CERTAIN IMPROVEMENTS IN MANUFACTURING VELVET AND OTHER SIMILAR FABRICS
Year: 1855

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by Louis Auguste Petard at the
Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the 16th
November 1855.
I, LOUIS AUGUSTE PETARD, Draughtsman, of Paris, in the French Empire,
do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for "CERTAIN IMPROVEMENTS
IN MANUFACTURING VELVET AND OTHER SIMILAR FABRICS" to be as follows:-
My Invention consists in manufacturing velvet plush, or velvet-like and
other similar pile and cut pile fabrics, by working the threads in the loom in
such manner as to leave a space between a certain number of weft threads
passed in the ordinary manner, some over or upon a ground warp and others
over or upon a second warp, which forms the pile or surface warp, and then by
means of the reed bringing the pile threads to the ground threads to form a
loop. The loop thus obtained is repeated again and again at proper distances
to produce velvet plush or a velvet-like fabric. There are various ways in
which my Invention may be carried into effect, and I now proceed to describe
one method by way of example.
I adjust a regulator to the beam or roller which receives the fabric when
woven, for the purpose of causing the roller to revolve a distance corresponding
to the thickness of one weft thread at every throw of the shuttle. The surface
or pile warp beam is made to oscillate slightly, so as not to stretch the threads

page_text: too tightly, and in order to allow the weft to come forward freely. After four
throws of the shuttle, a lever in the front of the batten is lifted either by a
treadle or by jacquard machinery. This lever turns on one of three centres,
according to the space to be left between the four ground weft threads and
the first surface or pile weft thread. Three pile or surface wefts are now shot
across, and then the foot is taken off the treadle, or the machinery actuating
the lever is disengaged, and the lever is restored to its place by a spring, the
batten is released, and the reed brings the pile or surface wefts to the ground
wefts, thus producing a loop. At the eighth throw of the shuttle the pile or
surface warp is passed underneath, and the workman begins again to shoot the
ground wefts, and the operation is repeated. A wedge is sometimes used after
four throws of the ground threads to leave a space between the loop or surface
threads.
Cut pile fabrics are produced by presenting the fabric when woven to cutting
knives, which cut the ends of the loops, and leave the pile upright and cut.
For certain descriptions of fabrics, before cutting the piles the fabric should be
slightly fulled to make the pile adhere, after which it is to be re-wetted and
left to dry.
Ribbed or corded fabrics are produced by weaving in the pile warp a
number of weft threads, and then bringing the last weft thread nearer, to form
a rib in the body of the fabric. The ribs may be brought nearer to or further
from each other, according as more or less ground is woven between each rib;
the inside of each rib may be filled up, by throwing in a thick woollen weft
thread, which gives it a convex or rounded shape, and prevents it from being
flattened in.
By means of my Invention I manufacture velvets, &, without wires or
cords