CERTAIN IMPROVEMENTS IN LOOMS FOR WEAVING VELVETS AND OTHER PILED GOODS, AND IN THE MACHINERY OR APPARATUS FOR CUTTING THE PILE OR NAP OF THE SAME
Year: 1846

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, ROBERT
WILSON, of Woodhouses, in the County of Lancaster, Weaver, send
greeting.
WHEREAS Her present most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Letters Patent under the Great Seal of Great Britain, bearing date at West-
minster, the Eighth day of October, in the tenth year of Her reign, and in the
year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and forty-six, did, for Herself,
Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto me, the said Robert Wilson,
Her especial license, full power, sole privilege and authority, that I, the said
Robert Wilson, my executors, administrators, and assigns, and such others as
I, the said Robert Wilson, my executors, administrators, or 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 make, use,
exercise, and vend, within England and Wales and the Town of Berwick-
upon-Tweed, my Invention of "CERTAIN IMPROVEMENTS IN LOOMS FOR WEAVING
VELVETS AND OTHER PILED GOODS, AND IN THE MACHINERY OR APPARATUS FOR
CUTTING THE PILE OR NAP OF THE SAME;" in which said Letters Patent is con-
tained a proviso that I, the said Robert Wilson, shall cause a particular
description of the nature of my said 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 of the said
in part recited Letters Patent, as in and by the same, reference being there-
unto had, will more fully and at large appear.

page_text: NOW KNOW YE, that in compliance with the said proviso, I, the said
Robert Wilson, do hereby declare that the nature of my said Invention, and
the manner in which the same is to be performed, is particularly described and
ascertained in and by the following explanation thereof (that is to say):-
My improvements in looms for weaving velvets and other piled goods apply
particularly to the manufacture of plush or long-napped velvets, such as are
used for covering hat bodies, and commonly called "hat plush," and consist in
providing the loom with a double set of healds or harness with corresponding
treadles and jacks, a double set of ground or back-warp threads, and a
double set of pile or nap-warp threads. The healds or harness must be so
trodden or wrought that the weft shall form with these threads two separate
pieces of cloth at one operation of the weaver, each cloth, when cut, having
a separate and distinct pile or nap, the pile or nap of each cloth being com-
posed of every alternate thread of the warp, that upon the second or lower
piece of cloth interweaving with and forming loops upon the surface of the
upper cloth, which will be readily understood by the practical weaver; these
pile loops being cut during the operation of weaving as usual, and the double
edges' or selvages of the cloth formed by the weft thread being also severed, the
two-pieces of cloth may be separated from each other, the pile or nap of the
lower piece being drawn through the ground or back of the upper piece. Thus
two pieces of piled cloth or fabric are woven in the same loom and compleated
at one operation. Of course it will be evident that three or even more pieces
of velvet or other piled goods may be woven in the same manner at one
operation, by introducing three or more sets of healds or harness, with their
corresponding jacks and treadles, and three or more sets of pile and back
warps or threads into the loom; but this would greatly deteriorate from the
quality of the cloth by the want of closeness or density of the pile or nap.
My improvements in the machinery or apparatus for cutting the pile or nap of
such goods or fabrics consist in furnishing the cutting knife or "travat" with
two or more blades, so as to enable the weaver to cut two or more rows of
loops of pile threads at once, thus not only effecting a saving of time, but also,
as the blades are always placed in a frame or handle parallel to each other,
enables the weaver to cut the pile or nap of the fabric with more regularity
and precision than when a single cutting knife or "travat" is employed for
that
purpose.
In witness whereof, I, the said Robert Wilson, have hereunto set my
hand and seal, this Third day of April, One thousand eight hundred

page_text: AND BE IT REMEMBERED, that on the same Third day of April, in
the year above mentioned, the aforesaid Robert Wilson came before our Lady
the Queen in Her Chancery, and acknowledged the Specification aforesaid,
and all and every thing therein contained in form above written. And also
the Specification aforesaid was stamped according to the tenor of the Statute
in that case made and provided.