IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MANUFACTURE OF LACE CURTAINS, AND TOILET AND OTHER COVERS."
Year: 1880

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Robert Frederick Carey, of the Town of Nottingham,
in the County of the same Town, Lace Manufacturer, for an Invention of
"IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MANUFACTURE OF LACE CURTAINS, AND TOILET AND
OTHER COVERS."
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Robert Frederick Carey at
the Office of the Commissioners of Patents on the 4th February 1880.
ROBERT FREDERICK CAREY, of the Town of Nottingham, in the County of the
same Town, Lace Manufacturer. "IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MANUFACTURE OF LACE
CURTAINS, AND TOILET AND OTHER COVERS."
The chief object of this Invention is to enhance the beauty of lace curtains by
introducing color into the manufacture. For this purpose, when producing the
fabric in the lace machine, I divide up the surface by bands of plain work, which
constitutes a surface of close texture, like the close work introduced into lace
ornamentation. These bands will run either longitudinally or breadthwise of the
fabric, and in general they will form a broad border round the edges of the curtain.
This plain work provides a suitable surface for the imprinting thereon of orna-
mental devices of various kinds. The fabric I propose to mordant in the ordinary
way, and to impart the ornamental design by means of blocks, engraved rollers,
or equivalent means, preferring to assimilate the process as near as possible to that
of calico printing. I am thus enabled to obtain coloured' ornamental bands or
stripes, and a border having somewhat the appearance of embroidery in colours
upon a fabric which has hitherto been of an uniform color, and which required for
its enrichment a coloured lining.
In the same manner I propose to manufacture toilet covers and coverlets for
berceaunettes, cots, and indeed for covers generally, which are required more for
ornament than for use.

page_text: SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent filed by
the said Robert Frederick Carey in the Great Seal Patent Office on the 27th
July 1880.
ROBERT FREDERICK CAREY, of the Town of Nottingham, in the County of the
same Town, Lace Manufacturer. "IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MANUFACTURE OF LACE
CURTAINS, AND TOILET AND OTHER COVERS."
The chief object of this Invention is to enhance the beauty of lace curtains by
introducing color into the manufacture. For this purpose, when producing the
fabric in the lace machine, I divide up the surface by strips or bands of plain work,
which constitutes a surface of close texture, like the close work introduced into
lace ornamentation. These bands or strips will run either longitudinally or
breadth wise of the fabric, and in general they will form a broad border near the
front and bottom edges of the curtain. This plain work provides a suitable surface
for the imprinting thereon of ornamental devices of various kinds.
The machine I employ for the production of these goods is the jacquard curtain
machine, in which the close texture is obtained by traversing each alternate thread
of the selected warp threads first to the right and then to the left, and securing
them at each reverse movement by the bobbin threads. In some cases I break up
the lines of this solid work by forming therein rectangular openings, say, one
eighth of an inch square, and these I arrange as checkers, whereby I produce an
effect not unlike embroidery when the colored pattern is applied to the band or
strip. The lace fabric when removed from the machine is bleached, sized, and
dried at tension after the usual manner of finishing lace curtains, and it is then
ready for treatment by the printer.
His first operation is to shrink the fabric, which is done by submitting it for
about half an hour to a bath of steam at a temperature of, say, 212° to 214° degrees
Fahrenheit. The fabric is loosely piled in the chamber so as to allow the steam to
permeate through it and act upon every part. When shrunk it is ready to receivo
the impress of the printing surfaces.
To produce a pattern in several colors a series of printing blocks is provided,
each block of the set being used to impart a particular color to the fabric, and the
whole series making up the complement of the pattern. The manner of working
with these blocks so as to produce a perfect register of the pattern being well
known will require no detailed notice in this place. The colors employed are
mixed with a thickening medium (such as starch or dextrine), which is soluble in
water to allow of their being used like printing inks. The printing blocks are
supplied with color from pads, on which the color has been spread by "teering
brushes," and when the complete pattern has been impressed on the close textured
portions of the fabric by the series of blocks, which are the complement the one of
the other, the fabric is hung up in a steam chamber for some two hours, where it
is submitted to the action of free steam at a temperature of 212° to 215° degrees
Fahrenheit to fix the colors. The next operation is to wash the printed fabric for
the purpose of removing the soluble thickening medium therefrom. When this is
done the printed fabric is passed through a soap bath for the purpose of brightening
the colors, and after rinsing to remove the soap therefrom the fabric is dried and
finished in the usual manner for the market.
By the above described process of manufacture I am enabled to obtain colored
ornamental bands, stripes, or borders, having somewhat the appearance of colored
embroidery, upon a fabric which hitherto required for its enrichment a colored lining
when harmony with adjacent colors was desired.
My Invention also applies to the manufacture of toilet covers and coverlets for
berceaunettes, cots, and indeed for covers generally, which are required more for
ornament than for use.

page_text: These fabrics will be produced like the curtain in the jacquard curtain machine,
and treated in precisely the same manner as has been described for ornamenting
lace curtains.
Having now set forth the nature of my Invention of "Improvements in the
Manufacture of Lace Curtains and Toilet and other Covers," and explained the
manner of carrying the same into effect, I wish it to be understood that I am
aware that attempts have been made to apply color to devices on lace fabrics in
imitation of embroidery in colors; I do not therefore claim generally the treatment
of lace fabrics with color, but what I claim under the above in part recited Letters
Patent is,―
Manufacturing lace fabrics with continuous or broken bands or strips of close
texture, and the application thereto of colored devices by printing, in the manner
and for the purpose above described.
.
In witness whereof, I, the said Robert Frederick Carey, have hereunto set
my hand and seal, the Twenty third day of July, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and eighty.
ROBERT F. CAREY.
(LS.)