IMPROVEMENTS IN MACHINERY FOR PRODUCING LACE IN VARIOUS BREADTHS WITH EDGES OR QUILLING
Year: 1832

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, 1, WILLIAM
HENSON, of Worcester, Lace Manufacturer, send greeting.
WHEREAS His present most Excellent Majesty King William the Fourth,
by His Letters Patent, bearing date at Westminster, the Twenty-sixth day of
December, One thousand eight hundred and thirty-two, and in the third of
year
His reign, did, for Himself, His heirs and successors, give and grant unto
me, the said William Henson, His especial licence, full power, sole privilege
and authority, that I, the said William Henson, my executors, administrators,
and assigns, or such others as I, the said William Henson, my executors,
administrators, or assigns, should at any time agree with, and no others,
from time to time and at all times during the term of years therein
mentioned, should and lawfully might make, use, exercise, and vend, within
England, Wales, and the Town of Berwick-upon-Tweed, my, Invention of
"IMPROVEMENTS IN MACHINERY FOR PRODUCING LACE IN VARIOUS BREADTHS
WITH EDGES OR QUILLING;" in which said Letters Patent is contained a
proviso, that I, the said William Henson, shall cause a particular description
of the nature of my said Invention, and in what manner the same is to
be performed, to be inrolled in His said Majesty's High Court of Chancery
within six calendar months next and immediately after the date of the said
in part recited Letters Patent, as in and by the same, reference being thereunto
had, will more fully and at large appear.
.

page_text: NOW KNOW YE, that in compliance with the said proviso, I, the said
William Henson, do hereby declare that the nature of my said Invention,
and in what manner the same is to be performed, is particularly described
and ascertained by the following description thereof, reference being had to
the Drawing hereunto annexed, and to the figures and letters marked thereon
(that is to say):-
My Invention, of "Inprovements in Machinery for Producing Lace in
Narrow Breadths with Edges or Quilling," consist in the adaptation to various
constructions of machinery for making bobbin net lace of an apparatus or piece
of mechanism which may be denominated a double-headed stationary guide
with a revolving single guide and bobbin, by means of which a whipping
thread is caused to travel round the two selvages or edges of the breadths of
lace as it is making, for the purpose of connecting, whipping, or lacing the
selvages together through the whole range of outside holes or meshes in each
breadth of lace. The double-headed guide with its revolving single guide and
bobbin will be seen in the accompanying Drawings in several Figures, repre-
senting it in different positions, Figures 1 to 5 being drawn to the real size.
Figure 1 represents a cylindrical steel spindle a, which is hollow through its
whole length, to the upper end of which the half round piece b is attached by
screwing, and at its top two small eyes c are made, which constitute the double-
headed guide. A series of these guides are intended to be fixed in a horizontal
bar extending along the front of the machine, attached to the feet of the ordi-
nary guide bar. These spindles may be placed at any required distances apart
answering to the proposed selvages, that is, according to the desired widths of
the narrow strips or breadths of lace to be inade, the ends c or double-headed
guides being respectively fixed in the situations of two of the ordinary guides,
which are to be previously taken away to afford room. Each double-headed
guide conducts two threads to form the selvage warps, which along with the
threads of the ordinary guides, pass from the warp roll up to the points, and
move laterally with them when the guide bars are shogged; a tube d, Figure 2,
fits upon and turns freely round the spindle a between two shoulders, as shewn
in Figures 3 and 4, but more evidently in the sectional Figure 5. This tube
carries the whipping guide e, which is a thin blade of steel, affixed to the side.
of the tube d, having at its upper end a small hole f, as a guide for the
whipping thread to pass through. This whipping thread is drawn from a
bobbin or spool g, mounted upon a stud fixed to the side of the tube d, and the
thread is kept in tension by a friction spring h pressing upon the periphery of.
the bobbin, and preventing it from delivering the thread too freely. At the
lower end of the tube d there is affixed an oblique toothed pinion i, which is

page_text: intended to be acted upon by a similar oblique toothed pinion upon a rotary
horizontal shaft extending along the front of the machine, hereafter described.
By means of these oblique toothed pinions taking into each other, the tubes,
with the whipping guides, are by the driving motions of the machine at proper
intervals made to perform half rotations, which cause the guides to carry the
whipping thread round the two selvages of the breadths, and to lace or connect
the outer meshes together by a zig-zag line of thread, as the net is produced
and drawn upwards by the progressive rotation of the work roller.
Javing explained the construction of the stationary double-headed guides
and of the single rotary guides for whipping the threads round the selvages,
I proceed to shew their situations in a lace-making machine, and the means
by which they are made to operate.
Figure 6 is a section taken transversely through a lace machine, con-
structed upon what is technically called the "double tier circular bolt prin-
ciple;" and Figure 7 is a front view of the same machine, in which the
new parts are shewn, adapted to the ordinary mechanism, and marked by
small itallic letters. But for the better illustration of the subject, the principle
operative parts of the machine are represented at half their real size in the
section and front view of the working portions of the same machine at:
Figures 8 and 9. In the last-mentioned Figures (the old parts being marked
by capital letters), A represents the warp roller, on which the warp threads are
wound; B, B, are the guides that conduct the warp threads, fixed to the guide
bars J, J, as usual; C, C, are the points for taking up the half meshes formed
by the intervention of the threads; D is the face bar which keeps the work
distended; E is the work roller, slowly revolving and taking up the lace as it
is made by the operations of the machine; F, F, are the bobbins and their
carriages, sliding to and fro in the circular bolts G, G, impelled by the vibratory
action of the driving bars II, H, and the locking bars I, I. The operations
of these several parts of a circular bolt machine being well-understood by lace
makers, no further explanation is necessary. It is also known. that in order to
produce separations and selvages in the sheet of lace, it is necessary to remove
one of the two bobbins and carriages F from the circular bolts, and one of the
warp threads opposite to the parts where the separations are to be made, the
effect of which is, that the absence of such bobbin and carriage and warp thread
causes a break in the twisting or intervention of the threads, and consequently
a division of the net at those parts, leaving two selvages instead of continuing
the meshes uniformly across the sheet. Now the business of the improved.
apparatus is to connect these two selvages together by a whipping, lacing, or
zig-zag thread, which is done in the following manner:-The spindles carrying

page_text: the stationary double-headed guides and rotary guides, described above, are fixed
at any desired distances apart in inclined position in the horizontal bar K, K,
which bar is attached to the fect of the front guide bar J, and slides or shoggs
with it. The ends of the spindles or double-headed guides c are so situate
in the machine. as respectively to occupy exactly the places of two ordinary
guides which have been previously removed to make way for each double-
headed guide. Those warp threads which are to form the selvages of the
breadths of net pass from the warp roller up through the double-headed guides
c, c, c, and with the other warp threads, conducted by the ordinary guides B,
proceed onward to the situation of the points C, C. The traverse threads, which
may be called weft, intended to be twisted round the warps, are supplied by
the bobbins F, which in sliding to and fro on the circular bolts pass through
the warps, and the bolts being at intervals shogged or shifted laterally, cause
the bobbin threads to cross diagonally, giving the angular forms to the ends of
the meshes of the net. The operative parts of the machine being now
put in action, the back driving bar H descends, pushing the double tier
of bobbins and carriages F forward, but their being only a single bobbin
and carriage F* in such gates of the bolts as are opposite to the intended
seperations in the net, the back driving bar moves through half its course
before it comes in contact with this tier of selvage carriages, and to pre-
vent any of them springing forward with the other carriages, a small finger.
or stop is raised at this time in front of each selvage carriage F*, as seen in
Figure 8, and by dots in Figure 9, where the stops are partially hidden by the
guide bars, but they are shewn detached at Figure 10. At this period of the
operation there is a momentary pause in the progress of the driving bars,
which space of time is occupied by the rising of the lockers I, I, as shewn by
dots in Figures 8, for the purpose of taking hold of the toes of the carriages
of both tiers and drawing them asunder free from the warp threads in the
middle while the guides are moved laterally to produce the twist. When
this is done, the lockers I, I, fall instantly, the stoppers / also descending and
the back driving bar H proceeds, pushing the whole of the back bobbins and
carriages forward through the warp. At this period the lockers again rise,
and both tiers of carriages and bobbins are drawn by the front locker bar up
from the centre free from the warp threads into the gates of the front circular
bolts G. The guides now shogg again, and by similar movements of the bars
the bobbins and carriages are all driven back again into the gates of the back
circular bolts. After shogging the guides a third time, the bobbins are
advanced as before into the gates of the front bolts, which three vibrations or
series of movements produce a range of half meshes of net, the warp and

page_text: bobbin threads being by such movements twisted together, except at the parts
between the selvages, which are to be connected by the whipping or lacing thread.
At this stage of the movements the rotary guides e, e, e, are made to revolve to
the left hand half way round the stationary double-headed guides c, c, c, for the
purpose of passing the whipping thread from one mesh to the other over the
space between the selvages. After this, three vibrations or movements of
the bobbins and carriages and warp threads again take place, as described above,
which completes the formation of the meshes, when the whipping guides e
perform the other half of their rotation. Having by these means embraced the
twisted threads of warp and weft at both selvages, and thereby whipped or
laced the breadths together through the outer holes or meshes, as the move-
ments of the machinery go on after every three vibrations of the bobbins and
carriages, the whipping guides e, e, e, turn half round the double-headed
guides c, c, c, as described, and so continue lacing the breadths together by a
zig-zag thread, which may be readily drawn out when the lace is finished. It
is obvious that the driving of the whipping guide half way round at intervals
might be effected by various mechanical means, to any particular one of which
I do not intend to confine myself, but the method shewn in Figures 8 and 9 I
prefer.
Having mounted the series of stationary double-headed guides in the
machine, by screwing them to a longitudinal bar K, K; as described, I
place over this a longitudinal shaft m, m, turning in bearings, upon which
shaft are fixed a series of oblique toothed pinions n, n, n, corresponding with
and taking into the oblique toothed pinions i, i, i, at the lower ends of the
tubes d, d, d; hence, by the rotation of the shaft m the tubes d'with their
whipping guides e are all driven round. At one extremity of this shaft m, is
fixed the toothed wheel o, taking into the larger toothed wheel p on the short
axle q.
This axle has also affixed upon it an oblique toothed wheel r,
which is acted upon by the rim or edge of a snail or execentric cam s, fixed
on the top of a shaft t, standing in the machine at a slight inclination from
the perpendicular, as shewn in the section and front views of the complete
machine, Figures 6 and 7. In these last-mentioned.Figures it will be seen
that when rotary motion is given to the main shaft L, L, extending along the
lower part of the machine by the band and rigger M, that the pinion N near
the left hand of this shaft drives the toothed wheel O, upon the axle of
which the bevel wheel u is fixed, and that this wheel u, by taking into a
pinion v fixed upon the shaft t, gives to that shaft, and to the parts above, the
required motion. It will now be seen that when the ordinary movements
of the machine are going on that the shaft t will continue turning with a

page_text: uniform rotation, but that the peculiar form of the snail or execentric cam s
(shewn in a plan view in the detached Figure 11), which fixed on the top
of this shaft t, and acts upon the oblique toothed wheel r, will cause that
wheel to make an escapement of one tooth only at every revolution of the
shaft t, the effect of which will be, that the wheel p will be driven through only
so much of a revolution at each escapement as will be sufficient to turn the
wheel o with its shaft m and pinions n half a revolution, and consequently to
drive the tubes d with their rotatory whipping guides e, e, e, half round the
double-headed guides at the required intervals, that is, immediately before the
rising of the points to take up the half meshes of net. This driving of the
whipping guides half round the double-headed guides at intervals might be
effected by various other mechanical contrivances already well known; it is not,
however, necessary to describe them. As a preventive to guard against the
accidental springing forward of the traverse carriages and bobbins F* when
they are required to be stationary, I have, as before said, introduced the stops
between the guide bars j, j, shewn in operation in Figure 8, and detached at
Figure 10. The stops are attached to a bar w, w, which rises and falls upon
parellel joints, that connect it to a fixed bar a, a, extending along the machine
below the guide bars. At the end of this bar w there is a link or arm y
connected to a lever (seen in Figure 7), which lever is acted upon by the
inequalities upon the periphery of a cam wheel z. In this way the bar w with
its series of stops 7 is at the proper periods raised up for the purpose of intro-
ducing the stops before the toes of the traverse carriages.
In conclusion, my Invention of "Improvements in Machinery for Producing
Lace in Narrow Breadths with Edges or Quilling" is the construction and
adaptation to a machine for making lace of an apparatus consisting of a
stationary double-headed guide to be mounted in the machine in any eligible
way, the double-headed guide standing fixed in the situation of two of the
ordinary guides and of a whipping guide and spool, which is to carry and
conduct a thread and to travel round the stationary double-headed guide by
any convenient means for the purpose of lacing, whipping, or connecting by
means of such thread the edges or selvages of two. breadths of net together,
not confining myself to the precise form of the stem which support the double-
headed guide, as shewn in the Drawings, nor of the travelling guide and spool,
nor to any certain number of these apparatus which may be employed in one
machine; and though I have shewn my improvements as adapted to a lace-
making machine, or what is called "the double tier circular bolt principle,"
yet the same is also applicable to various other principles or constructions of
machinery for making bobbin net, provided the double-headed guides are

page_text: placed in such machines in the situations of the ordinary guides at those parts
where the selvages of breadths are to be forined and connected together,
which adaptation of the improvements to other constructions of machinery for
making bobbin net lace I also claim.
In witness whereof, I, the said William Henson, have hereunto set my
hand and seal, this Twenty-second day of June, One thousand eight
hundred and thirty-three.
AND BE IT REMEMBERED, that on the Twenty-second day of June,
in the third year of the reign of His present Majesty King William the
Fourth, the said William Henson came before our said Lord the King in His
Chancery, and acknowledged the instrument aforesaid, and all and every
thing therein contained and specified, in form above written. And also the
instrument aforesaid was stamped according to the tenor of the Statute made
in the fifty-fifth year of the reign of His late Majesty King George the Third.
Inrolled the Twenty-sixth day of June, One thousand eight hundred and
thirty-three.