Im- PROVEMENTS IN THE ORNAMENTATION OF LACE AND OTHER TEXTILE FABRICS
Year: 1874

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Henry Yates, of Rue Lafayette, Saint Pierre-
les-Calais, in the Republic of France, for the Invention of “Im-
PROVEMENTS IN THE ORNAMENTATION OF LACE AND OTHER TEXTILE FABRICS.”
Scaled the 2nd April 1874, and dated the 15th January 1874.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Henry Yates at the
Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the
15th January 1874.
I, HENRY YATES, of Rue Lafayette, Saint Pierre-les-Calais, in the
Republic of France, do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention
for "IMPROVEMENTS IN THE ORNAMENTATION OF LACE AND
FABRICS," to be as follows:-
OTHER TEXTILE
The Invention has for its object improvements in the ornamentation
of lace and other textile fabrics, and relates to the addition of a "purl,"
which is made and at the same time applied by machinery, whilst such
ornamentation is applied after and not during the manufacture of the
said fabrics.

page_text: "
In carrying out, my Invention I employ a small machine for making
two or more "wails" of what is known as chain stitch (or plaiting with
one thread) and one purl thread (or two or more threads twisted
together). The purl passes from one "wail or row of chain stitches to
another, or others, and is caught into cach "wail" or row of chain
stitches. One or more "wails" or rows of chain stitches is or are
worked into the fabric and thus attach or connect the purl thread
thereto. One of the "wails" or rows of chain stitches is to serve the
purpose of a roving thread, which when taken out leaves a "purl."
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, 1
filed by the said Henry Yates in the Great Seal Patent Office
on the 14th July 1874.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, HENRY
YATES, of Rue Lafayette, Saint Pierre-les-Calais, in the Republic of
France, send greeting.
1
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Letters Patent, bearing date the Fifteenth day of January, in the year of
our Lord One thousand eight hundred and seventy-four, in the thirty-
seventh year of Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give
and grant unto me, the said Henry Yates, Her special license that I, the 2
said Henry Yates, my executors, administrators, and assigns, or such
others as I, the said Henry Yates, my executors, administrators, and
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 King-
dom of Great Britain and Ireland, the Channel Islands, and Isle of
Man, an Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN THE ORNAMENTATION OF LACE AND
OTHER TEXTILE FABRICS," upon the condition (amongst others) that I, the
said Henry Yates, my executors or administrators, by an instrument in
writing under my, or their, or one of their hands and seals, should
particularly describe and ascertain the nature of the said Invention, and
in what manner the same was to be performed, and cause the same to
be filed in the Great Seal Patent Office within six calendar months
next and immediately after the date of the said Letters Patent.

page_text: NOW KNOW YE, that I, the said Henry Yates, do hereby
declare the nature of the said Invention, and in what manner the
same is to be performed, to be particularly described and ascertained
in and by the following statement thercof, reference being had to the
Drawings hereunto annexed, and to the figures and letters marked
thercon, that is to say :-
The Invention has for its object improvements in the ornamentation
of lace and other textile fabrics, and relates to the addition of a "purl,"
which is simultaneously made and applied by suitable machinery, whilst
such ornamentation is applied after and not during the manufacture of
the said fabrics.
In carrying my Invention into effect I employ a small machine for
making two or more "wails" or rows of what is known as chain stitch
(or plaiting with one thread), and one purl thread or a purl formed of
two or more threads twisted or worked together.
The purl passes
from one wail or row of chain stitches to another, or others, and is
caught into cach "wail" or row of chain stitches. One or more "wails"
or rows of chain stitches is or are worked into the fabric, and thus attach
or connect the purl thread thereto, whilst one of the "wails" or rows of
chain stitches is to serve the purpose of a roving thread, which when
taken out leaves a “purl.”
At Figures 1 and 2 I have shown Diagrams of two pieces of fabric
having a purl applied thereto according to my Invention. That shown
at Figure 1 has a straight edge thereto, and that shown at Figure 2 has
a vandyked edge.
The purl may be applied to lace or to any other description of fabric,
and forms an ornamental edging thereto, by which means cither plain or
ornamented lace or other fabric may have an edging applied thereto after
such fabric has been made in a separate machine.
In the Diagrams, Figures 1 and 2, a is the "purl," and 6 is one "wail”
or row of chain stitches which connects the purl to the fabric, the
other "wail" or row of chain stitches which served the purpose of a
roving thread to hold the outer edge of the purl in position having
been removed.
In carrying my Invention into effect any suitable arrangement of
machinery capable of producing the work may be used, but that which

page_text: I have found to answer is shown in the accompanying Drawings, in
which Figure 3 is a plan, and Figure 4 is an elevation of so much of a
machine as will serve to illustrate the mode in which I have arranged
machinery to carry my Invention into effect. Figures 5 and 6 are plan
views showing some of the parts more clearly, and Figure 7 is a diagram
of the cam wheel opened out flat to show the form of the cams and cam
grooves thereon, and Figures 8 and 9 are end views of the cam wheel,
and Figure 10 is a plan of a portion of the work plate. a, a¹, are two
needles, which are fixed to a needle bar b, operated by any suitable
means so as to produce two double actions of the needles a, a¹, for each
revolution of the cam shaft c. d is the feed foot, which is arranged to
work on the top of the fabric to feed it forward for each action of the
needles. This feed foot d may be operated in any suitable manner, and
I would here remark that I have not thought it necessary to show any
mode of operating the needle bar b and feed foot d, as any suitable
arrangement employed for operating such parts in a sewing machine
may be used.
The needles a, a', are of a similar description to those employed in
knitting machinery, that is to say, they are cach provided with long
barbs, and the needle a is also provided with a pointed end to enable it
readily to pass through the fabric to be ornamented. e, e, are guides to
supply thread to the needles a, a¹, to form the two "wails" or rows of chain
stitches. These guides e, e, are sprung towards each other by a spring e¹,
and they are pin-jointed to a slide f, which is worked to and fro in
suitable guides as required by a bell-crank lever g operated by a cam
groove h. i is a guide to supply the purl thread; this guide is fixed
to a slide ¹ mounted in suitable guides so as to permit of a longitudinal
and lateral motion being given thereto in order to wrap the purl thread
first around one needle and then around the other. The longitudinal
.
acting upon the
motion is given to the slide ¹ by means of a cam h'
roller carried by the slide , and such roller is kept up to its cam by
means of a spring . The lateral motion is given to the slide 2 by means
of a cam formed on the end of the cam wheel, and consisting of a rise h²
and fall h³ with rests or dwells between them acting upon a roller **
carried by the slide, a spring being employed to keep the roller i up
to its cam. By these means a compound motion, somewhat in the form
of the figure 8 is given to the purl thread guide i around and between
the needles a, a¹, so as to wrap the purl thread first around one needle

page_text: and then around the other, the fabric being fed forward a step between
cach action of the purl thread guide around one or the other needle a, a¹.
j is a presser to act upon the barbs of the needles a, a², at the times
required to press such barbs into the eyes of the needles, and thereby
cast off a loop at each ascent thereof. This presser ; works in suitable
guides, and is operated by one end of a bell-crank lever k, the other end
of which carries a roller k¹, which is operated by a cam * formed on one
end of the cam wheel, the spring acting to keep the roller k¹ up to its
cam.
And in order that the threads for the needles a, a', may be held in
proper position sufficiently long to enable them to be placed under the
barbs of the needles a, a¹, I employ nippers / mounted upon an axis of
motion, and connected by links to one end of a bell-crank lever m,
by which they are operated at the times required to scize and release the
threads. A cam groove ³ acts upon the bell-crank lever m to give the
required motions thereto. n is a shaft, from which the motion is given
to the needle bar b and feed foot d, and this shaft n has fixed thereon a
toothed pinion n', which gears into and gives motion to a toothed
pinion o¹ fixed on the axis c of the cam wheel, the shaft n thus making
two revolutions to one of the cam shaft c.
I will now describe the mode in which machinery arranged as abovė
described will operate in ornamenting fabrics according to my Invention.
The needle thread guides e, e, and the purl thread guide i are
supplied with thread from pirns or bobbins placed under the machine.
The fabric to be ornamented is placed on the work plate p with the back
of the fabric upwards, and with its edge lying between the needles a, a¹;
the needles then descend a short distance through the work, and then
make a rest or dwell whilst the purl thread guide i wraps the purl thread
around one of the needles (say the needle a); the purl thread guide i
will then rest for a while a little behind and in a midway position
between the needles a, a', whilst the needle thread guides e, e, come
forward to carry their threads to the front of the needles a, a¹; the
needles then descend to their lowest position. The needle thread
guides e, e, then go back and leave their threads around the stems of
the needles a, a', after which the needles a, a', rise, and in doing so are
caused first to receive the thread for the new loops under their barbs,
the presser then comes forward and presses the barbs of the needles

page_text: into their eyes, when in the further rising of the needles the former
loops are cast off; then when the needles are at their highest position
the feed foot d acts to feed the fabric forward. After the feeding of the
fabric has taken place the needles a, a¹, again descend, and the purl
thread guide is caused to wrap its thread around the other needle (say
the needle a¹), and the operations of the parts will be repeated as before
described.
The nippers are caused to close and thereby hold the needle threads
just before the guides e, e, commence their forward motion in order to
ensure the needle threads being correctly placed under the barbs of the
needles, and the nippers retain their hold of such threads until in the
rising of the needles the presser j has pressed the barbs over the threads
and into the eyes of the needles, the nippers 7 then open to allow of the
needle thread guides in their backward motion again bringing the needle
threads within the jaws of the nippers 7.
By means of the arrangement of machinery above described the
ornamentation is supposed to be applied to the fabric, so as to form an
edging thereto, but if desired by forming both needles a, a¹, with pointed
ends the ornamentation may be applied at any other part of the fabric,
in which case both of the "wails" or rows of chain stitches may be left
in as ornament, or one of them may be used only as a roving thread, as
before described.
If desired, according to my Invention, more than two rows or "wails”
of chain stitches may be used, in which case the purl thread guide would
be caused to wrap its thread around each needle in a somewhat similar
manner to that before described, and if desired a purl may be applied on
each side of the fabric by means of a purl thread guide working above
the work plate and above the feet foot, and wrapping its thread around
the needles in a similar manner to that before described with respect to
the under purl guide.
Having thus described the nature of my said Invention, and the
manner in which I carry the same into effect, I would have it understood
that I do not confine myself to the precise arrangement of machinery
herein shown and described as machinery may be variously arranged to
produce a similar result, but what I do claim is, the mode herein
described of ornamenting lace and other textile fabrics after and not
during the manufacture of such fabrics, such ornamentation consisting

page_text: of two or more "wails or rows of chain stitches and one or more purl
threads, the purl thread or threads passing from one wail or row of
chain stitches to another, and being connected to the fabric in manner
substantially as herein described.
In witness whereof, I, the said Henry Yates, have hereunto set
my hand and seal, this Eighteenth day of June, in the year of
our Lord One thousand cight hundred and seventy-four.
HENRY YATES. (L.S.)