CERTAIN IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MANUFACTURE OF CARPETS
Year: 1827

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, THOMAS
CLARKE, of Market Harborough, in the County of Leicester, Carpet and
Worsted Manufacturer, send greeting.
WHEREAS His present most Excellent Majesty King George the Fourth,
by His Letters Patent under the Great Seal of Great Britain, bearing date at
Westminster, the Twenty-sixth day of May, in the eighth year of His reign,
did, for Himself, His heirs and successors, give and grant unto me, the
said Thomas Clarke, His especial licence, that I, the said Thomas Clarke,
my exors, adññiors, and assigns, or such others as I, the said Thomas Clarke,
my exors, adiiors, 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 might make, usc, exercise, and vend, within England,
Wales, and the Town of Berwick-upon-Tweed, my Invention of " CERTAIN
IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MANUFACTURE OF CARPETS;" in which said Letters Patent
is contained a proviso, obliging me, the said Thomas Clarke, by an instrument
in writing under my hand and seal, particularly to describe and ascertain the
nature of my said Invention, and in what manner the same is to be per-
formed, and to cause the same to be inrolled in His Majesty's High Court of
Chancery within four calendar months next and immediately after the date of
the said in part recited Letters Patent, as in and by the same, reference being
thereunto had, will more fully and at large appear.
NOW KNOW YE, that in compliance with the said proviso, I, the said
Thomas Clarke, do hereby declare that the nature of my said Invention

page_text: and improvements in the manufacture of carpets, and the manner in which
the same are to be used, produced, and carried into effect, are herein-after
particularly described, ascertained, and set forth (that is to say):
My Invention and improvements apply to that particular kind of carpet
known or distinguished by the name of figured Venetian carpet, in which
I produce a much improved article, not only as to appearance but as to
texture and mode of manufacture, since I not only throw a much greater
number of warp yarns into my looms, but I produce much larger and more
extensive figures or patterns and borders in my work than have ever been
before produced, the whole being of a much finer texture and quality. Such
improved manufacture of figured Venetian carpets, however, require apparatus
or machinery for their production which is new and different from that which
is usually used and applied; and the objects which I therefore consider to be
included in my Invention, to which I claim all exclusive right, benefit, and
advantage, for myself, my heirs, exors, representatives, or assigns, under my
herein-before in part recited Letters Patent, are not only the improved manu-
facture of figured Venetian carpets which I do produce, but the improvements
in the machinery, and the mode of working the same for the purpose of
weaving or producing such new and improved carpets. In the usual and
accustomed method of weaving figured Venetian carpets with the ordinary
carpet looms, it has been found impracticable to introduce a closer scale than
from about forty-six to forty-seven threads in the inch, or to use more than about
one thousand one hundred and ten harness bands with a mail and lingo to
each for four-quarter Venetian carpets, but by my improved machinery and
mode of working, I introduce upwards of fifty-six threads to the inch, and use
one thousand three hundred and sixty-four harness bands or more for the
same width of carpet, which increased number of harness bands I claim to be
new, either for working the figure harness, which is always one half of the
whole quantity, every such figure mail having two threads of twofold worsted
drawn through them (which is the common practice), or, if the said figure
mails should have but one thread of thicker spun twofold worsted in them, so
as to attempt to cover the shute with one thread instead of two in each mail.
The point of improvement therefore which regards the texture of my said
new and improved figured Venetian carpet is, that I produce it upon a finer
scale of mounture, either with two or one threads in each figure mail, but
with a greater number of threads of twofold, worsted in the same space, when
the figure harness is drawn through with two threads in each mail, as aforesaid,
made to tye or form a lease at every two shoots, and which improved figured
Venetian carpet I make with or without a back interwoven to the same, and

page_text: made of linen, worsted, or other yarns, in addition to the above increased scale
of mounture, but which must be worked or woven into the said carpet by a
geer harness, with a treddle or treddles, in the usual and accustomed manner,
which being known to the trade I do not here describe further than to notice
that the introduction of such back is unconnected with and independent of my
machinery and process, to be herein-after described, for working or weaving
my said improved carpets, but may be used with the same. And the point of
improvement in my said carpets as regards figure or pattern is, that I am
enabled to produce such figures or patterns much wider and longer, or to any
length in the shoot or lashway of the pattern, with or without any of the said
pattern repeating in the width, so that the patterns or flowers are made much
larger and may extend quite across a four-quarter carpet, or a still wider
carpet if necessary, which enlarged patterns have never before been accom-
plished, on account of the great friction and weight of the lingos that would
be necessary, as well as the accuracy of the machinery to work the the charge
of the flower and tyc, if an ordinary carpet loom should be attempted to be
so harnessed and prepared.
For the same reasons I also claim an exclusive right in the manufacture of
Venetian carpet of three quarters, or less widths, upon the same increased
scale of mounture, and also with figured borders and with plain beaded
striped or figured middles, exceeding eighteen inches wide, upon the aforesaid
increased scale of mounture, which, to the best of my knowledge and belief,
have never been made or produced, for the reasons and obstacles to their pro-
duction herein-before mentioned.. To produce and accomplish the aforesaid
valuable improvements in the texture and pattern of Venetian carpets, I make
use of that kind of loom commonly known and described by the name of the
Jacquard loom, as now used for weaving various kinds of manufactured
goods. But I do not use it in its usual and accustomed form, having made
several alterations and improvements in it, in order to make it applicable to
my aforesaid use, and such alterations and improvements I claim as parts of
my herein-before mentioned Invention, to be secured to me by my aforesaid
Patent. In the ordinary machinery of the Jacquard loom, all the hooks for
lifting the work have their points turned towards the needle board and swing
frame, and all point .in .the same direction, and consequently, all the thin
parallel bars which form the rack to lift the said hooks, slope or incline in
the same parallel direction, and when the cylinder is moved back, or has no
card upon it, all the needles will project at once, and every hook would be
taken up by the rach of it should happen to rise at this period. The Jacquard
loom, for my particular mode of working, must have double the number of

page_text: hooks usually employed at the same distance asunder by making twice as many
rows or lines of hooks as would otherwise be used, that is to say, if four rows of
hooks were sufficient in a loom I should use eight rows, and half the number
of these rows would have their hooks turned in one direction, or towards the
needle board, while the other half would point in a precisely opposite direction,
or towards the spring box. The rack must, of course, have as many slanting or
taking up bars as there were rows of hooks; but instead of those bars all
the sloping or slanting in one parallel direction, one half of them would slant
in one direction, and the other half in an opposite one, so as to suit the points
of the hooks, which construction of rack I claim as part of my Invention;
each needle must have two curls or eyes instead of one, and as a hook passes
thro' each curl or eye, of course there are only half as many needles as
there are hooks. The curls or eyes in the needles are so disposed as to
distance from each other, that if the row of hooks next to the needle board
pass through the one eye the row that is nearest to the said needle board, but
which has its hooks turned in a contrary direction, must pass through the
second hole; or in other words: if there are eight rows of hooks the same
needles will move the first and fifth row, while the next line of needles will
move the second and sixth row; the next, the third and seventh; and the
next, the fourth, and eigth rows; so that in this disposition of things one of
the two hooks which pass through every needle is sure to be lifted at every
elevation of the rack, but it is quite impossible that they ever both should be
lifted together, because their distance asunder is such, that whenever one row
of hooks is engaged with the rack, the corresponding row, or those operated
The
upon by the same line of needles, will be free from it, and vice versa.
four front rows of hooks, or those four rows nearest the needle board (pre-
suming that there are eight) will therefore all be lifted by the rack whenever
all the needles project from the said needle board, while the four back rows, or
those furthest from the needle board, will be left stationary; but should all the
needles ends be pushed in at once by a blank or unpunched card, then the four
back rows of hooks will be lifted, while the four front rows will remain down
and stationary; and it will easily be perceived, that by the above-described
arrangements one half of the whole number of hooks employed will be raised
at every elevation of the rack, and the other half will remain down and
stationary whatever may be the figure that is punched on the usual chain of
cards, or is in work, which is essential to my mode of working, because
I uniformly raise half the hooks, harness, mails, and lingos for every shed,
and by the above described improvement I am enabled to do so by a single
rack with only one lever and fulcrum. The reversing half the number of

page_text: hooks in the same machine, so that one half of them may point in one
direction and the other half in an opposite one, and having two curls to one
needle, so that each needle has two hooks passing through it, has been lately
adopted and used for weaving super Kidderminster or Scotch carpets, and
therefore, as far as such disposition and form of the hooks and needles go,
cannot be included as a part of my Invention; but the hooks that point in one
direction have always been raised by one rack, lever, and fulcrum, and those
that point in the other have been raised by another rack, lever, and fulcrum,
consequently, two independent racks have been resorted to, which would be
detrimental to my mode of working, and might produce mistakes in it. I
therefore confine my Invention as far respects this part of machinery to
In
the use of one rack, lever and treddle, disposed and used as herein-before
described, so that one half of the hooks must be taken up by every elevation
of such rack in every possible situation in which the needles can be placed by
the pressure of the cards, however they may happen to be punched. I place
the loom with the lines of hooks running parallel with the
my machine upon
lines of holes in the cumber board, and to cross the chain or warp, and the
cylinder and endless chain of cards are applied in the usual manner.
tyeing up the harness or neck, I proceed in the usual simple way, and tye up
that half of my harness which is to work the figure to the half of the hooks
which have their points turned towards the spring box, and I then tie up the
remaining half of the harness that is to work the ground to the other half of
the hooks which have their points turned the opposite way, or towards
the needle-board, commencing with the first ground harness band or bands,
which I tye to the hook that is operated upon by the same needle that
moves the hook I commenced tyeing up the first figure harness band
or bands to, and so on to the end. In drawing the chain or warp
through the mails and harness I commence drawing the figure and then
the ground warps alternately, so that the figure and ground which form
the shed or lease is drawn alternately through that part of the harness
which is tied to the corresponding hooks, or such as pass through and are
operated upon by the same needle. The cards for working over the cylinder
are punched, prepared, and strung in the usual and accustomed manner,
except that in my mode of working it is necessary to have double the number
of cards in the chain, because I punch holes in the first card to correspond
with the ground, and leave the card solid to produce the figure or pattern,
but the next card to it in succession must be punched the reverse way (that
is to say) must be plain or free from holes in all places where the holes occur

page_text: in the first card, and must have holes where the other had none, and vice versa.
The precise effect produced by having the punching of each pair of cards
reversed, will be that when the second card is placed on the cylinder, the
warp or chain, with all those mails and lingos which formed the top of the
shed with the first card, will now form the bottom of the shed, while those
which form the bottom will be brought up to form the top of it. This shed I
call the tye or lease shed, and the third card will produce the change of the
flower or figure, while the fourth again makes the tye or lease, and so on till the
pattern be completed. I produce the plain, beaded, or striped middles to
carpets by having both the ground and figured harness mails drawn through
with two threads of twofold worsted, all of the same colour, or varied in color,
as the beads or stripes may require, and that part of the card that works the
figured border is punched in the manner herein-before described, but all the
rest of the said card which works the plain, beaded, or striped middle, is left
blank, or not punched, or half or any part of it may be punched, provided the
second or next card is the reverse of the first, that is to say, wherever the
first card is left blank the second must be punched, and where the first is
punched the second must be left blank, and so in like manner must each pair of
cards be punched throughout the whole chain of cards that may be required
to work the pattern or flower on the border, the effect produced being that
where the two shutes can be seen distinctly worked in the border, they will both
form but one wale or rib in the middle of the same carpet. In order to over-
come the difficulty of making a clear shed, and preventing the bottom of such
shed from rising with the top, on account of the additional quantity of worsted
which I use and introduce in the manufacture of my new and improved figured
Venetian carpet, which I called the Royal Damask Carpet, I so fix the catches
which work or turn the cylinder by operating on the lanthorn wheel at the end
of such cylinder, that neither the top or bottom catches lay hold of or come into
contact with such lanthorn wheel until the treadle has been forced down and the
shed opened once or more (as may be required) to clear the warp, which done,
the foot is shifted a little to the right, to press down a small additional treadle,
which causes the catches to act upon the lanthorn wheel, and drive the cylinder
a quarter round in the usual way; but since no revolution of the cylinder
ever takes place until the small additional treadle is pressed down, of course
I can raise or depress the same part of the warp, or move the cylinder
backwards and forwards any number of times, should difficulty or entangle-
ment take place, without any change in the figure or ground which can be
produced by the revolution of the cylinder alone. The manner in which I
effect this last-described operation will be rendered evident by the Drawing

page_text: hereunto annexed, which represents certain movements and contrivances,
which I add to the loom for this particular purpose. In describing these
it is presumed that the construction of the catches or drivers which act
upon the lanthorn wheel of the square pierced block or cylinder of the ordinary
Jacquard loom are understood. In these I make no difference, as there
are still two of them, one to act above and the other below the cylinder,
to turn it backwards or forwards as occasion may require, and the said two
catches' or drivers are united by a cord or wire at the ends, as usual, the top
catch or driver being pressed downwards by a weight, which is hung to it,
and by the removal or unhooking of which it becomes overbalanced by the
bottom catch, so that, by means of such weight being on or off, either catch is
made to act at pleasure in the usual way. To produce my herein-before
described mode of working, it is however necessary that neither the upper or
lower catch or driver should touch or act upon the cylinder until I wish them
to do so, and it therefore becomes necessary to lock or fix the said drivers in
an intermediate position, in which neither of them can act, and since they
are connected together, so the locking or fixing the upper one will answer the
purpose of locking them both, and the detent or lock which I make use of is
a piece of wood or metal A, D, Fig. 1, which turns on a screw pivot or centre
at D, in a mortise hole made in the block C, which is fixed on one of the cross
rails of the loom, near the upper end of the locking lever A, D. Two projecting
arms B, B, made of small round iron, projecting out to such a distance as to
embrace the upper catch or driver of the cylinder, whether it be up or down.
That catch or driver is shown by a transverse section of it in its locked position
at P, and p is the weight that hangs to it. The locking lever A, D, with its
arms B, B, are drawn against the catch P by the cord F, which passes over and
round a pulley or roller G, and terminates in a weight H; and E is a spiral
wire spring of sufficient strength to draw the locking lever A, D, backwards
whenever it is released from the strain of the weight H, as the machinery
stands in the Figure. The catch or driver P is locked or beld in the inter-
mediate position in which it cannot act by being in the bottom of the fork or
opening between B and B, and being so circumstanced the main treddle O
(also shown in transverse section) may be trod or worked any number of times
without any change or revolution of the cylinder, but whenever the shed has
been properly brought up, the foot is to be shifted a little to the right, on to
the small treddle N, as herein-before mentioned, which being connected by the
tye or wire M to the lam or lever L, K (turning on a centre at L) and this
lam or lever having a cord I passing round and fixed to the pulley or roller G,
it is evident that treading down N will raise the weight H, thereby slackening

page_text: the cord F, which permits the spring E to act, and pull back the locking lever
A, D, which, by withdrawing the iron fork from the catch or driver P, permits
it to rise or fall, and thus to act upon the lanthorn wheel of the cylinder; but
the moment the foot is withdrawn from N the weight H again falls, and by
straining the cord F overcomes the spring E, and brings the locking lever
A, D, back into its first position, and from the spreading form of its arms
B, B, one or other of them must catch the driver P, whether it be up or down,
and will conduct it again into its locked or interprediate position, where it is
incapable of acting. By the above-described machinery a sudden and equal
quantity of motion is produced, whether the treddle A be more or less depressed
by the foot, and the locking lever A, D, is restrained from moving too far,
either by the size of the mortice hole in the block C, or by other stops intro-
duced in convenient positions. By the above means and the mode of working
and charging the loom, as herein-before described, both of which I claim as
parts of my Invention, I am enabled to produce the improved and superior
figured Venetian carpet on a finer scale of mounture, and with larger patterns
than could be heretofore produced upon the former principle of weaving,
since the additional number of cords for making some of the larger figures, in
addition to the increased number of harness bands, and consequent additional
quantity of lashes necessary to form the figure, would introduce so much
weight and friction, and be so complicated as to render the work impracticable;
whilst by my improved machinery and mode of working, as above described, I
have all the advantage of the common process of weaving by gear and
two treddles, with one foot or shed up, while the other is down, by one
treddle only, merely by putting blank cards, or cards without holes on
the two opposite sides of the cylinder, while on its remaining two sides I bave
two cards with all the holes punched, and by driving round the cylinder thus
equipped, the shed or tye will change alternately to form the cloth, with the
advantage of being able to reverse any part of the shed to form a figure, by
varying the punching of the cards to suit such figure; yet I uniformly have
one half of the harness mails or lingoes up while the other half is down; which
said machinery and mode of working I claim to be new, and applicable, with
the addition of a gear to form the tye or double cloth, to the weaving of the
super Scotch or Kidderminster carpets, as well as the figured Venetian carpets
hercin-before mentioned.
In witness whereof, J, the said Thomas Clarke, have hereunto set
my hand and seal, this Twenty-fifth day of September, in the year
of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and twenty-seven.
THOMAS (L.s.) CLARKE.

page_text: AND BE IT REMEMBERED, that on the Twenty-fifth day of September,
in the year of our Lord 1827, the aforesaid Thomas Clarke came before
our said Lord the King in His Chancery, and acknowledged the Specifi-
cation 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.
Inrolled the Twenty-sixth day of September, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and twenty-seven.