IMPROVED MEANS OF AND APPLIANCES FOR MARKING, CREASING, AND CUTTING TEXTILE FABRICS FOB FACILITATING THE SEWING OR THE PLACING OF DEVICES THEREON, SUCH APPLIANCES BEING ALSO APPLICABLE FOR MARKING, CREASING, AND CUTTING PAPERS AND METALS
Year: 1873

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by Hesketh Hughes at the Office
of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the 25th.
March 1873.
I, HESKETH HUGHES, of Homerton, in the County of Middlesex,
and of Birmingham, in the County of Warwick, Engineer, do hereby
declare the nature of the said Invention for "IMPROVED MEANS OF AND
APPLIANCES FOR MARKING, CREASING, AND CUTTING TEXTILE FABRICS FOB
FACILITATING THE SEWING OR THE PLACING OF DEVICES THEREON, SUCH APPLIANCES
BEING ALSO APPLICABLE FOR MARKING, CREASING, AND CUTTING PAPERS AND
METALS," to be as follows:-
This Invention relates to means of producing marks, creases, and '
indications, also printing upon fabrics, papers, and metals, in patterns
and shapes, solid and hollow, for various purposes, also to appliances for
facilitating such productions as hereafter set forth.
.
The means of forming marks, creases, and indications upon textile
fabrics, papers, and metals, consist in a combination of raised surfaces -
upon cylindrical or segmental drums or rollers with clips or pressers (in
which type may be arranged which take over or into, or both over and

page_text: into such raised surfaces, said clips or pressers being used singly or in
pairs, and alone or in combination with rollers such as those used by
printers, by which ink or colour can be impressed or imprinted upon the
raised portions of material under treatment while the clips or pressers
hold the sunken portions down below the surfaces of the raised portions
receiving the impressions.
One of the most simple appliances which offect the above means
consists of say a short length of tubing with a raised rib or feather
shaped to design such as an oval upon the outside of it; this rib is
vertical upon the outer side edge and angular upon the inner sido edge.
To one edge or flange of the tube is pivotted or hinged a presser bar or
flap with an opening (shaped) to fit loosely the raised rib when the flap
is down, so that the fabric such as a trimming cord, braid, or border to
be worked to pattern when between the two can be sewn or embroidered
with facility. Both ends of the tube are split to enable the tube to fit
say the finger of a lady to enable her to turn the tube end for end to
sew or embroider the other side of the oval when the first side is
completed. It will be clear from the above that a leaf; flower, scroll,
monogram, or other device can be embroidered with facility, or a series
of them in succession if more than one rib and flap are employed upon
the same tube, the embroidering going on upon fresh material being
fitted in as the former embroidered portion of the design is removed.
The tube may be sufficiently large in diameter for receiving a ladies
hand, the exterior of the tube having a scrics of raised surfaces and flaps
upon it so that repeats of a design can be commenced before the first
completed one has been released..
In some cases I notch the raised edges to limit the number of threads
to say each side of the design, thus ensuring each repeat being the same
in appearance. The whole of the fabric within the oval or other devico
can be worked over as in Berlin woolwork, or the raised edges only in
button hole stitch, the depth of the notches regulating the number of
the fabric threads operated upon at each stitch.
The foregoing explains the operations of forming designs upon the
face of a fabric, but if it be desired to sew on a braid or a cord on the
face the fabric is reversed, the braid or cord being first laid round the
edge of device to follow the pattern of it, the sewing on is then
performed from the back of the fabric. The fabric may however be

page_text: dispensed with and the braid or cord sewn only where one part crosses
another or is laid side by side of each other; this forms a pattern
trimming of the design to be afterwards sewn on to a fabric.
Again the flaps may have cutting edges upon them to sever the fabric
when brought into contact with the raised ribs upon which the fabric is
stretched. By this means I am enabled to sew the edges of the cut
pattern only, or I can leave the cut edges and sew round close to them,
particularly if the cutting portions of the flap are within the raised ribs,
or two raised ribs may be upon the tube, one of them to servo as a guide.
for the sewing operation, and the other for the severing operation.
The tube in some cases is too large to be held by the hand and I then
mount it upon a standard or framing to which cams can be affixed for
operating the flaps mechanically as the tube is moved round upon its
centre. Portions of the faces of the flaps may be indented in lines or
devices so that ink or colour applied to them by rollers or otherwise
when in a vertical position can be transferred to the face of and also
crimp the fabric when they are shut down upon it. By this means I
can print upon one portion of the design and sew upon another to
give artistic effect to the fabric when finished. I can also dispense with
the ink or colour when the indents upon the flaps would impress a blind
crimping to the fabric. Thus silk borders and fancy trimmings can be
produced very economically, especially if heat be applied to the tube to
"set" the pattern, the borders or trimmings can then with the "set" in
them be sewn to a backing or tape by a sewing machine. The flaps can
be raised and lowered by levers or other appliances from the front or
from the back or from both, so that if they are mounted upon a fixed
end piece and the action of the levers timed with the rotation of the
tube the impression cutting or other action upon or to the fabric or
other body can be obtained in quick succession.
A variety of materials can be operated upon by my Invention,
therefore I do not limit myself to marking, creasing, or indicating
designs upon fabrics alone, as the tube and flap can be used for
producing marks, creases, and indications upon papers and metals both
upon or in their surfaces and also by cutting picces out from such
materials.

page_text: out such crest or monogram, or I can stamp metal sheets, strips, or
picces in relief, or I can partly stamp and partly cut such metals, or I
can wholly cut or sever pieces from them, in all cases using the hinged
or jointed flap and the tube substantially as described with reference to
the first construction of tube and flap.
In some cases two sets of appliances are set back to back, so that
the power exerted to lift the flaps from the tubes may be utilized for
compressing metal wire into bulbs or what are known as bead strips;
those are wires with a succession of beads and blanks for mounting
upon dish covers.