IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MANUFACTURE OF LACE IN TWIST LACE MACHINES
Year: 1867

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Thomas Butler Cutts, of Wilford, in the County of
Nottingham, Lace Manufacturer, and Francis William Brooksbank, of
the Town of Nottingham, Draughtsman, for the Invention of "IMPROVE-
Sealed the 31st March 1868, and dated the 2nd November 1867.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Thomas Butler Cutts and
Francis William Brooksbank at the Office of the Commissioners of
Patents, with their Petition, on the 2nd November 1867.
We, THOMAS BUTLER CUTTS, of Wilford, in the County of Nottingham,
Lace Manufacturer, and FRANCIS WILLIAM BROOKSBANK, of the Town of
Nottingham, Draughtsman, do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention.
for "IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MANUFACTURE OF LACE IN TWIST LACE MACHINES,"
to be as follows:-
This Invention has for its object improvements in the manufacture of lace
in twist lace machines. In order more nearly to imitate certain descriptions
of hand-made lace, such as Valenciennes, in which there are bands or spots of

page_text: tabby weaving it is required that the wefting threads of the weaving should
make complete twists round each other at the edges of the weavings. Now
where the wefting has consisted of bobbin threads only (which in such cases
is the most advantageous way of forming the weavings) this has never yet
been accomplished.
According to our Invention we produce the desired twisting of the bobbin
wefting threads at the edges of the weavings by lapping the warp threads
which form the longitudinal threads of the weaving around the bobbin wefting
threads not only so as to lay the said bobbin threads over and under them
alternately in the usual manner, but also so that the said longitudinal warp
threads of the weaving as they.straighten in the work drag one of the wefting
bobbin threads around another, and so produce the twist required.
According to another part of our Invention we produce the loops known as
purls at the edges of the lace by causing a lacing warp thread to pass across
a lacing bobbin thread and around two (or it might be other number of)
bobbin threads which are to form the purl, then to catch on to the bobbin
lacing thread and to return around the purl bobbin threads in the opposite
direction. Also we arrange warp threads to pull upon the lacing bobbin thread
so as to cause it to pass from the nose of the purl to its root. The result of
these operations is that a purl is obtained which is curled or turned over on
itself like the purl of real lace, and it is firmly fixed in position until the lace
is dressed and drawn by the crossing of the lacing warp and lacing bobbin
through the purl loop. In place of using a single lacing warp thread to cross
with the bobbin lacing thread in the loop of the purl a better purl loop is
produced if more than one warp lacing thread is used.
We usually
employ three such threads; they are arranged in separate warp bars, but in
producing the fabric they may work as one thread. Near the angle of a
scollop, however, it is desirable not to use all these threads in producing and
fixing the purl, as in this way the purl may be made shorter than it otherwise
would be, which is desirable. In order that the lacing bobbin thread may get
a firm hold of, the work behind the purl I catch it with another lacing warp
thread, which itself gets a firm hold of the work by fetching another lacing
bobbin thread around a bobbin thread forming part of the lace and not a purl
bobbin. When, as is usually the case, the purl bobbin threads are the wefting
threads of a weaving in the head of the lace the bobbin thread in the lace
which the lacing threads catch will be on the further side of this weaving.
It is not essential that this bobbin thread should be in the permanent work;
it may be in a pillar on the further side of the weaving, which is afterwards

page_text: removed. By thus causing the lacing threads to catch as it were on to the
main fabric of the lace on the further side of the weaving the purl is relieved,
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed.
by the said Thomas Butler Cutts and Francis William Brooksbank in the
Great Seal Patent Office on the 1st May 1868.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, we, THOMAS
BUTLER CUTTS, of Wilford, in the County of Nottingham, Lace Manufacturer;
and FRANCIS WILLIAM BROOKSBANK, of the Town of Nottingham, Draughtsman,
send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Second day of November, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and sixty-seven, in the thirty-first year of Her
reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto us, the
said Thomas Butler Cutts and Francis William Brooksbank, Her specia
licence that we, the said Thomas Butler Cutts and Francis William Brooks-
bank, our executors, administrators, and assigns, or such others as we, the
said Thomas Butler Cutts and Francis William Brooksbank, 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
Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, the Channel Islands, and Isle of Man,
an Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MANUFACTURE OF LACE IN TWIST LACE
MACHINES," upon the condition (amongst others) that we, the said Thomas
Butler Cutts and Francis William Brooksbank, 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 Butler Cutts and Francis William
Brooksbank, do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention, and in what
manner the same is to be performed, to be particularly described and ascertained
in and by the following statement thereof, that is to say :-
This Invention has for its object improvements in the manufacture of lace

page_text: in twist lace machines. In ord er more nearly to imitate certain descriptions
of hand made lace, such as. Valenciennes, in which there are bands.or spots of
tabby weaving, it is required that the wefting threads of the weaving should
make complete twists round each other at the edges of the weavings. Now,
where the wefting has consisted of bobbin threads only (which in such laces is
the most advantageous way of forming the weavings) this has never yet been
accomplished.
According to our Invention we produce the desired twisting of the bobbin
wefting threads at the edges of the weavings by lapping the warp threads,
which form the longitudinal threads of the weaving around the bobbin wefting
threads, not only so as to lay the said bobbin threads over and under them
alternately in the usual manner, but also so that the said longitudinal warp
threads of the weaving as they straighten in the work drag one of the wefting
bobbin threads around another and so produce the twist required.
.
The diagram 1 shews a portion of a lace fabric made in a twist lace
machine. The lines marked 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, and 8, represent warp threads,
and they form the longitudinal threads or warps of two bands of tabby
weaving, the threads 2, 3, and 4 being in one band, and the threads 5, 6, 7,
and 8 in the other band. The two black lines which are unnumbered
represent the threads of two adjacent bobbins which form the wefting threads
of the weavings. The lines numbered 1 and 9 represent warp threads, which
catch the wefting bobbins beyond the bands of weaving and form attachments
to other parts of the work. These threads in some cases will be draw threads,
or threads which are removed in finishing the lace. Other warp threads
belonging to the fabric may also in some cases twist with the wefting bobbins
to attach the weaving with the other parts of the work; or with a similar
object the longitudinal warp threads may in some cases stop weaving at
intervals and twist with other bobbin threads of the fabric; these methods of
attaching the weavings to the other parts of the lace are well understood by
lace manufacturers, and no change is made by our Invention in respect
thereto.
.
The diagram 1* represents the way in which in order to produce the work
shown in diagram 1 the warp threads are moved their bars and carried
from side to side of the bobbin threads as these swing to and fro in the
machine in parallel planes. The numbers marked on the warp threads
indicate the position of the corresponding warp bars in the machine, numbering
from back to front, as is usual. In this diagram one line in several instances
represents two separate threads, as the numbers indicate. The warp threads

page_text: it will be understood are weighted, or have such a degree of tension applied to
them as to cause them as the work rises above the points of the machine to
overpower the bobbin threads and pull themselves straight, and in doing so in
consequence of the way in which they have been interwoven with the bobbin
threads they not only lay the bobbin thread under and over them as heretofore,
but they also pull one bobbin thread around another so as to twist them at
each edge of each of the weavings. The number of longitudinal threads in the
weaving may be varied, as the manufacturer will readily understand; thus
diagram 2 represents but two longitudinal threads in each weaving, and the
way in which the threads are twisted on the outer sides of the weavings is
also somewhat varied; in this and in the following Figures the black threads
are bobbin threads as before, and the warp threads are numbered according
to the order of their bars in the machines; in other respects also the
description already given is applicable; the diagram 2ª represents the way in
which the warp threads cross the bobbin threads to produce the work..
represented by the diagram 2.
In diagram 3 a greater amount of twist is given to the wefting bobbins at
the edges of the weavings; and diagram 3ª represents the manner in which
this result is obtained.
Diagrams 4 and 4ª illustrate a method of producing the fabric in which
some only of the longitudinal threads of the weaving, namely, the threads 2
and 3 are employed in twisting the bobbin weft threads, whilst others of the
longitudinal threads, namely, the threads 4 and 5, work in the ordinary
manner, simply getting the bobbin weft threads over and under them
alternately. In this case a portion of the twist is applied to the bobbin weft
threads by the warp thread 6, which forms no part of the weaving, but the
putting twist on to bobbin weft threads by such a warp thread is not in itself
new.
:
Diagram 5 shows a design in which there is but one weaving in place of
two parallel weavings as in the other examples, the twist at the edges of the
weaving being applied by means of the longitudinal warp threads of the weaving..
We claim as respects this part of our Invention in producing weavings in
twist lace machines the lapping the warp threads which are the longitudinal
threads of the weaving around the bobbin threads which form the.. wefting
threads of the weaving, so as not only to lay the said bobbin threads over and
under them alternately, but also so that the said longitudinal warp threads
of the weaving as they straighten in the work drag one of the wefting bobbin
threads around another and so produce the twist required.

page_text: According to another part of our Invention we produce the loops known as
purls at the edges of the lace by causing a lacing warp thread to pass across
a lacing bobbin thread and around two (or it might be other number) of
bobbin threads which are to form the purl; then to catch on to the bobbin
lacing thread and to return around the purl bobbin threads in the opposite
direction. Also we arrange warp threads to pull upon the lacing bobbin
thread so as to cause it to pass from the nose of the purl to its root. The
result of these operations is that a purl is obtained which is curled or turned
over on itself like the purl of real lace, and it is firmly fixed in position until the
lace is dressed and drawn by the crossing of the lacing warp and lacing bobbin
through the purl loop.
The diagram 6 shows purls which are produced and fixed in position in
the manner above described. The numbered lines 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, and 7
represent warp threads, the numbers (both in this and the diagrams herein-
after described) also indicating the relative positions of the warp bars of the
said threads in the machine. The black unnumbered threads represent bobbin
threads.
A, A, (in this and the following diagrams) are the purl bobbin threads;
B is the lacing bobbin. thread which assists in producing and retaining the
purl loop, and which crosses with the lacing warp thread C in the loop of the
purl; it is drawn into the zig-zag position in which it is represented by
the warp threads D and E; these are the more important threads of the
diagram, the others are auxiliary. The warp thread 1 with its bobbin
thread here produces the back edge F of the next breadth of lace. The warp
thread G represents the first permanent warp in the breadth of lace; usually
it will be one of the longitudinal threads of a tabby weaving. The warp
thread 6 and its bobbin thread and also the warp thread 7 are herein-after
again referred to; they serve to give support to the warp by which the lacing
bobbin B is drawn into its zig-zag position.
The diagram 6 represents the way in which in order to produce the work
shown in diagram 6 the warp threads are moved by their bars and carried
from side to side of the bobbin threads as these swing to and fro between
them. As the work rises above the points of the machine it forms itself as
the diagram 6 represents, the relative tension of the threads being adjusted to
enable it to do so by the ordinary mechanism, and as the lace manufacturer
will understand.
As the diagram 6 represents the mechanism for producing and fixing the
purl loops in its simplest form we have described it before referring to the

page_text: more complicated mechanism for the same purpose, which is shown at
diagram 7; the latter, however, is that which we practically prefer. Here
in order to produce a better, more open, and easier purl loop in place of using
a single lacing warp thread to cross with the bobbin lacing thread in the loop
of the purl a greater number of warp lacing threads are so employed; they
are marked H, H, and an auxiliary bobbin lacing thread is also introduced ;
it is marked I. In other respects this arrangement is similar to that shown
in diagram 6.
The diagram 7a shows the manner in which the warp threads work in the
machine to produce the result indicated by the diagram 7. The diagram 8
resembles the diagram 6, except that the purl is turned in the contrary
direction. The diagram 8* indicates the method of working to produce this
result. The diagrams 9 and 9ª show that a warp thread or threads may be
associated with a bobbin thread or threads in producing the purl loop. The
method in which the purl loop of the bobbin thread is produced is the same
as in diagrams 8 and 8, and the diagram 9ª clearly shows the way in which
the warp thread K works in the machine so as to accompany the pearl bobbin
thread A and form with it the purl loop. The method of working this purl
warp thread, however, forms. no part of our Invention, which is concerned
only in the producing, forming, and fixing of the purl loop of the bobbin
thread A. In the several diagrams 6, 7, 8, and 9 it will be observed that in
order that the zig-zag lacing bobbin thread B may get a firm hold of the work
behind the purl it is caught with another lacing warp thread E which itself
gets a firm hold of a pillar L on the other side of the band of tabby weaving,
of which in the several diagrams one only of the longitudinal threads is shown
and marked G. The pillar L forms no part of the finished work, being removed
after the lace is dressed. It is supported at intervals by a warp thread M,
which may conveniently in most cases pass from this pillar to the points at
which the zig-zag lacing bobbin thread B is connected with the back edge F
of the next breadth of lace.
We claim as respects this part of our Invention the-producing-purl loops
by means of a lacing warp thread which is caused to pass across a lacing
bobbin thread and around the bobbin thread or threads to form the purl;
then to catch on to the bobbin lacing thread and to return round the purl
bobbin thread or threads in the opposite direction, the said bobbin lacing
thread being also caught by warp threads which pull upon it so as to
cause it to pass or stand in the direction from the nose of the purl to its
root

page_text: We also claim the employing two or more lacing warp threads to cross with
a lacing bobbin thread or threads in the nose of the purl loop, as above
described.
In witness whereof, we, the said Thomas Butler Cutts, Francis William
Brooksbank, have hereunto set our hands and seals, this Twenty-fifth
day of April, in the year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and
sixty-eight.
THOMAS BUTLER CUTTS. (L.S.)
F. W. BROOKSBANK.
(L.S.)