IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MANUFACTURE OF TEXTILE FABRICS
Year: 1883

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by William Robert Lake at the Office
of the Commissioners of Patents on the 18th May 1883. Communicated to
him from abroad by Louis Chaux of Paris, France Commercial Traveller
WILLIAM. ROBERT LAKE, of the firm of Haseltine, Lake, & Co, Patent Agents,
Southampton Buildings, London, " IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MANUFACTURE OF
TEXTILE FABRICS" [a communication to him from abroad by Louis Chaux of
Paris, France Commercial Traveller]
This invention relates to the manufacture of close woollen or other woven fabrics
by means of. threads made of wool or the like and cotton, the cotton being
afterwards removed.
Heretofore inferior carded wools have not been utilized in the manufacture of
pure woollen flannel as it has not heretofore been found practicable to spin these
wools fine enough. Experience however has shown that it was easy to spin a
mixture of cotton and carded wool of a very inferior quality down to as small a
number as desired
The present invention is based upon this fact and upon the use of well known
chemical processes of cleaning, and is designed to produce close and pure woollen
fabrics by means of wool of an inferior quality.
In carrying the said invention into practice I proceed as follows; that is to
say: I manufacture threads of wool and of cotton with which the fabric is woven
in the same way as if the thread were made purely of wool. After the fabric is
woven, it is put in a cleansing bath which incinerates and destroys the vegetable
matter without impairing the animal matter. This treatment gives, as a result a
fabric which is exclusively composed of wool. The cotton has thus only served,
in this process, as a temporary support and afforded protection to the woollen
thread whilst the material was being spun and woven. When the fabric is
finished the cotton disappears and the wool alone is left in the said fabric which
is close and without gaps, the threads with which this fabric was woven having
merely lost in the bath the cotton portion which formed the basis of the said
threads, but the texture and the appearance of the fabric are not altered; this is a
distinctive feature of my invention which will thus be found different to others

page_text: having for their object the manufacture of fabrics designed to represent certain
patterns by the incineration of fabrics made with cotton and woollen threads.
The woollen and cotton threads may be used in the weaving in different
manners, for instance they may be used in the rough state, or the cotton may be
spun first and the wool be used to cover the cotton in a second spinning. The
proportions of the vegetable and animal matter must be regulated according to
the quality of the latter.
Whatever may be the mode of manufacturing these mixed threads, they are
used either for the warp or for the weft, or for both the warp and the weft in
weaving the fabric
When the weaving is done the fabric is cleansed by a chemical process; the
vegetable matter, that is to say, the cotton is incinerated so that each thread of
the fabric is composed of wool only The fabric resulting is purely wool and
presents a texture and appearance which does not differ from fabrics manufactured
entirely of woollen threads Thus a great saving is effected, as according to the
said invention I make use of inferior wool whereas by the processes heretofore
known the wool has to be of a select quality
Moreover the destruction of the cotton threads which have only served as a
temporary support has the effect of rendering the fabric more supple and soft the
wool being well distended and in good condition to be subjected to the operation
of "fulling"