IMPROVEMENTS IN ARRANGING TAPES OF OTHER NARROW FABRICS IN BOXES OR OTHER RECEPTACLES FOR USE
Year: 1867

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Marcus Brown Westhead, of Manchester, in the
County of Lancaster, Merchant, and Robert Smith, of the same Place,
Manager, for the Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN ARRANGING TAPES OF
OTHER NARROW FABRICS IN BOXES OR OTHER RECEPTACLES FOR USE."
Sealed the 8th May 1868, and dated the 12th November 1867.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Marcus Brown Westhead
and Robert Smith at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with
their Petition, on the 12th November 1867.
We, MARCUS BROWN WESTHEAD, of Manchester, in the County of Lan-
caster, Merchant, and ROBERT SMITH, of the same Place, Manager, do
hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN
ARRANGING TAPES OR OTHER NARROW FABRICS IN BOXES OR OTHER RECEPTACLES
FOR USE," to be as follows:-
Our Invention relates, firstly, to an improvement upon that system of
arranging tapes or other narrow fabrics for use for which Letters Patent were
granted to me the said Marcus Brown Westhead, bearing date 21st November
1863, No. 2940. According to that Invention an elastic medium was used

page_text: for detaining the coils of fabric and keeping them in form.
propose to dispense with the said elastic medium, and to place the coils
or rolls of narrow fabric upon or against each other with a disc of paper
or other thin substance between them. The ends are brought through a
slit or slits in the receptacle, and any desired lengths may be drawn off
for use without a general disarrangement of the coils. We also propose to
place rings of cardboard or other thin material around the peripheries of the
coils or rolls.
Another part of our Invention relates to an improvement upon the arrange-
ment for which Letters Patent were granted to us, bearing date 29th April
1867, No. 1242, and consists in placing the narrow fabrics folded as therein
described in a box or other receptacle in which a slit or slits are formed, and
through which the ends of the pieces are drawn to afford any required lengths
for use.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said Marcus Brown Westhead and Robert Smith in the Great
Seal Patent Office on the 12th May 1868.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, we, MARCUS
BROWN WESTHEAD, of Manchester, in the County of Lancaster, Merchant,
and ROBERT SMITH, of the same Place, Manager, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Twelfth day of November, in the year of our
Lord One thousand eight hundred and sixty-seven, in the thirty-first year of
Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto
us, the said Marcus Brown Westhead and Robert Smith, Her special license
that we, the said Marcus Brown Westhead and Robert Smith, our executors,
administrators, and assigns, or such others as we, the said Marcus Brown
Westhead and Robert Smith, our 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 Kingdom of Great
Britain and Ireland, the Channel Islands, and Isle of Man, an Invention
for "IMPROVEMENTS IN ARRANGING TAPES OR OTHER NARROW FABRICS IN BOXES
OR OTHER RECEPTACLES FOR USE," upon the condition, amongst others, that
we, the said Marcus Brown Westhead and Robert Smith, by an instrument in

page_text: writing under our hands and seals (or under the hand and seal of one of us),
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.
NOW KNOW YE, that I, the said Marcus Brown Westhead, do hereby
declare the nature of our said Invention, and in what manner the same is
to be performed, to be particularly described and ascertained in and by the
following statement and accompanying Drawings, that is to say:-
Our Invention relates, firstly, to that system of arranging tapes or other
narrow fabrics for which Letters Patent were granted to me the said Marcus
Brown Westhead, bearing date Twenty-first November, One thousand eight
bundred and sixty-three, Number 2940. According to that Invention an elastic
medium was used for detaining the coils of fabric and keeping them in form.
We now propose to dispense with the said elastic medium, and to place the
coils or rolls of narrow fabric upon or against each other with a disc of paper
or other thin substance between them. The ends are brought through a slit
or slits in the receptacle, and any desired lengths may be drawn off for use
without a general disarrangement of the coils.
Another part of our Invention relates to an improvement upon the arrange-
ment for which Letters Patent were granted to us, bearing date Twenty-ninth
April, One thousand eight hundred and sixty-seven, Number 1242, and
consists in placing the narrow fabrics therein described in a box or other
receptacle, in which a slit or slits are formed, and through which the ends of
the pieces are drawn to afford any required lengths for use.
In the accompanying Drawings Fig. 1 represents our Invention in sectional
plan, and Fig. 2 in vertical section.
At a is a box or casket provided with a lid b, and having a vertical slit c.
A piece of tape or other narrow fabric wound in coils in the usual manner,
is shewn at d, with an end d* projecting through the slit c. Upon this
coil d is placed a disc of thin cardboard or paper e, shewn in red colour, and
of sufficient diameter to be in contact with the internal periphery of the
box, but the evils of fabric are rather less in diameter than the box. Upon
this another coil d¹ is placed, and so on until the casket is full, intervening
discs of thin cardboard, paper, or other suitable material being adapted, as
shewn, by the red lines. I find that by this arrangement the protruding
end of any of the coils, as at d*, may be drawn so as to obtain any desired
length of the narrow fabric without disturbing the other coils, the intervening

page_text: discs of cardboard, paper, or other material, and which as stated fit the
periphery of the box, preventing a communication of motion to one coil from
another.
Our second improvement is shewn at Figs. 3, 4, 5, Fig. 3 representing the
fitted up casket or box in plan view with the cover removed, Fig. 4 a longi-
tudinal section, and Fig. 5 a cross section. The box or casket is shewn at f
with a removable lid or cover g**; in this are placed the pieces g. 9, g³, I³‚Ì',
of narrow fabric folded or pleated according to our former Patent above
referred to, and the ends of which pieces project through a slit h, as at g*,
and for the purpose of permitting the folds or pleats to be successively drawn
off according to any length of fabric required, for as they, the said pleats, are
simply folded backward and forward upon each other the drawing off may be
continued at pleasure. There is, however, a tendency during this operation
of unfolding for the further end of the piece to be drawn forward bodily, and
in order to avoid this I confine the said ends to the box by an elastic band,
shewn more particularly in the enlarged Diagram Fig. 6. The bottom of the
box is grooved out a short distance inward, as at i, on each side of a piece of
fabric, but leaving a midfeather j in each of the said grooves. At one end of
the box is secured a strip of elastic k (shewn by blue color), and which is
then threaded over the others, leaving loops which pass over the several pieces
of fabric, and its other end being fastened the said pieces of narrow fabrio
are confined to the bottom of the box.
Another method of accomplishing this is shewn at Fig. 7, and also at the
enlarged Diagram Fig. 8. In this instance each piece of folded or pleated
tape is bound by an elastic band m, as described under our former Patent
aforesaid, and the band at the back end of the said piece is confined by a
small hook n attached to the bottom of the box or casket, and by these means
the piece is prevented from being moved bodily when an end is drawn forward.
In both the arrangements above described the box or casket may contain
pieces of narrow fabric of uniform breadth, or of various breadths, as shewn
in the Drawing.
Having thus described and ascertained the nature of our said Invention,
and the manner in which the same is to be performed, I desire it to be under-
stood that we claim as secured to us under the above in part recited Letters
Patent, and for the purpose above set forth,-
Firstly. In reference to Figs. 1 and 2, the use of the thin dises placed
between the pieces or coils of narrow fabric.
Secondly. In reference to Figs. 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, placing the folded or pleated

page_text: pieces of narrow fabric above described within a box or casket provided with
a slit through which the ends may be drawn.
In witness whereof, I, the said Marcus Brown Westhead, have hereunto
set my hand and seal, this Eleventh day of May, in the year of our
Lord One thousand hundred and sixty-eight.
MARCUS BROWN WESTHEAD. (L.s.)