A NEW AND IMPROVED WOVEN FABRIC, AND ALSO CERTAIN IMPROVEMENTS IN MACHINERY FOR PRODUCING THE SAME
Year: 1846

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, JOHN
HEALEY, of Bolton, in the County of Lancaster, Machine Maker, send
greeting.
WHEREAS Her present most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Letters Patent under the Great Seal of Great Britain, bearing date at
Westminster, the Seventeenth day of November, in the tenth year of Her
reign, did, for Herself, Ier heirs and successors, give and grant unto me, the
said John Healey, Her especial licence, full power, sole privilege and authority,
that I, the said John Healey, my exors, adññors, and assigns, and such others
as I, the said John Healy, my exors, adñois, and assigns, should at any time
agree with, and no others, from time to time and at all times during the term
of years therein expressed, should and lawfully might make, use, exercise,
and vend, within England and Wales and the Town of Berwick-upon-Tweed,
my Invention of "A NEW AND IMPROVED WOVEN FABRIC, AND ALSO CERTAIN
IMPROVEMENTS IN MACHINERY FOR PRODUCING THE SAME;" in which said Letters
Patent is contained a proviso that I, the said John Healey, shall cause a
particular description of the nature of my Invention, and in what manner
the same is to be performed, to be inrolled in Her Majesty's High Court of
Chancery within six calendar months next and immediately after the date

page_text: of the said in part recited Letters Patent, as in and by the same, reference
being thereunto bad, will more fully and at large appear.
NOW KNOW YE, that in compliance with the said proviso, I, the said
John Healey, do hereby declare that the nature of my Invention of "A New
and Improved Woven Fabric, and also certain Improvements in Machinery for
Producing the Same," consists,-
Firstly, in the arrangement or placing of the cross thread (or weft which
passes from one selvage to the other in woven fabrics) in a diagonal position,
or at any angle more or less than a right angle as respects the warp threads,
so as to form a new and improved woven fabric, and, secondly, in certain
improvements in machinery for producing the same; and the manner in
which the same is to be performed and carried into effect is either by
mechanically removing the position of the cross threads or weft in certain
woven fabrics, after the weft has been placed at night angles to the warp in
the ordinary manner of weaving, or by weaving the cross threads or wefts in a
diagonal position, or at any angle more or less than a right angle as respects
the warp threads, which weaving may be effected by means of my certain
improvements in machinery for producing the same as herein-after described
and represented in the annexed Drawings. The scale to which such Drawings
are made is marked thereon, and the same letter of references indicate the
same part throughout the various Figures there represented.
The first method or manner of producing my new and improved woven
fabric, or that by which the weft threads are removed from a right angle,
and placed in a diagonal position, or at any angle more or less than a
right angle, as respects the warp threads, is applicable to many woven fabrics,
whether of plain or fancy manufacture, and is performed in the following
manner
Referring to the annexed Drawing, Figure 7, A, A, and B, B, represent the
two poles or parallel sides of either a patent or an ordinary stretching frame,
on which I place or fasten the selvages of the woven fabric to be operated
upon, the fabric being first wetted by starch water or other liquid, according
to the nature of the finish it is designed to produce. In placing the selvages
on the poles or parallel sides of the stretching frame, care must be taken not
to allow the cross thread or weft to pass direct across, as indicated by the line
a, b, but to place it in a diagonal line to the selvage, as indicated by the line
a, c. As soon as both selvages are fastened the stretching is commenced, and
the cross threads or weft are forced into the diagonal position required, at any
angle more or less than a right angle, as respects the warp threads, as repre-
sented at Fig. 6. This process necessarily narrows the cloth, and brings the

page_text: warp threads nearer to each other, in which state the piece is finished in the
ordinary manner.
The second method or means of producing my new and improved woven
fabric consists in weaving the fabric in a loom to which my certain improve-
ments in machinery for producing the same are applied, which improvements
I shall now proceed to describe, with reference to the annexed Drawing.
ments
Figure 1 of the annexed Drawing represents a side elevation, and Fig. 2 a
plan of a loom to which my certain improvements for producing my now and
improved woven fabric are applied, and Figs. 3 and 4 are detached parts
hereafter referred to. In Figures 1 and 2 some of the ordinary parts of the
loom are omitted, for the purpose of showing the application of my improve-
In those Figures, C represents the warp or yarn beam; D, the cloth
beam, on to which the woven fabric is wound; and E the lay or stay for
beating up the weft. On referring to the plan of the loom at Fig 2, it will
be seen that the breast beam F, the lay or stay E, and the beam G, over
which the waip passes from the yain beam C, are parallel to each other,
but diagonal to the side of the loom, which diagonal is necessarily im-
paited to the cross thread of weft as the weaving proceeds. Figure 3
is a plan, shewing the two small pullies g, g, on the under side of the
lay or stay, provided with squaring bands to keep it parallel with the
weft threads, and to keep the vibrations of the lay or slay parallel with
the warp threads, I apply a parallel motion, of which one is exhibited at II,
Fig. 2, but it is obvious that there are other parallel motions that might be
applied with equal effect. In power looms, neither the squaring band nor the
parallel motion would be required. Figure 4 is an end view of the lay or slay,
which is suspended by two perpendiculai 1ods at each end, the use of which is
to carry it evenly with the surface of the warp, and also to keep the reed
perpendiculai. Instead of these supporting rods, the lay or slay may be
supported by a shaft and swords from the bottoni of the loom; when it is to be
worked by power. The reed used in weaving this description of cloth must
have the dents or divisions set diagonal to the ribs, as seen in section at
Figure 8, so that the warp threads (to which such dents will then be parallel) may
pass freely through, as in ordinary weaving. I construct such reeds by twisting
or bending the top and bottom ends of the dents to one and the same angle,
which angle is the angle required in the dent of the need, as seen in Fig. 8
Another modification of diagonal weaving is represented at Fig. 5, where
the cross thread or weft forms two opposite diagonal lines, which is effected by
varying the form of the lay or slay, to correspond with the required direction of
the weft or cross thread.

page_text: From the above description of the two methods or means by which
the weft is placed in a diagonal position, or at any angle more or less
than a right angle, as respects the warp, it will be seen that the result
as respects the position of the weft is or may be the same. It is obvious that
woven fabrics of very great novelty of style and of pattern may be produced by
the application of this my said Invention, which, without it, would be unattain-
able; and it also results from the application of my Invention that the surface
of the woven fabrics produced by it has a superior appearance, inasmuch as
the warp and weft diverging from parallel lines the reflection or lustre from
the materials of the woven fabric is more uniform and combined.
Having now described the nature of my Invention of a new and improved
woven fabric, and also certain improvements in machinery for producing the
same, together with the manner in which the same is to be performed and
carried into effect, I do not claim as my Invention any of the ordinary or well
known parts of such machinery separately as herein-before described. But
what I do claim as my Invention is,—
First, a new and improved woven fabric, in which the weft is placed in a
diagonal position, or at any angle more or less than a right angle as respects
the warp, by whatever means the same may be produced, and,
Second, I claim my certain improvements in machinery for producing the
same, the characteristic of which consists in the peculiar construction of the
reed, and in the placing the breast beam and warp beam together with the
lay or slay parallel to the duection of the weft, either diagonal or at any angles
more or less than a right angle as respects the warp. And such my Invention
being to the best of my knowledge and belief new and never before practised,
I deliver this as my true and faithful Specification of the same.
In witness whereof, I, the said John Healey, have hereunto set my hand
and seal, this Fourteenth day of May, One thousand eight hundred
and forty-seven.
Signed, sealed, and delivered (being first
duly stamped), by the within-named
John Healey, in the presence of
Witness,
JOHN (L.s.) HEALEY.
W. R. JACKSON, of Bolton,
A Master Extraordinary in
Chancery.

page_text: AND BE IT REMEMBERED, that on the Fourteenth day of May, in the
year of our Loid 1847, the aforesaid John Healey came before our said Lady
the Queen in Her Chancery, and acknowledged the Specification aforesaid,
and all and every thing therein contained and specified, in form above written.
And also the Specification aforesaid was stamped according to the tenor of
the Statute made for that purpose.
Enrolled the Fifteenth day of May, in the year of our Lord One thousand
cht hundred and forty covon