IMPROVEMENTS IN LOOMS OR MACHINERY FOR THE MANUFACTURE OF LACE AND OTHER FABRICS
Year: 1863

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Richard Archibald Brooman, of 166, Fleet Street, in
the City of London, Patent Agent, for the Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS
IN LOOMS OR MACHINERY FOR THE MANUFACTURE OF LACE AND OTHER
FABRICS." A communication from abroad by Louis Planche, Gustave
Lafond Désiré Sival, called Laserve, and Léon Sival, called Laserve, all
of Paris, France.
Scaled the 14th July 1863, and dated the 15th January 1863.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Richard Archibald
Brooman at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition,
on the 15th January 1863.
I, RICHARD ARCHIBALD BROOMAN, of 166, Fleet Street, in the City of
London, Patent Agent, do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for
"IMPROVEMENTS IN LOOMS OR MACHINERY FOR THE MANUFACTURE OF LACE AND
OTHER FABRICS," to be as follows:-
The bobbin net frames, imitation lace, and other machines hitherto in use
for the manufacture of lace have only produced fabrics having the appearance
of lace without its structure, strength,, or value. The mounting of the
machines, the method of action, and the principles which govern the inter-
lacings of the working threads are sufficient to explain the difficulty if not
impossibility of producing by such machinery the true work of the hand lace
worker. In the hands of a lace worker all the threads or rather all the
bobbins carrying the threads possess complete freedom of action, and each of

page_text: worker.
them indiscriminately is free to follow in the work the fancy of the hand
The primary condition therefore imposed on all machinery for
manufacturing real lace is that of equal and complete freedom of action for
all the threads, thereby naturally excluding the idea of a fixed warp, whether
upon rollers or upon carriages. This condition of equal and complete freedom
of action of all the threads is more apparent than real; it is not really indis-
pensable that this freedom of action should be equal for all the threads,
provided they are all movable and free to a certain extent.
According to the nature and the work in the lace to be made, a certain
arrangement of relative freedom adopted the work may be executed, and I
proceed to demonstrate it by transforming the presser loom (metier pousseur)
into a new warp loom, capable of making real lace by combining with or intro-
ducing into it the following arrangements:-Many parts of the ordinary
presser frame or loom are retained, as for example, the combs, the carriages,
the pressers, the fine bars; but the mounting and action of these organs are
modified by the introduction of four new features, as hereafter described.
These new parts or features consist,―
First, in the employment of a chain mounted on fine bars, each of which is
separately jacquarded as in the lever frame or machine, whereby the warp
threads may be separately varied in the centre of the comb bars to the
right and to the left at will, and also to a greater or lesser number of
gates.
Second; in the arrangement and employment of front and back comb bars,
each separately jacquarded, capable of remaining fixed or of moving one or
several times in the same or in contrary directions to the right or to the left,
and that for a greater or lesser number of gates as required.
Third, in fixing upon the back comb bars a number of pressers equal to the
number of carriages, and each separately jacquarded, whereby all the carriages
inay be indiscriminately shifted. Besides the separate jacquarding of the
pressers, the presser bar is also jacquarded in its. general movement, so that it
may either move or remain stationary.
Fourth, in fixing on the front comb bars a. number of pressers equal, also, to
the number of carriages, but acting by one general movement, and allowing
all the carriages without exception which may have. been pressed forward to
return upon the back bar. The bar carrying the. front pressers is also
jacquarded like the back bar, that is to say, it may be made to work or may
be fixed at will.
By the combination of agents above mentioned it will be perceived that the
carriages have entire freedom of action, that they may be moved at will and

page_text: in every direction, and that the freedom relatively less of the warp threads upon
the fine bars suffices to allow of the interlacings of the threads being effected
indiscriminately at will, whether of the carriage threads between themselves,
or of these threads with the warp threads, or of the warp threads between
themselves, for the order in which the fine bars are mounted according to the
requirements of the design, and of the class of lace to be made, compensates
for the apparent want of freedom in the warp threads. The pattern of the
design may be varied according to the skill of the workman. The Invention
is also applicable to the production of other fabrics besides lace.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said Richard Archibald Brooman in the Great Seal Patent Office
on the 15th July 1863.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, RICHARD
ARCHIBALD BROOMAN, of 166, Fleet Street, in the City of London, Patent
Agent, send greeting.
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 sixty-three, in the twenty-sixth year of Her
reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto me, the
said Richard Archibald Brooman, Her special licence that I, the said Richard
Archibald Brooman, my executors, administrators, and assigns, or such others
as I, the said Richard Archibald Brooman, 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 Kingdom of Great
Britain and Ireland, the Channel Islands, and Isle of Man, an Invention for
"IMPROVEMENTS IN LOOMS OR MACHINERY FOR THE MANUFACTURE OF LACE AND
OTHER FABRICS," (Ccommunicated to me from abroad by Louis Planche, Gustave
Lafonde, Désiré Sival, called Laserve, and Léon Sival, called Laserve, all of
Paris, France,) upon the condition (amongst others) that I, the said Richard
Archibald Brooman, my executors or administrators, by an instrument in
writing under my, or their, or one of their hands and seals, should particularly
lescribe and ascertain the nature of the said Invention, and in what manner
he 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
he date of the said Letters Patent.

page_text: NOW KNOW YE, that I, the said Richard Archibald Brooman, 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 thereof, that is to say :-
The bobbin net frames, imitation lace, and other machines hitherto in use
for the manufacture of lace have only produced frabies having the appearance
of lace, without its structure, strength, or value. The mounting of the
machine, the method of action, and the principles which govern the inter-
lacings of the working threads are sufficient to explain the difficulty if not
impossibility of producing by such machinery the true work of the hand lace
worker. In the hands of a lace worker all the threads or rather all the
bobbins carrying the threads possess complete freedom of action, and each of
them indiscriminately is free to follow in the work the fancy of the hand
worker. The primary condition therefore imposed on all machinery for manu-
facturing real lace is that of equal and complete freedom of action for all the
threads, thereby naturally excluding the idea of a fixed warp, whether upon
rollers or upon carriages. This condition of equal and complete freedom of
action of all the threads is more apparent than real; it is not really indispen-
sable that this freedom of action should be equal for all the threads, provided
they are all movable and free to a certain extent.
According to the nature and the work in the lace to be made, a certain
arrangement of relative freedom adopted the work may be executed, and I
proceed to demonstrate it by transforming the presser loom (metier pousseur)
into a new warp loom, capable of making real lace, by combining with or
introducing into it the following arrangements:-Many parts of the ordinary
presser frame or loom are retained, as for example, the combs, the carriages,
the pressers, the fine bars, but the mounting and action of these organs are
modified by the introduction of four new features, as hereafter described.
These new parts or features consist, ―
First, in the employment of a chain mounted on fine bars, each of which is
separately jacquarded as in the lever frame or machine, whereby the warp
threads may be separately varied in the centre of the comb bars to the right
and to the left at will, and also to a greater or lesser number of gates.
Second, in the arrangement and employment of front and back comb bars,
each separately jacquarded, capable of remaining fixed or of moving one or
several times in the same or in contrary directions to the right or to the left,
and that for a greater or lesser number of gates, as required.
Third, in fixing upon the back comb bars a number of pressers equal to tho
number of carriages, and each separately jacquarded, whereby all the carriages

page_text: may be indiscriminately shifted. Besides the separate jacquarding of the
pressers, the presser bar is also jacquarded in its general movement, so that it
may either move or remain stationary.
Fourth, in fixing on the front comb bars a number of pressers equal also to
the number of carriages, but acting by one general movement, and allowing all
the carriages without exception which may have been pressed forward to
return upon the back bar. The bar carrying the front pressers is also
jacquarded like the back bar, that is to say, it may be made to work or may be
fixed at will.
By the combination of agents above mentioned it will be perceived that the
carriages have entire freedom of action, that they may be moved at will and in
every direction, and that the freedom relatively less of the warp threads upon
the fine bars suffices to allow of the interlacings of the the threads being effected
indiscriminately at will, whether of the carriage threads between themselves,
or of these threads with the warp threads, or of the warp threads between
themselves, for the order in which the fine bars are mounted according to the
requirements of the design and of the class of lace to be made compensates for
the apparent want of freedom in the warp threads. The pattern of the design
may be varied according to the skill of the workman. The Invention is also
applicable to the production of other fabrics besides lace.
In witness whereof, I, the said Richard Archibald Brooman, have here-
unto set my hand and seal, this Fifteenth day of July, One thousand
eight hundred and sixty-three.
R. A. BROOMAN. (L.S.)