THE MANUFACTURE OF CERTAIN WOVEN FABRICS
Year: 1881

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by Oscar Drey at the Office of the
Commissioners of Patents on the 27th October 1881.
OSCAR DREY, of Manchester, in the County of Lancaster.
THE MANUFACTURE OF CERTAIN WOVEN FABRICS."
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« IMPROVEMENTS IN
My Invention relates in the first place to velvets, velveteens, plushes, and cords
manufactured from cotton or other fibre or mixture of fibrous materials, in which
the pile is produced by weft threads floated over warp threads, and subsequently
cut, and consists in the first place of improved methods of combining the said
threads.
The established method of attaching the face or pile of velvets and velveteens
to the back or foundation of the fabric consists in the interweaving of the face
weft threads, which, after cutting, form the pile with one or more warp threads
before the commencement and after the completion of every pile float over the
warp. The usual number of warp threads thus used to hold the face or pile is one
or three, but whatever the number and the manner of interweaving, it has hitherto
been the practice to adhere to the same number of warp threads, and the saine
manner of attaching the face weft to them all through the length and breadth of
the same piece.
My improvement consists in using in the manufacture of the same piece any
suitable twofold or further varied mode of attaching the face weft threads to the
back or foundation of the cloth, and my Invention extends to all combinations
in which the mode of attaching the face weft threads to the back or foundation of
the cloth is in the same piece otherwise than uniform..
In order to leave no doubt about the meaning of the terms used, I subjoin the
following diagrams or weavers' drafts, which will be readily understood by those
conversant with weaving.
No. 1 and No. 2 are full weaving patterns of two well known descriptions of
velvets.
No. 1 consists of a combination of 6 warp threads with 8 weft threads. The
warp threads are represented by the horizontal lines, the weft threads by vertical
lines. The first and fifth weft threads are used for combining with the warp in
order to make the back or foundation of the cloth; all the other weft threads are
face or pile weft threads, and are attached to the warp by passing under it at the
places marked by oblique strokes, the process being uniform throughout the whole
piece.
No. 2 consists of a combination of 8 warp threads with 10 weft threads. The
first and sixth weft threads are back threads; all the other weft threads are face
or pile threads, and are attached to the warp by passing under it at the places
marked by oblique strokes, "the process being uniform throughout the whole
piece.

page_text: No. 3 illustrates the principle of my Invention; it shows a combination of 14
warp threads with 9 weft threads, of which the first and sixth are back threads.
All the other weft threads are face or pile weft threads, and are attached to the
warp by passing under it at the places marked by oblique strokes. It will be
found upon examination of the diagram that in this pattern the face or pile
threads are attached to the warp in two different ways; now by being attached to
three warp threads (by passing under, over, and under), and then to one warp
thread only by merely passing under.
No. 4 illustrates the principle of my Invention carried out in another way; it
consists in a combination of 24 warp threads with 9 weft threads, of which the
first and fifth are back weft threads; all the other weft threads are face or pile
weft threads, and are attached to the warp by passing under it at the places
marked by oblique strokes. Upon examination of the diagram it will be found
that here also two distinct methods are used in the attaching of the pile threads to
the warp.
In diagram No. 3 the varied mode is carried out in the same face or pile pick ;
in diagrain No. 4 it is done by introducing face weft threads of different characters,
in which the weft is attached to the warp in the same way all through one pick
and in another way all through another pick.
The methods illustrated in diagrams 3 and 4 may be varied by introducing
other of the well known methods of attaching the pile and using two or more of
them in combination in the same pattern, or by altering the proportion of one to
the-other-or others. I do not confine myself to any length of float of face picks,
nor any number of such floats between the back weft threads, nor any order of
arranging the succession of such picks in the same pattern, nor to any particular kind
of back, nor to any weaver's pattern or patterns whatever. My Invention consists
in the twofold or further varied modes of attaching the face or pile weft threads
whatever, the combination as distinct from the present uniform mode as herein-
before described.
The mode of attaching the face weft threads to the back or foundation of the
cloth influences the degree of fastness of the pile, and it is a defect of the goods
as at present manufactured that the pile is sometimes put in too loosely and
sometimes faster than required, at the expense in the latter case of impoverished
appearance on the face and an overweighted back, which are disadvantages to the
wearers of the finished fabrics.
These defects are avoidable by my Invention of the twofold or further varied
modes of attaching the face weft threads to the back or foundation of the cloth.
My methods of weaving cords are improvements on the so-called thicksett
constitution and cable cord methods.
In the so called thicksett cord as at present manufactured, the face picks are so
arranged that every one of them makes face or pile on every alternate race only.
The rest of it is buried in the back, and there is consequently a great loss of pile
to the face.
It is possible by using comparatively fine reeds and warps to produce
according to existing weaving patterns cords which will have the appearance on
the face of thicksett cords, and in which every face weft thread will be cut in
every race. But the cloth becomes difficult to weave; the back becomes very fine,
and does not yield a sufficiently ample raising surface for the demands of the
trade, and the face produced is frequently racy.
In order to produce thicksett cords with superior face without taking away from
the raising capabilities of the back, I use in combination the shortest practicable
face floats, which are capable of being cut in the centre, viz., 3 and 5, and combine
these with a comparatively open back, either a 3 and. 1 twill back or a 4 and 1
twill back, or any other plain twill, broken or fancy back, in which the back weft
threads float once or oftener under 3 or more warp threads. Where the back
shows a twill it may run either from left to right or from right to left.
In order to illustrate my meaning I refer to the accompanying diagram, No. 5,

page_text: which shows the arrangement of the face weft float in combination with a 3 and 1
twill back; for this purpose it is requisite to take a gait over of 20 warp threads.
For a 4 and 1 twill back a gait over of 10 will be sufficient, and for other combina-
tions the gait over and number of picks to the round will have to be adjusted
according to each separate pattern. I do not confine myself to any number of
face picks between the back picks, nor to any special weaver's pattern; my
Invention consists in the use of the 3 and 5 combined face floats in combination
with a comparatively open back, as herein before described.
The present methods of weaving the so-called constitution and cable cords are
defective because the face floats are so arranged that their centres do not coincide
with the centres of the races. In following the races the fustian cutter's knife
will divide certain floats into long and short sections, and the result is a streaky
appearance in the cut cord, which is too frequently apparent in the dyed and
finished state, and which considerably deteriorates from the appearance of the
goods and causes a diminished demand for them.
I avoid this defect by weaving these goods with 3, 4, or more sets of face
floats of different lengths placed in such positions that the centre of each face
float will coincide with the centre of the race, and that consequently each face
float will be divided into equal sections by the cutter's knife.
Diagrams 6 and 7 illustrate my Invention with ribbed backs, but any suitable
kind or plain twill or fancy back may be used.
Diagram No. 6 has 3 sets of face floats, the first set floating over seven and
eleven, the second set over nine and nine, and the third set floating over eleven
and seven warp threads.
No. 7 has 6 sets of floats, the first set floating over four and fourteen, the second
over six and twelve, the third over eight and ten, the fourth over ten and eight,
the fifth over twelve and six, and the sixth set floating over fourteen and four
warp threads.
The length of the floats may be varied as required, and different ribs of cord
produced according to the length of the float and the kind of reed chosen, and
the arrangement of the floats or the number of face picks between the back
picks may be varied.
In fact the patterns may be varied in any way as long as the principle of this
part of my Invention is preserved, viz., weaving cords of any size of rib on my
improved plan of three or more sets of face floats, the centre of each coinciding
with the centre of the races.
The last part of my Invention relates to velvets, velveteens, plushes, cords, and
those beaverteens and moleskins in which the back weft threads, or some of them,
are kept exclusively to the back, but relates only to goods woven exclusively with
unbleached cotton yarns.
The existing method is to use the same description of weft for the face and
the back, but the requirements of the face and the back are not always the same,
and my Invention consists in employing, whenever it is found desirable to do so,
for all or some of those picks which are exclusively back picks, certain descriptions
or counts of unbleached cotton weft, whether single or otherwise, and other
descriptions or counts of unbleached cotton weft, whether single or otherwise,
for the remainder of the fabric.
All the diagrams given with this Provisional Specification are what are called
full tie-ups, but they can be condensed in the manner well known to those
conversant with weaving.