me from abroad by Jean
Wild and Octave Zindel, both of Mulhouse, France, Manufacturers, to be
as follows:-
This Invention consists in the production of an entirely novel fabric, which
is termed "foulardine," and which is intended as an advantageous substitute
for the fabric known as foulard (silk). The difference existing between the
old and the new fabric is as follows:-Hitherto all the foulards delivered for
sale, either as handkerchiefs, dresses, or linings, are composed, firstly, of a
warp of organzine or thrown silk (threads of raw silk wound off from the
cocoon, and doubled or twisted together in a certain number of twists);
secondly, of a tram or weft of spun floss silk (carded floss or waste silk).
In the manufacture of the foulardine, the subject of this Invention, the
warp of organzine is replaced by a warp of spun floss silk (single thread),
material identical with that now used for the tram or weft, and which it has
not hitherto been found possible to use as warp in the state of single thread.
The only spun floss silk warps now worked are all warps, twisted with two or

page_text: several threads, and that because the spun floss silk being a material very
irregularly spun, very dirty and downy, containing a great deal of waste and
irregular thicknesses, does not possess sufficient strength to resist the strain to
which the warp is exposed during the working of the weaving loom. To attain
the object of this Invention it is necessary to submit the material to several
operations preliminary to the weaving, such operations being analogous to
those by the aid of which cotton warps are prepared, and which are, firstly,
the winding or spooling; secondly, the warping; thirdly, the dressing. These
several preparations clean the warp while giving it greater strength, and
permitting its being woven with advantage.
The results obtained by this manufacture are, firstly, being enabled to
deliver products analogous and even superior to "foulards" at lower prices, not
only because of the use of a cheaper material (the cost of spun floss silk is
about 40 per cent. less than that of organzine), but also because of the saving
of labour, an economy obtained by a better process.
Secondly, that of obtaining a stronger fabric than the ordinary "foulard,"
and this because using for the warp a cheaper material without increasing the
price of this fabric; thicker threads or a greater number of threads can be put
into the warp, thereby giving greater consistence, and consequently more
strength to the fabric.
It will be evident from the preceding that this Invention consists in the
production of a novel fabric termed "foulardine," composed of a warp of spun
floss silk (single thread), woven with a tram or weft of the same material.