CERTAIN IMPROVEMENTS IN THE FIXING, EXTENDING, AND HOLDING OF CLOTH TO RECEIVE EMBROIDERY, AND IN APPARATUS APPLICABLE THERETO
Year: 1852

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, we, HENRY
HOULDSWORTH and JAMES HOULDSWORTH, both of Manchester, in the County
of Lancaster, Silk Manufacturers, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her present most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Royal Letters Patent under the Great Seal of Great Britain, bearing date at
Westminster, Twenty-seventh day of July, in the sixteenth year of Her reign,
did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto us, the said
Henry and James Houldsworth, Her special license, full power, sole privilege
and authority, that we, the said Henry and James Houldsworth, our exors,
admiors, and assigns, or as we, the said Henry and James Houldsworth, our
exors, admors, and assigns, should at any time agree with, and no others, from
time to time and at all times during the term of years therein expressed,
should and lawfully might make, exercise, and vend, within England,
Wales, and the Town of Berwick-upon-Tweed, our Invention of "CERTAIN
IMPROVEMENTS IN THE FIXING, EXTENDING, AND HOLDING OF CLOTH TO RECEIVE
EMBROIDERY, AND IN APPARATUS APPLICABLE THERETO;" in which Letters Patent
is contained a proviso obliging us, the said Henry and James Houlds
worth, by an instrument under our hands and seals, particularly to describe
and ascertain the nature of our said Invention, and in what manner the same
is to be performed, and to cause the same to be enrolled in Her said
Majesty's High Court of Chancery, within six calendar months next and

page_text: immediately after the date of the said recited Letters Patent, as in and by the
same, reference being thereto had, will more fully and at large appear.
NOW KNOW YE, that in compliance with the said proviso, we, the said
Henry and James Houldsworth, do hereby declare that the nature of our
said Invention, and the manner in which the same is to be performed and
carried into effect, is clearly described and shewn in the Drawings hereto
annexed, and the following description thereof :-
But before entering into details it will be useful to state, that the chief
object of the Invention is to produce curved lines of embroidery from patterns
worked in straight lines, and that the means by which this particular effect is
produced is by arranging, fixing, and presenting the cloth to the action of the
embroidering needles in a curved form, the curve being in the plane of the
cloth, so that the warp or weft threads (according as the line of embroidery is
intended to run lengthways or across the piece) shall present, while the surface
is being embroidered, curves equal to that which the embroidery is desired
permanently to present when the cloth is removed from its constrained posi-
tion, and assumes its ordinary state of non-extension. It may be further
added, that the present Invention may be considered as supplemental to the
improvements in the apparatus for fixing, extending, and holding cloth, for
the purpose of being embroidered, as described in the Specification of a Patent
granted by Her Majesty to Henry Houldsworth (one of the parties hereto),
under date the Tenth of June, in the fifteenth year of Her Majesty's reign,
for " Improvements in Embroidering Machines, and in Apparatus used in
connection therewith.
Sheet (1) of the Drawings hereto annexed represents a plan and section of
a double cloth frame of the improved construction, as adapted for machine
embroidery.
of giving the
In Sheet (1),
Sheet (2) represents various other apparatus by which cloth may be held
and extended in the required curved form, for the purpose
curved effect to the embroidery when the cloth is released.
Figures (1 and 2,) are four elastic ribs (a, b, c, d,) slightly grooved on the
sides, as seen in the enlarged section, Figure (4). It will be seen in
Figure (2) that each alternate rib is grooved on the opposite side (a and b),
forming one pair, and (c and d) the other. They may be conveniently made
of ash or other flexible wood, and are fitted, at intervals of about ten inches,
with short trough-shaped pieces of sheet metal (e) corresponding to trough-
shaped recesses in the metal caps (f), which caps are firmly screwed to the
ends of the flexible ribs, and are accurately jointed, as shewn in Figure (1),
to. end ribbs (y, g,). These latter are of thin iron, about two inches broad,

page_text: and not exceeding one eighth of an inch thick. The form of the metallic
caps is such that when attached to the flexible ribs, and jointed to the end
ribs, the upper edge of the flexible ribs (a, b, c, and d,) and the upper surface
of the iron ends (g, 9,) shall all be in the same plane, as shewn at Figure (2).
It will be seen that the extremities of the end ribs (g, g,) are enlarged to
receive the tightening wires (h, h,) which extend from one of the iron ends
to the other, parallel to the flexible ribs, and are furnished with flat heads at
one end and tightening thumb screws at the other, by turning which the two
iron ends (g, g,) are made to approach each other. By this compression the
flexible ribs, when slightly bent in the required direction by the hand of the
operator, are made to assume curves, as shewn in Figure (3), the curves being
more or less decided, according as the thumb nuts are screwed up. The use
of the frame will now be explained. It is laid on a table of the same con-
struction as that required for the skeleton cloth frame described in the Speci-
fication of the afore-mentioned Patent of the Tenth of June, One thousand
eight hundred and fifty-two, with the open mouth of the trough-shaped recesses
uppermost, the only difference being that the surface of the table should be
furnished with templet pieces to secure the perfect parallelism of the flexible
ribs when the frame is in the position to receive the cloth. The cloth is then
put into the frame in the manner and according to the explanations fully set
forth in that part of the Specification of the afore-mentioned Patent of the
Tenth of June, One thousand eight hundred and fifty-two, which refers to the
construction and mode of using the skeleton cloth frame, and is secured by
means of the covered steel wires and filling-in pieces therein described.
When the cloth is evenly extended between and attached to the flexible ribs,
as shewn at Sheet one (Fig. 1), the frame is lifted out of the templet bed,
and the flexible ribs, with their wires and filling-in pieces embedded in the
trough-shaped recesses, are bent in the required curve, by turning the thumb
screws, and causing the jointed ends of the flexible ribs to approach each
other. As the depth of the curve depends upon the extent of compression,
stop pins (i, i) are inserted in the tightening wires to regulate the extent of
compression. It has been said that the caps (f. f.) are jointed to the end ribs
(g, g.), but at one end of the ribs (b and d) the joint pin works in horizontal
slots (k, k.) in the end rib, so that the compression of the latter does not
directly bend (6 and d); but as (b) is connected to (a), and (d) to (c) by the
cloth, and (a and c) are forcibly bent by the action of the thumb screws, the
ribs (6 and d) necessarily conform to the curve of (a and c), but with a resist-
ance proportioned to their stiffness, which resistance secures the proper exten-

page_text: sion of the cloth. The cloth, when thus fixed in the curved form, is tightened:
at the ends or selvages by templets or other usual means, and the cloth frame
is then ready to be fixed in the embroidering machine, or to be subjected to
the needle of the hand embroiderer. In the cloth frame here represented the
flexible ribs are shewn to be thicker at one end than at the other; this is for
the purpose of producing a parabolic curve. If a more equal curve was
desired, the thickness of the ribs should be more uniform. It will be evident
from the foregoing description that separate flexible ribs, such as seen at
Figure (5, 6, and 7), Sheet (2), without connecting or compressing ends,
may be employed to hold the cloth in a curved form to receive embroidery, if
the cloth be attached to such rib or ribs while in a straight position (Fig. 7),
and the said rib or ribs be subsequently fixed and retained in the permanent
cloth frame in a bent position (Figures 5 and 6), and the other edges of the
cloth be held in a proper state of tension while the embroidery is being
executed. In like manner the presentation of the cloth in a curved form to
the embroidery needles may be effected by attaching the cloth to a frame
with permanently curved sides, as shewn at (Figure 1 and 2), (Sheet 2),
where the cloth, being first passed round the curved ribs (m, m,) at Figure (2),
Sheet (2), and adjusted so that the selvage (n, n,) shall be equidistant from
the edge of the rib at all points, is fixed to the ribs by the pressure of steel
clips (0, 0, 0,) or other suitable means. The same effect may be produced by
attaching the cloth, as just described, by clips or other means to detached or
separate permanently-curbed ribs, as shewn at P, Figure (3), Sheet (2),
capable of retaining the cloth at or near where the line of embroidery is to be
worked in an extended and definitely curved form while submitted to the
action of the needles. It will be seen that the same effect will result from
the peculiar mode of arranging the cloth for embroidery, as now explained,
whether the said embroidery be executed by a hand sewer or by the needles
of embroidering machines, and also that the same principle of presenting the
cloth in a constrained position may be applied to produce straight lines of
embroidery from continuous patterns worked in curves.
Having now fully described our Invention, we hereby claim the fixing,
extending, and holding of cloth or other suitable fabric to receive embroidery
in the manner herein set forth and described, whereby patterns or rows of
embroidery worked in straight lines, or by rows of needles arranged in straight
lines, assume a curved form when the cloth is relaxed and returned to its
ordinary state of non-extension.
And we claim also the various apparatus herein described for fixing, extend-

page_text: ng, and holding of cloth in the peculiar manner required to produce the said
esult, and all such modifications thereof, or of cloth frame apparatus generally
or the aforesaid purpose.
In witness whereof, we, the said Henry Houldsworth and James Houlds-
worth, have hereunto set our hands and seals, this
day of
hundred and fifty-three.
in the year of our Lord One thousand eight