IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MANTRACTURE OF WARD FABRICS
Year: 1862

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to John Biggs, Joseph Johnson, Thomas Richardson,
and Thomas Arnold, all of Leicester, for the Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS
IN THE MANTRACTURE OF WARD FABRICS"
Sealed the 13th March 1863, and dated the 4th December 1862.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said John Biggs, Joseph
Johnson, Thomas Richardson, and Thomas Arnold at the Office of the
Commissioners of Patents, with their Petition, on the 4th December
1862.
We, JOHN BIGGS, JOSEPH JOHNSON, THOMAS RICHARDSON, and THOMAS
ARNOLD, all of Leicester, do hereby declare the nature of the Invention for
"IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MANUFACTURE OF WARP FABRICS," to be as follows:-
This Invention has for its object improvements in the manufacture of warp
fabrics, and consists in a mode of manufacturing elastic, or .looped, corded, or
ribbed fabrics in warp machines. For this purpose we combine two well-
known systems of looping of the warp threads on the needles of warp
machines. Thus in making the parallel, corded, ribbed, or more prominent

page_text: parts of a fabric, we employ what is known as the "double lap," and according
as we require to make wider or narrower cords or ribs, we produce in
succession a greater or less number of courses of double lap, and then,
according as we wish to have a wider or narrower space between the
succeeding cords or ribs, we produce in succession a larger or smaller number
of courses of "single lap." Thus there are to be alternately produced several
courses of double lap (to obtain the desired width of cord or rib across the
machine), and then two or more courses of single lap between the cords, and
this in regular succession till the desired length of fabric has been made.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said John Biggs, Joseph Johnson, Thomas Richardson, and
Thomas Arnold in the Great Seal Patent Office on the 4th June 1863.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, we, JOHN
BIGGS, JOSEPH JOHNSON, THOMAS RICHARDSON, and THOMAS ARNOLD, all of
Leicester, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Fourth day of December, in the year of our
Lord One thousand eight hundred and sixty-two, in the twenty-sixth year of
Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto
us, the said John Biggs, Joseph Johnson, Thomas Richardson, and Thomas
Arnold, Her special licence that we, the said John Biggs, Joseph Johnson,
Thomas Richardson, and Thomas Arnold, our executors, administrators, and
assigns, or such others as we, the said John Biggs, Joseph Johnson, Thomas
Richardson, and Thomas Arnold, 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 "IM-
PROVEMENTS IN THE MANUFACTURE OF WARP FABRICS," upon the condition
(amongst others) that we, the said John Biggs, Joseph Johnson, Thomas
Richardson, and Thomas Arnold, 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

page_text: within six calendar months next and immediately after the date of the said
Letters Patent.
NOW KNOW YE, that we, the said John Biggs, Joseph Johnson, Thomas
Richardson, and Thomas Arnold, 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 warp
fabrics, and consists in a mode of manufacturing elastic, or looped, corded, or
ribbed fabrics in warp machines. For this purpose we combine two well-known
systems of looping of the warp threads on the needles of warp machines. Thus
in making the parallel, corded, ribbed, or more prominent parts of a fabric,
we employ what is known as the "double lap," and according as we require
to make wider or narrower cords or ribs, we produce in succession a greater
or less number of courses of double lap, and then according as we wish to
have a wider or narrower space between the succeeding cords or ribs, we
produce in succession a larger or smaller number of courses of "single lap."
Thus there are to be alternately produced several courses of double lap (to
obtain the desired width of cord or rib across the machine), and then two or
more courses of single lap between the cords, and thus in regular succession
till the desired length of fabric has been made..
It will be evident from the above statement of the nature of our said
Invention, that if the cords or ribs are to be made wide, as compared with the
spaces or channels between them, then the number of courses made in suc-
cession of the double lap fabric to produce a rib or cord will be greater than
the number of courses made in succession of the single lap fabric; thus
supposing it is desired to make a fabric according to our Invention in a warp
machine, the ribs or cords may consist of six courses of double lap fabric,
succeeded by a space or channel consisting of two courses of single lap fabric,
then again six courses of double lap fabric, and so on, producing a corded or
ribbed warp fabric wherein the ribs or cords are of a uniform character,
consisting of six courses of double lap fabric divided by spaces or channels of
uniform width of two courses of single lap fabric. Or the cords or ribs may
each be composed of more or less than six courses of double lap fabric, whilst
the spaces or channels between the ribs or cords may also be varied in the
number of courses of the single lap fabric used to produce them.
It is not,
however, essential that the sizes or widths of the cords or ribs of a fabric
should all be the same, on the contrary, the width of the ribs or cords of a

page_text: fabric may be varied by varying the number of courses of which the several
ribs or cords are composed, and such is also the case in respect to the channels
or spaces between the ribs or cords of a fabric.
In witness whereof, we, the said John Biggs, Joseph Johnson, Thomas
Richardson, and Thomas Arnold, have hereunto set our hands and 5
seals, this Twenty-eighth day of May, in the year of our Lord One
thousand eight hundred and sixty-three.
Witness,
SAMUEL STONE,
Solicitor, Leicester.
JOHN BIGGS.
(L.S.)
JOSEPH JOHNSON.
(L.S.)
THOMAS RICHARDSON. (L.S.)
THOMAS ARNOLD.
(L.S.)