IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MANUFACTURE OF ELASTIC FABRICS
Year: 1864

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Hiram Lyman Hall, Manager of the London India-
rubber Company's Works, West Ham, in the County of Essex, for the
Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MANUFACTURE OF ELASTIC FABRICS,"
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Hiram Lyman Hall at
the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on
the 17th December 1864.
I, HIRAM LYMAN HALL, Manager of the London India-rubber Company's
Works, West Ham, in the County of Essex, do hereby declare the nature
of the said Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MANUFACTURE OF ELASTIC
FABRIOS," to be as follows:-
This Invention relates to the manufacture of elastic fabrics for various
purposes, whereby such fabrics are non-extensible in onedirection,andconsists
in combining parallel threads, network, or other open or reticulated fabrics of
any suitable fibrous material, with a sheet or sheets of india-rubber placed on
one or both sides of the fibrous material; such sheets being united thereto and
to each other by adhesion and pressure. When using net or other open or
reticulated fabric, the same should be so made as to be non-extensible in one
direction, one of the chief objects to be obtained is the preventing of the
elastic fabric from stretching in one direction. This may be accomplished by
making one set of the threads straight and parallel with the direction of non-

page_text: extensibility of the elastic fabric. One or both surfaces of the india-rubber
may be grooved, corrugated, or otherwise figured by means of suitable rollers
or other pressing surfaces, so as to present an appearance resembling the
ordinary woven elastic fabrics.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent,
filed by the said Hiram Lyman Hall in the Great Seal Patent Office
ou the 17th June 1865.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, HIRAM
LYMAN HALL, Manager of the London India-rubber Company's Works,
West Ham, in the County of Essex, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Seventeenth day of December, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and sixty-four,in the twenty-eighth year of Her
reign, did,for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto me, the
said Hiram Lyman Hall, Her special license that I, the said Hiram Lyman
Hall, my executors, administrators, and assigns, or such others as I, the said
Hiram Lyman Hall, my executors, administrators, or assigns, should at any
time agree with, and no others, from time to time and at all times there-
after 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 "IMPROVE
MENTS IN THE MANUFACTURE OF ELASTIC FABRICS," upon the condition (amongst
others) that I, the said Hiram Lyman Hall, my executors or administrators,
by an instrument in writing under my hand and seal, 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 within six calendar months next and immediately after
the date of the said Letters Patent.
NOW KNOW YE, that I, the said Hiram Lyman Hall, do hereby declare
the nature of my said Invention, and in what manner the same is to be per-
formed, to be particularly described and ascertained in and by the following
statement, reference being had to the accompanying Drawings and to the
letters and figures marked thereon, that is to say:
My said Invention relates to the manufacture of elastic fabrics for various
purposes, whereby such fabrics are rendered non-elastic in one direction, and
consists in combining parallel threads, network, or other open or reticulated

page_text: fabrics of any suitable fibrous material with a sheet or sheets of india-rubber
placed on one or both sides of the fibrous material, such sheets being united
thereto and to each other by adhesion and pressure. When using pet or
other open or reticulated fabric, the same should be so made as to be non-
extensible in one direction, as one of the chief objects to be obtained is the
preventing of the elastic fabric stretching in one direction. This may be
accomplished by making one set of the threads straight and parallel with
the direction of non-extensibility of the elastic fabric. One or both surfaces
of the india-rubber may be grooved, corrugated, or otherwise figured by means
of suitable rollers or other pressing surfaces, so as to present an appearance
resembling the ordinary woven elastic fabrics.
In practically carrying out my said Invention, I prefer to stretch the
parallel threads a shown in Diagram Fig. 1 of the aunexed Sheet of
Drawings, in a frame of any convenient size, by passing a continuous thread
zig-zag fashion round pins b, or comb teeth arranged in rows at equal distances
apart, and when a frame is thus filled, I apply the sheet or sheets of india-
rubber upon the threads by pressure in any convenient manner; or in lieu of
mere parallel threads, I sometimes use a species of net of the character shown
by the Diagram, Fig. 2, that is to say, consisting of a series of parallel
threads a connected together by diagonal cross threads b, such fabric being
readily manufactured in a lace or bobbin-net machine. Fig. 3 represents a
piece of my elastic fabric provided with strengthening strips a of any stout
fabric, which are either cemented on to the outer surface of the elastic fabric,or
introduced into the centre thereof between the two sheets of rubber, as shown
in Fig. 3, and, in the sectional Diagram, Fig. 4. These strengthening
pieces are here disposed with a view to the severing of the piece along the
dotted line, 1-2, when two side springs for a boot will be obtained, the
strengthening of the edges serving to hold the stitches which secure the side
springs to the upper leathers. In all these Figures the arrows indicate
the direction of non-extensibility of the fabric.
Having now,described and particularly ascertained the nature of the said
Invention, and the manner in which the same is or may be used or carried
into effect, I would observe, in conclusion, that what I consider to be novel
and original, and therefore claim as the Invention secured to me by the
herein-before in part recited Letters Patent is,―
First, the manufacture of elastic fabrics by applying by means of adhesion
and pressure, a sheet or sheets of vulcanized india-rubber on one or both sides
or faces of a series of parallel threads, or of a piece of net or other like open or
reticulated fabric of fibrous material, wherein the threads are so disposed as to

page_text: render the elastic fabric non-extensible in one direction, substantially as
and for the purpose herein-before described.
Second, the grooving, corrugating, crimping, channelling, or otherwise
figuring by means of pressure one or both the outer surfaces of the sheet
or sheets of vulcanized india-rubber employed in the manufacture of elastic
fabrics of the description herein-before described.
In witness whereof, I, the said Hiram Lyman Hall, have hereunto
set my hand and seal, the Seventeenth day of June, One thousand
eight hundred and sixty-five.
H. L. HALL. (L.S.)