AN IMPROVEMENT IN THE MANUFACTURE OF WARP LACE FABRICS
Year: 1856

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Thomas Herbert, of the firm of Thomas Herbert
and Company, Nottingham, Lace Manufacturers, and Edward Whitaker,
of Nottingham aforesaid, Mechanic, for the Invention of "AN IMPROVE-
Sealed the 5th September 1856, and dated the 23rd May 1856.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Thomas Herbert and
Edward Whitaker at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with
their Petition, on the 23rd May 1856..
We, THOMAS HERBERT, of the firm of Thomas Herbert and Company,
Nottingham, Lace Manufacturers, and EDWARD WHITAKER, of Nottingham
aforesaid, Mechanic, do hereby declare the nature of the Invention for
"AN IMPROVEMENT IN THE MANUFACTURE OF WARP LACE FABRICS," to be as
follows:-
This Invention has for its object an improvement in the manufacture of
warp lace fabrics, and consists in making enlargements or spots on the pillars
of such lace, by accumulating in each case one guide thread on a pillar which
is being produced by the linking of another guide thread on a needle or
needles. The spotting or enlarging thread, when working with the linking
thread to produce a plain pillar, passes under the needle, the other thread
being linked on the needle. When the time for spotting or enlarging the
pillar arrives, the spotting or enlarging thread is lapped more or less times on

page_text: the needle, according to the quantity of enlargement of spot desired to be
produced. When these spotting or enlarging threads are not being used for
working according to the Invention they may be producing other work.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said Thomas Herbert and Edward Whitaker in the Great Seal
Patent Office on the 18th November 1856.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, we, THOMAS
HERBERT, of the firm of Thomas Herbert and Company, Nottingham, Lace
Manufacturers, and EDWARD WHITAKER, of Nottingham aforesaid, Mechanic,
send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Twenty-third day of May, in the year of. our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and fifty-six, in the nineteenth year of Her reign;
did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto us, the said
Thomas Herbert and Edward Whitaker, Her special licence that we, the
said Thomas Herbert and Edward Whitaker, our executors, administrators,
and assigns, or such others as we, the said Thomas Herbert and Edward
Whitaker, 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 Kingdoni. of Great Britain and Ireland, the Channel
Islands, and Isle of Man, an Invention for "AN IMPROVEMENT IN THE MANU-
FACTURE OF WARP LACE FABRICS," upon the condition (amongst others) that
we, the said Thomas Herbert and Edward Whitaker, our executors or
administrators, by an instrument in writing under our or their hands and seals;
or under the hand and seal of one of us or them, 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 we, the said Thomas Herbert and Edward
Whitaker, do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention; and in what
manner the same is to be performed, to be particularly described and ascer
tained in and by the following statement-thereof, that is to say:-
This Invention has for its object an improvement in the manufacture of
warp lace fabrics, and consists in maxing enlargements or spots on the pillars
.

page_text: of such lace, by accumulating in each case one guide thread on a pillar which
is being produced by the linking of another guide thread on a needle or
needles. The spotting or enlarging thread, when working with the linking
thread to produce a plain pillar, passes under the needle, the other thread
being linked on the needle. When the time for spotting or enlarging the
pillar arrives, the spotting or enlarging thread is lapped more or less times on
the needle, according to the quantity of enlargement of spot desired to be
produced. When these spotting or enlarging threads are not being used for
working according to the Invention they may be producing other work.
Having thus stated the nature of our said Invention, we will proceed more
fully to describe the manner of performing the same.
The manufacture of warp lace fabrics in warp lace machinery being well
understood, it will not be necessary to enter into a description thereof further
than will be necessary to instruct the workman how to perform our Inven-
tion, the object of which is to produce an enlargement or spot on a pillar
intermediate of the points where such pillar is connected on either side with
the body of the fabric, by which means new, peculiar, and ornamental effects
will be produced in the various descriptions of ornamental fabrics produced in
warp lace machines. For this purpose, a spotting thread is employed at each
place where it is intended to make spots or enlargements on a pillar, and such
spotting thread is to be independant of the pillar thread, and to have separate
motions communicated, so that during the time when no enlargement is
required to be produced on the pillar the spotting thread is to be caused to
move to and fro under the needle, and not to lap over the needle, the spotting
thread being for the time simply incorporated longitudinally in the pillar, pro-
duced by the pillar thread lapping on the needle. When a spotting thread is
to enlarge a pillar without connecting that pillar to the neighbouring pillar or
pillars on either side of it, the spotting thread is (as well as the pillar thread)
to be caused to lap on to the needle (more or less times, according to the size
of spot desired), and thus to produce an enlargement on the pillar at that
point of its length. The pillar thread only is then to lap on the needle for a
time, whilst the spotting thread is to be moved to and fro under the needle,
and to be incorporated longitudinally in the pillar, produced by the pillar
thread looping on the needle. For the purpose of actuating the spotting
threads, they may, as is well understood, be carried by a guide bar or bars, or
they may be carried by independent guides or instruments, governed in their
action by jacquard or other pattern surfaces or mechanical means. And it
will be evident to workmen acquainted with the working of warp lace machines,
that when the spotting threads are not for the time being required to work in

page_text: conjunction with their respective pillar threads to produce spots on the pillars;
the spotting threads may be used in producing other parts of the work or
fabric. We may remark, that although generally the pillars are produced
each on a single needle, and with one pillar. thread, and one spotting thread,
working as above explained, our Invention is equally applicable, when making
warp lace fabrics composed or partly composed of pillars where more than one
needle is used to produce a pillar.
Having thus described the nature of our said Invention, and the manner of
performing the same, we would have it understood that we do not claim
generally to apply spotting threads in warp lace machinery, but only the
applying and working spotting threads as herein described, whereby spots or
enlargements are produced at intervals on the pillars of warp lace fabrics
without connecting the pillars together by the act of producing the spots or
enlargements thereon.
In witness whereof, we, the said Thomas Herbert and Edward Whitaker,
have hereunto set our hands and seals, this Tenth day of Novem-
ber, in the year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and
fifty-six.
THOMAS HERBERT.
(L.S.)
EDWARD WHITAKER.
(L.S.)