IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MANUFACTURE OF FIGURED OR ORNAMENTAL FABRICS
Year: 1853

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Jolm Lyle, of Glasgow, in the County of
Lanark, North Britain, Manufacturer, for the Invention of
"IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MANUFACTURE OF FIGURED OR ORNAMENTAL
FABRICS"
Scaled the 23rd December 1858, and dated the 24th June 1853.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said John Lyle at the
Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the
24th June 1853.
I, JOHN LYLE, of Glasgow, in the County of Lanark, North Britain,
Manufacturer, do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention
for "IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MANUFACTURE OF FIGURED OR ORNAMENTAL
FABRICS" to be as follows:-
This Invention relates to the manufacture of. figured or ornamental
fabrics for carpeting, tapestry, and other goods, as well as chenille,
whereby all the necessary colors to be used in weaving a given fabric
are applied by means of a single shuttle, instead of using a reduplication
of that apparatus as hitherto employed.

page_text: In manufacturing goods in this way the different colours are measured
off in separate lengths of weft, and these lengths are connected or tied
together in a continuous piece, and the whole is then wound upon a reel
as if the weft were one single colored piece. This chain of colors is
made to correspond to the fabric in such manner that each increment
of each coloured section shall form a certain defined length of colour in
the woven fabric. The weft so prepared is now transferred to the
shuttle in the usual pira form, and the weaving goes on entirely from
this shuttle, each color being woven into its destined position in the
piece, just as if a separate shuttle had been used for it.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent,
filed by the said John Lyle in the Great Seal Patent Office, on
the 23rd December 1858.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I,
JOHN LYLE, of Glasgow, in the County of Lanark, North Britain,
Manufacturer, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Letters Patent, bearing date the Twenty-fourth day of June, in the
year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and fifty-three, in the
seventeenth year of Her reign, did, för Herself, Her heirs and suc-
cessors, give and grant unto me, the said John Lyle, Her special
licence that I, the said John Lyle, my executors, administrators, and
assigns, or such others as I, the said John Lyle, my executors, ad-
ministrators, or assigns, should at any time agree with, and no
others, from time to time and at all times thereafter during the term
therein expressed, should and lawfully might make, use, exercise, and
vend, within the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, the
Channel Islands, and Isle of Man, an Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS
IN THE MANUFACTURE OF FIGURED OR ORNAMENTAL FABRICS," upon the
condition (amongst others) that I, the said John Lyle, by an instru
ment in writing under my hand and seal, should particularly de-
scribe and ascertain the nature of the said Invention, and in what
manner the same was to be perforined, and cause the same to be

page_text: filed in the Great Seal Patent Office within six calendar months next
and immediately after the date of the said Letters Patent.
NOW KNOW YE, that
the said John Lyle, do hereby declare
the nature of my said Invention, and in what manner the same is to
be performed, to be particularly described and ascertained in and by
the following statement, that is to say:
My said Invention relates to the manufacture of figured or ornamental
fabrics for carpeting, tapestry, and other goods, as well well as chenille,
whereby all the necessary colours to be used in weaving a given fabric
are applied by means of a single shuttle, instead of using a reduplication
of that apparatus as hitherto employed in manufactures of this nature.
Tu manufacturing goods in this way the different colours are measured
off in separate lengths of weft, and these lengths are connected or tied
together in a continuous piece, and the whole is then wound upon a recl
as if the weft were one single coloured piece. This chain of colours is
made to correspond to the fabric in such manner that each increment
of each coloured section shall form a certain defined length of colour
in the woven fabric. The weft so prepared is now transferred to the
shuttle in the usual pirn form, and the weaving goes on entirely from
this shuttle, each colour being woven into its destined position in the
piece, just as if a separate shuttle had been used for it.
When it is intended to produce ornamental fabrics according to this
general process the weaver, having his pattern or device drawn out on
paper in the usual way, reads off' each colour as it appears in the length
of the piece, and then assigns to cach portion so much of the figuring
weft as will produce that particular extent of colour in the woven piece.
For example, if he starts with three lines of blue, he measures by a pre-
determined standard so much of his blue figure weft as will weave up into
these three lines in the piece. This length of blue weft is then wound
upon a reel or other holder, and if the succeeding colour is a red, as
much of a red coloured weft is taken as will weave into the number of
red lines at that part of the figure, and this red length is then tied or
attached to the preceding blue length. This process is continued
throughout the entire series of colours in the length of the figure until
the necessary parti-coloured chain of weft is made up. The shuttle is

page_text: then supplied with this weft by means of pirns wound up from the
chain. This reduces the ornamental weaving to the simplicity of plain
weaving, as only one shuttle is used in weaving a piece of cloth,
whatever number of colours there may be in the pattern or ornamental
figure, each link or length of coloured weft in the chain being brought
into use at the proper time by the simple process of unwinding from
the pirn of the shuttle, just as it would be by means of the complex
drop box" and an entire change of shuttle. The fabrics so woven
may either be used simply as carpets or tapestry of the ordinary kind,
or they may be cut up for the purpose of making chenille, as is well
understood by the practical weaver.
Having now described and particularly ascertained the nature of my
said Invention, and the manner in which the same is or may be used
or carried into effect, I may observe, in conclusion, that I do not confine
or restrict myself to the precise details or arrangements which I have
had occasion to describe or refer to, as many variations may be made
therefrom without deviating from the principles or main features of my
Invention; but what I consider to be novel and original, and therefore
claim as the Invention secured to me by the hercin-before in part
recited Letters Patent, is,-
First, the general arrangements for the manufacture of figured or
ornamental fabrics, as herein-before described.
Second, the system or mode of weaving or manufacturing figured or
ornamental fabrics of two or more colours by means of a single shuttle,
as herein-before described.
Third, the combination of the several colours of yarn or weft into a
continuous chain or length for weaving figured or ornamental fabrics.
In witness whereof, I, the said John Lyle, have hereunto set my
hand and seal, this Twenty-second day of December, in the
year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and fifty-three.