AN IMPROVEMENT IN THE MACHINERY FOR MAKING BRUSSELS AND CUT PILE, COMMONLY CALLED WILTON CARPETTING, FIGURED RUGS, AND IMPERIAL RUGS
Year: 1818

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, JOSEPH
BOWYER, of Kidderminster, in the County of Worcester, Carpet Manufacturer,
send greeting.
WHEREAS His most Excellent Majesty King George the Third did, by
His Letters Patent under the Great Seal of the United Kingdom of Great
Britain and Ireland, bearing date at Westminster, the Thirty-first day of
August, in the fifty-eighth year of His reign, give and grant unto me, the said
Joseph Bowyer, my exors, adñors, and assigns, His especial licence, full power,
sole privilege and authority, that I, the said Joseph Bowyer, my exors,
admors, and assigns, should and lawfully might, during the term of years
therein expressed, make, use, exercise, and vend within England, Wales,
and the Town of Berwick-upon-Tweed, my Invention of "AN IMPROVEMENT
IN THE MACHINERY FOR MAKING BRUSSELS AND CUT PILE, COMMONLY CALLED
WILTON CARPETTING, FIGURED RUGS, AND IMPERIAL RUGS;" in which said
Letters Patent is contained a proviso, that if I, the said Joseph Bowyer,
should not particularly describe and ascertain the nature of my said Inven-
tion, and in what manner the same is to be performed, by an instrument in
writing under my hand and seal, and cause the same to be inrolled in
His Majesty's High Court of Chancery within two calendar months next
and immediately after the date of the said Letters Patent, that then the said
Letters Patent, and all liberties and advantages whatsoever thereby granted,
shall utterly cease, determine, and become void, as in and by the same,
relation being thereunto had, may more fully and at large appear.

page_text: NOW KNOW YE, that in compliance with the said proviso, I, the said
Joseph Bowyer, do hereby declare that the nature of my said Invention, and
the manner in which the same is to be performed, are particularly described
and ascertained in and by the following description thereof (that is to say):-
I make my frame of wood, iron, or any other material that will answer the
same purpose, and in ranges similar to the common mode, except that I use no
beach wires for the bobbins to work on; but I have holes made in the frame
bars, large enough to admit one end of the bobbin; the other end I lay in a
half or three-quarters circle, or thereabout, the bobbin working in an hori-
zontal position, and the circular and half-circular holes which the two ends of
the bobbin work in being a little longer than the bobbin ends, so that they may
work round freely when the thread is pulled; thus, supposing the bobbin to be
two inches in diameter, the holes it works in must be two and a.quarter, or
thereabout. I make my frames in double ranges, the outside bars of each
with a whole circle, and the middle bars with a half or three-quarter circle, or
thereabouts, the upper part of the bar being left deficient so as to allow the
bobbin to be taken in and out. I make my frames with four or five double
ranges, more or less, and I can add a single one occasionally, but that depends
upon the number of bobbins and the size of the shop I may want to put my
loom in. I fasten a wire across the frame, over or about the midway of the
rows of bobbins, one for every row or one for two rows will be sufficient. To
keep the worsted ends tight, instead of a bullet fastened to the end of the
bobbin, I have a weight of about two ounces and a quarter, made of lead or
cast iron, or any other weighty substance, with a small ring or hook fixed to it,
through which I put the worsted end, and suspend it under the bobbin, and I
bring it, the said worsted end, from the under side of the bobbin up between
and over the wire which goes across the frame, to bear it off the bobbin. It
will not work well from the top of the bobbin; but must be brought under
where the weight swings. If the action of the work or the weight bring the
bobbin too fast round, I lay a small pressure on that end of the bobbin which
works in the half circle, or add to the weight of the bobbin by putting a little
more weight into the hole of the bobbin, such as a bit of iron rod or lead,
or suspend a small weight from the wire over the bobbin. As it is necessary
that there should be room between the ends of the bobbins to take them out
and put them in, and the baring being but about half an inch, some of them may
fall out if a little too short; too prevent which I lay a small. strip of wood or
iron, &c., to fill up the vacancy, to keep them in their places. To the weights
that keep the worsted ends tight, I put a hard-twisted cord, commonly called
tail cord, thro' the staple or ring, and fasten one end of it to the frame or the
:

page_text: wire. The reason I use a hard kind of cord is that any thing soft or flexible
may cling to the bobbin and fasten it, as it is always slack, except the worsted
end breaks or the bobbin be taken out. The only use this is to prevent the
weight falling from its place when out of use, from the worsted breaking, or
the bobbin being off. The cord to this weight need not be more than nine or
ten inches long, as every inch the weight sinks it draws the worsted end back
two inches. I have also another method of working my bobbins, that is, on the
ends, or in a perpendicular direction, but still on my former principle of laying
the weight on the ends of yarn, as before mentioned. Thus, I have a bobbin
board of about three feet six inches square, with perpendicular spindles fixed
about two inches and a half from each other, in lines or rows of sixteen each
way, which is about the number generally used in a frame. At the lower
end or nearer part of the body of the loom, I fix a frame of wire, about
three feet three inches by two feet, which I fix the long way across the loom
and join it to the bobbin board; this frame is crossed each way with wires,
to make sixteen squares of two and a half by two inches. In this frame, as
there are bobbins on the board, from each of these squares I suspend two
weights by strings of about nine inches in length; I then arrange the threads
or ends of yarn from the rows of bobbins down their respective lines, and
thread them through the staples, rings, or hooks which are fixed to the
weights, and suspend them between the wires or squares above mentioned,
to rise or fall as the ends tighten or slaken. I put two to each square,
but they may be increased or diminished in number, as the workman thinks
proper. This is a plan for one frame, which may be made of wood, iron,
brass, or any other material that may answer the purpose, and should be
five feet six inches long and three feet six inches wide. These frames are
arranged after the same manner as the original ones, one above another, from
one to five being the general number, and more, if required. The workman
must observe that it is necessary to countersink a hollow of about a quarter of
an inch deep and one inch and a half wide in the place where the bobbin
works, as many of them are made round, or with projected ends. If they were
all turned flat there would be no necessity for countersinking the hollows. To
guard against the bobbins coming round too freely from the motion of the
loom and the weights hung on the threads, the spindles may be a little longer
than the bobbins, so that a weight may be laid on the top of the bobbin, or the
spindles may be made shirter than the bobbins, say about three or four inches
long, and if the bobbin comes round too freely, a little worsted may be lapped
round the spindle, or a leather or cloth washer may be put under the bobbins,
or a little chalk or resin rubed on the end of the bobbin, or on the bobbin

page_text: board, or a feather may be put in the hole of the bobbin; any of these means
will only be necessary increase the bobbins are lighter than ordinary. On this
plan the bobbins in general use may be adopted, as well as those made for the
special purpose.
In witness whereof, I, the said Joseph Bowyer, have hereunto set my
hand and seal, this Twenty-second day of October, in the year of our
Lord One thousand eight hundred and eighteen.