Improvements in the Production of Double Plush or Pile Fabrics.
Year: 1895

page_text: Date of Application, 8th Oct., 1895-Accepted, 9th Nov., 1895
COMPLETE SPECIFICATION.
Improvements in the Production of Double Plush or Pile Fabrics.
I, HERBERT JAMES HOPE, of Sanford, in the County of York State of Maine,
United States of America, Weaver 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 following statement :--
In the production of plush fabric, especially that in which the fabric is woven
double or with two sets of backing warps connected by a series of pile warps
threads carried by several harness frames, said pile warp threads being sub-
sequently severed inidway the two woven backs or foundations, great trouble has
been experienced, due to the appearance of objectionable transverse creases or
lines of separation appearing at the pile face of the fabric when cut, and
extending longitudinally across the same, and to finish this class of plush for
market it has always been considered necessary to crush the pile to thereby
enable it to better cover the spaces referred to.
I have experimented to produce a plush fabric by the method of double weaving,
which when cut should not show the objectional transverse furrows referred to.
In the production as now commonly practised of this class of fabric, the pile
warp threads which are incorporated with the backing warp threads by the weft,
are arranged in pairs, and the threads of the pairs are passed from one to the
other sets of backing warps in regular order, so as to unite the pile warp threads
and body warp threads, the weave being such that if all the pile warp threads
should be woven with but one set of body warp and weft and drawn solidly into
one fabric, the face of the fabric would present a herring-bone pattern requiring
eight picks for the two inclines of the pattern, that is, four picks for one angle and
four picks for the next or opposite angle of the herring-bone, and so on; or, in
other words, supposing that four sets of pile warps worked in pairs, are being
incorporated with four sets of backing warps arranged in two different horizontal
planes, to thus make two fabrics, said pile warp threads will be read into the four
harness frames uniformly in the regular order of 1, 2, 3, 4, 1, 2, 3, 4, etc., entirely
across the loom, each of said pile warp threads remaining in one back for four
picks and then being carried at the fifth pick to the other back, where it remains
for four picks, and is then taken again to the other back, each thread of each said
set of pile warp threads always occupying the same position with relation to the
other threads of the remaining sets of pile warp threads.
The double fabric so produced is separated into two fabrics by cutting the pile
warp threads centrally between the woven backs, and when the fabric is sub-
sequently washed, dyed, and sheared, the pile loops held by the weft in the back,
separate and form furrows across the fabric, the furrows being most marked
in the line of each fourth pick, for in that line occurs the change of angle of the
herring-bone.
In my experiments to obviate the appearance of these transverse furrows in the
fabric, I have discovered that by simply changing the order of reading-in of the
pile warp threads into the heddles of the harness frames in the order 1, 2, 3, 4,
1, 2, 3, 4, across the loom,--such order of reading-in being the one now used so far
as I am aware for weaving mohair plush,-I read in said pile warp threads
alternately in the order 1, 2, 3, 4, 2, 1, 4, 3, 1, 2, 3, 4, 2, 1, 4, 3, etc., across the
loom, so that at some parts of the width of the fabric the pile warp threads in

page_text: number one harness frame may lie at the right of the threads of number two
harness, and at other parts of the width of the fabric the threads of number one
harness will lie at the left of the threads of number two harness, such new order of
reading-in of the pile warp threads resulting in a more uniform spacing of the tufts
or loops of pile on the weft threads, effecting a better crossing of the loops of pile,
and breaking up the tendency of the loops, in the finished fabric, to separate and
thus cross furrows.
I shall herein describe my invention as practised by the employment of four sets
of pile warp threads in four harness frames, but it will be understood that more
than that number of pile warp threads and harness frames may be used in pairs,
so long as the order of reading-in in pairs of alternate sets are reversed, as
described, at different portions of the width of the fabric or loom, such reading-in
instead of producing a herring-bone under the conditions described, producing a
regular diagonal from selvage to selvage..
Fig. 1 is a diagram showing the outer side of the back of one fabric with the
backing and pile warp threads separated but united by weft in accordance with my
invention;
Figs. 2 and 3 represent longitudinal sections of the double woven fabric in the
lines X and X', Fig. 1, to show the reverse reading-in of the pile warp threads of
one pair of threads.
Fig. is a diagram showing the reading-in of the warps into the harness frames
and the relation of the warps to the dent spaces.
Fig. 5 is a section through between the two backs, taken on the line X²-X³,
Fig. 2.
Referring first to Fig. 4; let 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7 and 8 represent harness frames
having usual heddles, while the brackets 9, 10, 11, and 12 are drawn to indicate
dent spaces of the reed, each dent space in this instance of my invention
containing four threads, but it will be obvious that if more than four sets of
pile warp threads are used each set will have its own harness, or if more than
four sets of backing warp threads are used, each will have its own harness, and,
consequently, the number of threads in a dent space may be varied without
departing from my invention.
have designated the four sets of pile warp threads by the letters p², p², p³, p
and the four sets of backing warp threads by the letters 5, 6, 7, 6, and, referring
to Fig. 4, it will be seen that the pile warp pl is drawn into harness 1, and into
harness 2, p and p constituting one pair, and that the pile warp is drawn into
harness 3, and the pile warp p' into harness 4, p³ and p³ constituting the second
pair, the pile warps p, p, being in one dent space and the pile warps p, p, being
in another dent space.
The dent space 9, shown as containing the pile warps p', , is also shown as
containing the body warps b', 6'; and the dent space 10 the body warps b", ", the
body warps being read through heddles of harness frame 5, 6 through heddles
of harness frame 6, through heddles of harness frame 7, and through helles of
harness frame 8.
It will be seen in said Fig. 4 that the pile warp threads are read into the harness
frames 1, 2, 3, 4, so as to stand in the two dents 9, 10, in the order pl, p², p², p²,
but that a little farther along, as shown, in the next two dents 11 and 12, the pile
warp threads are read into the harness frames in the order p², p', p', p³, or that at
some points of the width of the fabric the threads of harness frame 1 lie at the
left of the threads in harness frame 2, and at other points just the reverse, and it
will also be understood that the backing warps are read into the harness frames
and the dents 9, 10, in the order 66, 67, 6, 8, and they are read in the same order
opposite the dents 11, 12, or, in other words, the reading-in of the body warp
threads into the harness is uniform but the reading-in of the pile warp threads
is reversed alternately across the fabric, so that instead of reading-in in the
order 1, 2, 3, 4, 1, 2, 3, 4, they are read in as stated in the order 1, 2, 3, 4,
2, 1, 4, 3, etc.

page_text: Referring to Fig. 1, representing one side of the fabric, I have employed the
four brackets 9, 10, 11, 12, to represent the dent spaces, and I have designated the
threads from the different harness frames by different letters, but, inasmuch as
the threads and 67 work in pairs, and 66 and 68 in pairs, 65 and 66 appearing in one
fabric and not in the other, the backing warps 67 and 68 are not shown in Fig. 1,
and they could not be shown in such a fig. because they lie, it is supposed, exactly
under the threads 66, 66, but they are shown in Figs. 2 and 3.
Referring to Fig. 1, it will be noticed that the pile warp threads p', p², p³, p¹, are
read in the order 1, 2, 3, 4, in the heddles, and through the dents 9, 10, but that
at a little distance farther along in the width of the fabric said pile warp threads
in the same harness frame are so placed in the heddle eyes as to occupy different
relative positions, or they are read in the order p², p, p, p³, or, in other words in
the dent 9, the thread p² of harness frame 2 is at the left of the thread p' of harness
frame 1, while farther along to the right opposite space 11 the pile warp p³ in
harness frame 2 is at the right of the pile warp thread p, in harness frame 1, such
reading constituting reverse reading-in.
Figs. 2 and 3 show longitudinal sections of the fabric in the lines, at one
side of the pairs of threads p', p², and said figs. show the different relative positions
of the said threads at different places in the fabric, and it will be seen that in
Fig. 2, p is behind p², whereas in Fig. 3, p² is behind p'.
In Fig. 5, which is a horizontal section taken between the two backs, the different
relative positions of the threads p', p², and p₁ is clearly shown, the reversing of
the order of such threads, as p, p, p, being also distinctly shown.
It will also be noticed that each warp thread remains four picks in the back of
one fabric, theu goes to the other back and remains four picks, the warp threads p¹, p²,
being crossed in pairs.
The drawing does not show a section representing the pile warp threads p³, and p
but said pile warp threads would be turned from one to the other back about the
weft threads w², w³.
The arrangement of the pile warp threads in the harness frames in the
order 1, 2, 3, 4, constitute what I shall designate as regular pairs, and the arrange-
ment of said threads or the reading thereof in the order 2, 1, 4, 3, as reversed
pairs.
This invention is not necessarily limited to the particular order of reading-in of
the backing warps, and the backs of the fabrics may be woven together or united
by the weft in any usual or suitable weave, my invention residing wholly in the
manipulation of the pile warp threads irrespective of the particular weave in the
backing warps.
Having now particularly described and ascertained the nature of my said inven-
tion and in what manner the same is to be performed, 1 declare that what 1
claim is:
1. A double pile fabric which is to be separated to produce plush, which is
woven by mounting four sets of backing warp threads and arranging the pile warp
threads parallel to each other between the backing warp threads in regular and
in reverse pairs; passing the individual threads of the regular and reverse pairs
of pile warp threads in opposite directions at intervals from one to the other of
the sets of backing warp threads; and uniting the said individual threads of the
regular and reverse pairs by backing weft threads placed in sheds formed
between the backing warp threads and the pile warp threads, substantially as
described.
2. A double pile fabric to be separated for the production of plush having the
surface free from longitudinal furrows between the standing pile, said double pile
fabric consisting of two woven backs composed of backing warp threads and weft
threads, and pairs of regular and reversely arranged pile warp threads united
alternately at intervals, one thread of each pair to both backs by the said weft
threads, the reversal of the arrangement of the pairs of the sets of pile warp

page_text: threads at intervals across the fabric preventing the formation of the longitudinal
furrows, substantially as described.
3. A pile or plush fabric the surface of which is free from longitudinal furrows
between the standing pile, consisting of a back composed of backing warp threads
and weft threads, and pairs of regular and reversely arranged pile warp threads
united to said backing wefts, to form the standing pile, substantially as described,
Dated the 5th day of October 1895.
WM, BROOKES & SON,
Agents for the Applicants,