IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MANUFACTURE OF FELT CARPETS
Year: 1886

page_text: Date of Application, 13th Mar., 1886.
Complete Left, 11th Dec., 1886.
Complete Accepted, 11th Jan., 1887.
We WILLIAM MITCHELL and ROBERT JOHN CHADWICK MITCHELL both of Albert
Works Waterfoot near Manchester in the County of Lancaster Felt Carpet Manu-
facturers do hereby declare the nature of our invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN THE
MANUFACTURE OF FELT CARPETS" to be as follows:-
The object of this invention is to produce a carpet which shall combine the economy
and durability of a felted wool carpet with the stability and firmness of a woven fabric.
This combination of felted and woven fabrics is chiefly designed to prevent the
stretching and shrinking which have hitherto been the great defects of the ordinary
printed felt carpets, and so far as we are aware no combination of felted and woven
fabrics has up to the present time proved a practical success.
In the year 1872 one of the present applicants (William Mitchell) obtained Letters
Patent (No. 1363) for combining and incorporating into one fabric felt and woven
fabrics, and again in 1883 (No. 4081) and in 1884 (No. 12858) the said William
Mitchell applied for further Letters Patent for same purpose.
The inventions protected by these patents did not however succeed in preventing
the stretching and shrinking of the fabric and were practically little or no improvement
upon the ordinary manufacture of felt carpets.
The reason of this failure was that the woven fabric was both in the warp and weft,
composed of jute or other inexpensive vegetable yarns.
When therefore the combined fabric was subjected to the process of milling, it was
found that the jute yarns contracted, in both length and width in proportion as the
wool « batt" was milled up. The consequence was that the threads of warp length-
wise, and the threads of weft widthwise, formed themselves into loops on the back of
the piece.
It is obvious therefore that as the threads of the woven fabric both warp and weft
were merely shortened, by being into a series of loops the stability and strength
of the woven fabric were entirely sacrificed, and in fact it was found that as the warp
threads were not extended the piece could be stretched until the warp had been pulled
out to its original length and the loops had disappeared; but such stretching greatly
damaged the piece and destroyed to a large extent its wearing power. In order to
surmount this difficulty according to our present invention we now adopt the following
plan.

page_text: We use a woven fabric composed of exceptionally thick or strong threads of jute
(or other) warp (so thick or strong that the tendency to form into loops during the
milling process is entirely obviated) woven with a weft of woollen yarn, and we
combine this compound woven fabric with a "batt" of wool, by the usual process of
felting, hardening and milling, but in contra-distinction to milling in the direction of
both the length and the width of the piece as heretofore we now mill the combined
fabric solely in the direction of its width.
For this reason we make our woven fabric much wider than the fabric is required
to be when finished so that all the milling can be obtained widthwise.
By thus avoiding milling in the direction of the length, the warp threads are not
contracted or thrown up into loops as heretofore by the milling and any possibility of
subsequently stretching the piece lengthwise is therefore prevented by the thick strong
threads of the jute warp which being fully distended hold the piece firmly from end
to end.
What also tends to preserve the warp threads unshortened and free from loops is the
direct and immediate tendency which we give to the milling in the width only by the
employment of woollen weft:
The woollen weft naturally unites with the felted wool "batt" and the contraction
of the woollen weft which immediately sets in naturally gives a tendency to milling in
width. This tendency is all the more strongly pronounced because the warp threads
being composed of vegetable fibres do not possess the milling property.
The employment of woollen weft therefore prevents the formation of loops on the
back as heretofore experienced.
It unites thoroughly with the wool "batt" in the process of milling and becomes
absolutely incorporated with it so that the combined fabric thus produced is essentially
one and indivisible.
The weft becomes so perfectly united with the wool "batt" that it is scarcely visible
in the finished carpet and an important novel feature in our improved carpet is that
the back of the carpet presents nothing but thick ribs of warp intermingled with felted
wool giving the appearance of the ribbed back of some of the heavy and expensive class
⚫of carpets.
GEORGE DAVIES,
4, St. Anne's Square, Manchester,
Agent for the Applicants.

page_text: We WILLIAM MITCHELL and ROBERT JOHN CHADWICK MITCHELL both of Albert
Works Waterfoot near Manchester in the county of Lancaster Felt Carpet Manu-
facturers 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 a carpet which shall combine the economy
and durability of a felted wool carpet with the stability and firmness of a woven fabric.
This combination of a felted and woven fabric is chiefly designed to prevent the
stretching and shrinking which have hitherto been the great defects of the ordinary
printed felt carpets and so far as we are aware no combination of felted and woven
fabrics has up to the present time proved a practical success.
In the year 1872 one of the present applicants (William Mitchell) obtained Letters
Patent (No. 1363) for combining and incorporating into one fabric felt and woven
fabrics, and again in 1883 (No. 4081) and in 1884 (No. 12858) the said William
Mitchell applied for further Letters Patent for the same purpose.
The inventions protected by these patents did not, however, succeed in preventing
the stretching and shrinking of the fabric, and were practically little or no improve
ment upon the ordinary manufacture of folt carpets. The reason of this failure was
that the woven fabric was both in the warp and weft, composed of jute or other
inexpensive vegetable yarns.
When therefore the combined fabric was subjected to the process of milling it was
found that the jute yarns contracted in both length and width in proportion as the
wool batt" was milled up. The consequence was that the threads of warp length-
wise, and the threads of weft widthwise, formed themselves into loops on the back of
the piece.
It is obvious therefore that as the threads of the woven fabric both warp and weft
were merely shortened by being formed into a series of loops the stability and strength
of the woven fabric were entirely sacrificed, and in fact it was found that as the warp
threads were not extended the piece could be stretched until the warp had been pulled
out to its original length and the loops had disappeared: but such stretching greatly
damaged the piece and destroyed to a large extent its wearing power.
In order to surmount this difficulty according to our present invention we now
adopt the following plan.
We use a woven fabric composed of exceptionally thick or strong threads of jute or
other warp (so thick or strong that the tendency to form into loops during the milling
process is entirely obviated) and of a weft of woollen yarn, and we compound woven
fabric with
"batt
a
of wool, by the usual process of hardening, and milling, but in
contradistinction to milling in the direction of both the length and the width of the
piece as heretofore, we now mill the combined fabric solely in the direction of its
width.
For this reason we make our woven fabric much wider than the fabric is required to
be when finished so that all the milling can be obtained widthwise.

page_text: By thus avoiding milling in the direction of the length, the warp threads are not
contracted or thrown up into loops as heretofore by the inilling, and any possibility of
subsequently stretching the piece lengthwise is therefore prevented by the thick strong
threads of the jute warp which being fully distended hold the piece firmly from end
to end.
What also tends to preserve the warp threads unshortened and free from loops is
the direct and immediate tendency which we give to the milling in the width only by
the employment of woollen weft.
The woollen weft naturally unites with the felted wool "batt" and the contraction
of the woollen weft which immediately sets in, naturally gives a tendency to milling
in width. This tendency is all the more strongly pronounced because the warp threads
being composed of vegetable fibres do not possess any milling property.
The employment of woollen weft therefore tends to prevent the formation of loops
on the back as heretofore experienced.
It unites thoroughly with the wool "batt" in the process of milling and becomes
absolutely incorporated with it so that the combined fabric thus produced is essentially
one and indivisible.
The weft becomes so perfectly united with the wool "batt" that it is scarcely visible
in the finished carpet, and, an important novel feature in our improved carpet is that
the back of the carpet presents nothing but thick ribs of warp intermingled with felted
wool giving the appearance of the ribbed back of some of the heavy and expensive
class of carpets.
Having now particularly described and ascertained the nature of our said invention
and in what manner the same is to be performed we declare that what we claim is :-
ડી
First. The manufacture of felt carpets by the combination of a woven fabric (com-
posed of thick or strong jute or other vegetable warp and a woollen weft) with a batt
of wool, such combination being produced by the hardening or felting process and by
subsequently milling the same in the direction of the width of the fabric only, whereby
the contraction of the jute or other warp into loops is prevented and the subsequent
stretching of the fabric lengthwise is obviated, and
Secondly we claim as a new manufacture, a combined woven and felted carpet
manufactured substantially as herein before described, the distinctive feature of which
is that the back of the same presents thick longitudinal ribs of warp incorporated with
the felted wool.
GEORGE DAVIES,
4, St. Ann's Square, Manchester,
Agent for the Applicants.