Improvements in the Manufacture of Carpets and Floor Coverings
Year: 1897

page_text: Date of Application, 28th May, 1897
Complete Specification Left 28th Feb 1898 Accented 30th Apr. 1898
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION.
Improvements in the Manufacture of Carpets and Floor Coverings,
FRANCIS BEST FAWCETT, 44, Comberton Road, Kidderminster, County of
Worcester, Commission Agent, do hereby declare the nature of this invention
to be as follows:-
This invention relates to the manufacture of carpets and floor coverings, which
ere cut up in sections, lengths, or breadths, for making up, and are either sewed
together, or otherwise connected in their proper positions.
The general way of preparing such carpets and floor coverings for the ordinary
or original way of making up, (still largely used) is to first cut off the roll the inside
or body portion or breadths, and then to cut the required lengths off the border
roll for putting round the same; but the border at the corners is cut or doubled
under diagonally in what is technically called a mitre, which produces a disfigure-
ment of the pattern or design.
This defect was obviated and the mitre dispensed with, by an invention for which
Letters Patent were granted to Henry Fawcett, No. 2088 of 24th April 1883.
According to the second part of the said invention the corner is designed to form
a continuation of the border pattern round the corner, so that the said designed
corner can be joined (at the required intervals) on to each end of the side border,
and that the ends border may also be joined (at the required intervals) at each end
of the body portion or breadths, and thus continue the border along the ends from
corner to corner.
Henry Fawcetts invention is principally applicable to woven fabrics, and better
adapted for some kinds than for others. But in those it is best adapted for, such as
Brussels, Wilton and those known as Jacquard Axminster carpets, there is a lessened
production, and some limitation of the sizes of complete carpets that can be pro-
duced, as compared with manufacturing them for the aforesaid original way of
making them up.
These drawbacks are occasioned firstly, by having to weave the corner and border
on to the ends of the respective breadths, which requires constant changes from the
corner to the side border pattern, and from the end border to the body pattern, and
vice versa, together with having to make the said breadths in the requisite short
lengths, whereby time is hindered in the weaving, and the production lessened.
And secondly the proper adjustment of the border pattern to the body pattern,
necessary for weaving them together, limits the sizes in which complete carpets
can be made.
The kinds of carpets for which Henry Fawcett's invention is less adapted, are
those in which a process of preparation for a certain quantity of carpet has to be
gone through before weaving can be commenced, such as moquettes, or royal
Axminster, tapestry, and others. This is because the cost and trouble of preparing
beforehand, so as to weave corner and border, and border and body together are
so great as to be practically prohibitive, and the mitre is used instead.
My invention which is applicable to woven fabrics, and other makes also, such.

page_text: as linoleum, oilcloth and the like: consists in making the body, border, and corners
separately, and in making the said corners preferably a little wider and longer, on
larger in the square than the other portion of the border would make. And in order
to fit them in to the outline of the carpet or floor covering, bits may be out out of
the body pattern at the corners for this purpose. This will round off the inside 5
corners, and give room for a better design or pattern. They may be made of the
same width and length as the border, or a square of the border, and save cutting
out the bits.
The designs for the corners may be drawn with narrow ornamental or plain edging
to separate them from the side and end borders, also from the body pattern when I
bits are cut out; but the inside figure of the corners may partly lie over the edging
in places to improve the effect, and the taste of the designer or manufacturer will
suggest other variations that may be introduced.
::
By this invention as compared with Henry Fawcett's method, perfect corners
are obtained in combination with a greater facility for varying the sizes of made up
carpets and floor coverings, and an increased production; because the lengths for
the sides and ends border, and for the body; can be cut off the rolls to any size
required, which rolls can be produced with greater rapidity than short lengths for
making up purposes.
And as the corners, border, and body, can all be thus made separately; it removes
the difficulty of the complex preparation beforehand, which debars. the aforesaid
certain kinds from using Henry Fawcett's method, and enables perfect corners to
be obtained instead. of the mitre disfigurement.,
1. .I.
As compared with the original mitred corners, in which there is an amount of
waste equal to a square of the border, caused by the diagonal cutting or doubling
under. The corner, pieces would save this waste; and even with the larger corner
pieces, there would be a saving effected.
3.
DE OZAL
Improvements in the Manufacture of Carpets and Floor Coverings.
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I, FRANCIS BEST FAWCETT, of 44, Comberton Road, Kidderminster, iii the County
of Worcester, Commission Agent, do hereby declare. the nature of this invention
and in what manner the same is to be performed, to be particularly described and
ascertained in and by the following statement:
This invention relates to the manufacture of carpets and floor coverings which
are cut up in sections, lengths, or breadths, for making up and are either sewed
together, or otherwise connected in their positions.
The general way of preparing such carpets, and floor coverings for the ordinary
or original way of making up (still largely used) is to first cut off the roll the inside
or body portion or breadths, and then to cut the required lengths off the border
roll for putting round the same; but the border at the corners is cut or doubled
under diagonally, in what is technically called a mitre, which produces a disfigure-
ment of the pattern or design.
This defect was obviated and the mitre dispensed with by an invention for which
Letters Patent, were granted to Henry Fawcett, No. 2088 of 24th April 1883.
According to the second part of this invention the corner is designed to form
continuation of the border pattern round the corner, so that the said designed
corner can be joined (at the required intervals) on to each end of the sides border,
and that the end border may also be joined (at the required intervals) at each end
a
2

page_text: of the body portion or breadths; and thus continue the border along the ends from
corner to corner:
Henry Fawcett's invention is principally applicable to woven fabrics, and better
adapted for some kinds than for others. But in those it is best adapted for such as
Brussels, Wilton; and those known as Jacquard Axminster carpets, there is a lessened
production, and some limitation of the sizes of complete carpets that can be pro-
duced as compared with manufacturing them for the original way of making
them up.
The drawbacks are occasioned firstly, by having to weave the corner and border
on to the ends of the respective breadths; which requires constant changes from the
corner to the side border pattern, and from the end border to the body pattern, and
vice versa, together with having to make the said breadths in the requisite short
lengths, whereby time is hindered in the weaving and the production lessened:
And secondly the proper adjustment of the border pattern to the body pattern
necessary for weaving them together, limits the sizes in which complete carpets
can be made.
The kinds of carpets for which Henry Fawcett's invention is less adapted, are.
those in which a process of preparation for a certain quantity of carpet has to be
gone through before. weaving can be commenced; such as moquettes or royal
Axminster tapestry; and others. This is because the cost and trouble of preparing
beforehand, so as to weave corner and border, and border and body together are
so great as to be practically prohibitive, and the mitre is used instead.
'
My invention, which is applicable to woven carpets and other floor coverings such
as linoleum oil cloth and the like, consists in making and using separate square or
oblong corner pieces with the ordinary body and border made separate from each
other my said corner pieces being preferably made a little wider and longer or
larger than the square of the other portion of the border, and square or oblong bits
are then cut out of the corners of the body of the carpet or floor covering to admit
and fit said separate corner pieces.
My invention is illustrated by the accompanying drawings in which Fig. 1 is a
plan of a portion of a rectangular bordered carpet made in accordance with this
invention; Fig. 2 shews separately one of my improved corner pieces and part of
the end border and of the side border of the carpet and also a portion of the body
of the same; Fig. 3 shews how the said corner pieces are or may be woven together
in a length; Fig. 4 shews another design of my improved separate corner pieces
together with a part of the border and body of the carpet; Fig. 5 shews a portion
of another carpet made with the separate square corner pieces in accordance with
this invention; Fig. 6 is a plan of another carpet illustrating a modification of my
invention in which the corner pieces are made oblong and of the same width as
the border and Fig. 7 is the end portion of another rectangular carpet made in
accordance with this invention with separate oblong corners which are made rather
wider than the border; Fig. 8 shews a portion of a bordered linoleum or like floor
covering made with the separate corner pièces in accordance with this invention one
of which corner pieces is shewn separately by Fig. 9.
The same letters of reference indicate the same or corresponding parts in all the
figures.
Referring firstly more particularly to Figs. 1, 2 and 3, A is the body of the carpet
and B1 B2 are two portions of the border woven separately from the body A and sewn
thereto as usual. At each corner of the carpet A I provide a separate square corner
piece C to which the square ends of the border pieces B1 B2 are sewn. A corner piece
is cut out of the body carpet A at a¹ of the shape to receive one of the corners of the
corner piece C to which the body is sewn. The parts are shewn separately by Fig. 2.
I thus dispense with the making of the mitred corners and obtain a much more
pleasing effect as the corner pieces C can be made of various designs to harmonize
with the body and border of the carpet. It is to be understood that these corner
pieces C are woven together as shewn in Fig. 3 and then divided by cutting across,

page_text: The patterns of the said corner pieces C will require to be specially designed so
that they may be manufactured separately, as before stated, from the body and
border which are also made separate from each other. As an example one way to
haw my separate corners would be to draw the same edging all round the four
sides c¹² cc as in Figs. 1, 2 and 3 and the central figures of the same uniform
character such as a medallion or turn-again effect as it is technically called so that
they will do for all four corners of the carpet without having to turn them round
for any particular part to be put inside or outside and thus all the four corner
pieces C of the carpet may be all alike.
Another variation in the designing of the corner pieces C may be to make tho
edging lighter or narrower or even plain lines round the two sides where they
are intended to join to the border pieces B1 B2 and the other two sides c³ ³ may have
a bordered edging for the outside lines of the carpet or floor covering. Thus with
a central figure of a similar character to that shewn in Figs. 1, 2 and 3 each of the
separate corner pieces C will do for all the four corners of the carpet by turning
them one quarter round with respect to each other in the same line so that the two
sides with the narrower or plain edge may be brought to the inside of the
joining position to join on to the ends of the borders B1 B2 and thus the corners C
shewn in Fig. 4 may be manufactured all alike.
If desired for the central figure of the corner pieces C to be of a more free
character requiring the same part of such central figure to be put at the inside
corners of the carpet or floor covering, the edging of the separate corner piece may
as shown in Fig. 5, be the same on all four sides c¹ct to enable them to be
turned half round in respect to each other at the diagonal corners of the carpet or
floor covering. In this case each diagonal pair of separate corner pieces C will
be made aliko but the one pair of the corner pieces C would differ from the other
pair of corner pieces C in as much as they would require to have a reversed aspect.
as though seen in a mirror, and would need differentiating in the manufacture as
follows, that is to say, in woven fabrics this can be d ne by weaving one half of the
corner pieces such as shewn for instance at the top of Fig. 5 the usual way or for-
wards and the other corner pieces such as shewn at the bottom of Fig. 5 backwards,
but it will be understood that each may be woven continuously in any number
required.
in Brussels, Wilton, Jacquard-Axminster, royal Axminster and others any
carpet manufacturer will know how to weave the corner pieces C backwards.
In tapestry carpets where the pattern is printed on a warp the backwards weaving
may be done by turning the printed warp beam round so that the warp threads that
were on the right hand of the loom are put on the left side for weaving one half of
the corner pieces whilst the other half would be woven forwards with the beam in
the ordinary position. The two sets of corner pieces are thus reversed in the manu-
facture would shew for themselves the diagonal corners of the carpet or floor
covering with which they are to be placed.
As before stated my improved separate corner pieces C may if desired be the same
size on the square as in the width of the border as shewn for instance by Fig. 5.
Instead of the corner pieces C being square as above described and illustrated by
Figs. 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5 the said corner pieces C may be oblong as shewn for instance
by Figs. 6 and 7 and be either of the same width as the border B1 B2 as shewn in
Fig. 6 or wider than the same as shewn in Fig. 7 but in this latter case the rect-
angular corner pieces will have to be cut out of the corners a¹ of the body carpet A.
When applying my invention of the separate corner pieces to linoleum oil cloth
and the like whether printed on the surface or by the inlaid process, the said separate
corner pieces will, as will be understood, have to be designed to accord with the
border and body of the linoleum oil cloth or the like. For instance as shewn by
Fig. 8 which represents a portion of ordinary linoleum or oil cloth floor covering A
with separate pieces of ordinary border B1 B2 B3 B4 B5 and with four of my improved
separate square corner pieces C fitted in at the corners so as to avoid mitreing of the

page_text: said border pieces together. One of my improved corners C is shewn separately
by Fig. 9. It will be seen that the border pieces B¹ are cut off square at their ends
so as to abut against the sides of the separate square pieces C and thus avoid the
mitreing. These corner pieces C being made larger on the square than is the
width of the borders C requires parts to be cut out of the body of the linoleum
at a¹ a² a³ a so that the body A of the linoleum will fit against the sides of the
separate square corner pieces C.
It will be understood that the corner pieces C for the linoleum or oil cloth may
instead of being square as shewn in Figs. 8 and 9 be made oblong as above described
with reference to the carpets shewn by Figs. 6 and 7. In each case the corner
pieces C are printed or formed in any required way in a continuous length with a
space between each for cutting them apart.
Having now particularly described and ascertained the nature of my said inven-
tion, and in what manner the same is to be performed, I declare that what I
claim is:-
1. In the manufacture of carpets and other floor coverings making square or
oblong corner pieces separately from the body and border portions and adapted for
use with the said body and border portions in the manner substantially as described.
2. In carpets and floor coverings the employment of square or oblong corner pieces
in combination with the separate border pieces and body pieces so as to dispense with
the mitreing of the border at the corners, substantially as described.
3. In carpets and other floor coverings the employment of square or oblong corner
pieces in combination with the separate border pieces and body pieces so as to dis-
pense with the mitreing of the border at the corners, the said square or oblong
corner pieces being larger than the square of the border so as to cut into the body
pieces, substantially as described.
Dated this 25th day of February 1898.
CHARLES BOSWORTH KETLEY,
Agent for the Applicant.