Improvements in the Manufacture of Ornamental Lace Fabrics.
Year: 1890

page_text: Date of Application, 14th Nov., 1890
Complete Specification Left, 13th Aug., 1891-Accepted. 19th Sept. 1891
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION.
Improvements in the Manufacture of Ornamental Lace Fabrics.
I, JACOB STEIGER-MEYER of Herisau, Switzerland, Embroiderer, do hereby
declare the nature of this invention to be as follows:-
The object of this invention is to produce, by means of the embroidery machine,
an ornamental lace fabric with warp threads as a ground, which may, if desired, be
strengthened by the introduction of groups of weft thread at suitable intervals,
the warp consisting, by preference, of 3, 4, or 5-ply threads corresponding in
character to the thread used in the embroidery needles. The embroidery work
will be carried on in the usual manner, but its effect will be to bind together
a group of warp threads in any desired order, and thus to produce open-work
of various patterns.
When cross threads or weft threads are introduced, they may be tied to the
warp by the embroidery threads, and thus form a solid integral part of the
embroidery.
In order to vary the character of the embroidered fabric, I
may introduce
between the cotton or linen warp, threads of silk or wool, which will give me
a closer ground, and enable me to work more minute patterns. The fine work
thus produced may be made to present the appearance of lace, by destroying
the animal fibres contained in the fabric, in the manner now commonly practised
in the embroidery trade.
I also propose to reverse this process, by retaining the silk or woollen threads,
and to destroy the vegetable warp and weft threads, in the well known manner
practised by the embroidery trade.
A. further modification of my invention, is placing in the embroidery machine,
either in front or back of the warp threads, or coarse canvas, or net, a silk or
woollen woven fabric, which will serve as a temporary ground for the reception of
the embroidery: then working as in the first example, and subsequently removing
the woven ground of silk or wool by the well-known chemical process now in use,
thus leaving the warp threads, or their equivalent, as the permanent open ground
of the embroidery.
Dated this 14th day of November 1890.
NEWTON & SON,
Agents for the Applicant.
COMPLETE SPECIFICATION.
Improvements in the Manufacture of Ornamental Lace Fabrics.
I, JACOB STEIGER-MEYER of Herisau, Switzerland, Embroiderer, 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:-
The object of this invention is to produce, by means of the embroidery machine,
an ornamental lace or open work fabric with warp threads as a ground, which may,
if desired, be strengthened by the introduction of groups of so-called weft threads
at suitable intervals.
Lace or open-work fabrics, as is well known, have already been produced in the
embroidery machine under a Patent obtained on my behalf and bearing date
September 26th 1881, No. 4143, a temporary ground fabric being used to support
the stitches during the production of the ornamentation. On the completion of the
Prins 17

page_text: process,
the
embroidery, this ground fabric was removed by a well known chemical
design of the embroidery work being of such a character as to give the requisite
structural strength to the fabric.
In carrying out this manufacture, the process is somewhat tedious, as a very
large number of stitches is required to produce, through the ornament only, a fabric
containing the requisite structural strength.
To quicken the manufacture, and at the same time to produce a fabric of superior
quality, is the result of the present invention, the nature of which I will now
proceed to explain, premising that the so-called warp and weft threads used will
consist, by preference, of 3, 4 or 5-ply threads corresponding in character to the
thread used in the embroidery needles. The embroidery work will be carried on
in the usual way, but its effect will be to bind together groups of ground threads in
any desired order, and thus to produce lace-work of various patterns.
When cross or weft threads are introduced, they will be tied to the warp by the
embroidery threads, and thus form an integral part of the embroidery.
In the accompanying drawings, I have shown several modes of carrying out my
invention.
Fig. 1 shows the mode of producing the simplest character of embroidery pattern,
with the aid of warp or longitudinal threads only as the ground.
Fig. 2 shows the use of a ground composed of both warp and weft threads,
which enable me to produce a fabric of firmer texture, with more elaborate
ornamentation.
In Fig. 1, a a a are warp threads, which are supposed to have been strung at
tension upon the work frame of the embroidery machine, either by laying them over
and under tenter hooks, or by drawing them down from a warp beam mounted at the
top of the work frame, and attaching them to a work beam at the bottom of the
frame, as indicated by dots in Fig. 1.
These warp threads, it will be seen, are bound together by squares of solid work
produced by stitches of the embroidery thread. In producing this solid work, each
stitch will overlap two of the group of 4 threads selected for the pattern, but a
looser texture may be produced by extending the stitches over 3 or more warp
threads, to produce a solid piece of work. As the mode of operating the
embroidery machine must be obvious to every competent workman, it will be
unnecessary further to explain the course of working to produce the pattern shewn
at Fig. 1.
In Fig. 2 there are not only warp threads a a a, but also weft or transverse
threads bb, which threads a a, b b together form a permanent ground for the
embroidery, and, by their presence in the work, greatly facilitate its production.
The geometrical pattern shown is first outlined by diagonal stitches, and whether
the figure thus produced is filled up partially, or completely to form close work,
will be determined by the taste or the needs of the manufacturer, as he will be
enabled to produce a fabric of sufficient structural strength when the embroidery
has proceeded so far only as to firmly bind together the warp and weft threads at
their crossings.
In order to vary the character of the embroidery fabric, I may introduce between
the permanent ground threads of cotton or linen warp and weft, threads of silk or
wool, which will give me a closer ground, and enable me to work more minute
patterns. The fine work produced on such a ground may be made to present the
appearance of lace, by destroying the animal fibres contained in the fabric in the
manner described in the Specification of my above mentioned Patent.
In carrying out this process, I produce in the loom a woven fabric as a ground,
introducing the warp and weft threads (which are to form a portion of the per-
manent manufacture) in groups suited to the pattern in hand. This is illustrated
at Fig. 3, which shows in yellow color the threads to be dissolved out from the
finished fabric, the permanent ground threads being represented in red color, and
the embroidery in black.
I also propose, in the case of silk embroidery, to employ for the permanent

page_text: ground, silk or woollen threads, and to destroy the temporary ground of vegetable
warp and weft threads in the well known manner practised by the embroidery
trade.
A further modification of my invention consists in placing in the embroidery
machine, either in front or back of the warp and weft threads which are to form the
permanent ground, or net lace of large mesh used in lieu thereof, a silk or woollen
woven fabric which will serve as a temporary ground for the reception of the
embroidery, then working as in the first example; and subsequently removing the
woven ground of silk or wool by the well-known chemical process, thus leaving
the warp threads or their equivalent as the permanent open ground of the
embroidery.
The net lace ground may be manufactured in a bobbinnet machine, or I may
produce a somewhat similar fabric in the embroidery machine itself, relying on the
pull of the embroidery threads to tie a series of warp threads together in such a
way as to produce diamond shaped meshes instead of the hexagonal meshes of the
bobbinnet. The working of the warp threads into a lace in the embroidery machine
enables me to give considerable variety to the ground, especially when a temporary
backing is used.
When working a net lace ground in combination with a temporary ground, to
produce an embroidered lace, the work, when the temporary ground is removed,
will present the appearance of an embroidered lace fabric of the character shown
at diagram Fig. 4, the bobbinnet ground being represented in red color, and the
embroidery in black.
In diagram Fig. 5 I have shown the kind of fabric which may be produced by
forming the lace ground from the warp threads by the aid of the embroidery
threads. By this means a greater variety may be introduced into the work, the
meshes, at the option of the workman, taking either the form of diamonds, lozenges,
squares, or oblong squares, all of which admit of being filled in with the embroidery
threads, or of being worked into some device, or of being partially filled up with
crossing threads.
It will be understood that the workman will, as far as possible, rely on the
permanent ground threads for giving stability to his work, but where the embroidery
departs from these threads, he must be careful, as heretofore, to lock the embroidery
stitches together, to produce work that will remain firm after the removal of the
temporary ground.
Having now particularly described and ascertained the nature of the said inven-
tion and in what manner the same is to be performed, I declare that what I
claim is:
1. The manufacture, in embroidery machines, of ornamental lace or open work
fabrics with a permanent ground of warp threads, or of so-called warp and weft
threads, as illustrated at Figs. 1, 2, 3, and 5 of the drawings.
2. The manufacture, in embroidery machines, of ornamental lace or open-
work fabrics with a permanent ground produced in a lace machine, as described
with reference to Fig. 4.
NEWTON & SON,
Agents for the Applicant.

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