IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MANUFACTURE OF LACE
Year: 1855

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Edmund Hart, of Nottingham, Lace Manufacturer,
for the Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MANUFACTURE OF LACE."
Sealed the 21st December 1855, and dated the 11th July 1855.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Edmund Hart at the
Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the 11th
July 1855.
I, EDMUND HART, of Nottingham, Lace Manufacturer, do hereby declare
the nature of the said Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MANUFACTURE OF
LACE" to be as follows:-
My Invention consists in traversing the threads, silk cords, or other
material capable of being used in bobbin net lace machines, to form lace
borders or edgings, as the principal means of ornamentation over or partly
over the breadth or edging adjoining thereto, in a disconnected manner, in
form or shape at the will of the designer. These threads or cords are then
caught or held by whippers or draw threads (which I prefer to be colored),
according to the design. In the process of finishing, these threads are easily
withdrawn, and leave the pattern or parts of the pattern well formed and
entirely disconnected from the next breadth, without injury to the breadth or
edging over which such pattern or ornamental threads have traversed.

page_text: SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said Edmund Hart in the Great Seal Patent Office on the th
January 1856.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, EDMUND
HART, of Nottingham, Lace Manufacturer, send greeting.
WHEREAS Iler most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Eleventh day of July, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and fifty-five, in the nineteenth year of Her
reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto me, the
said Edmund Hart, Her special licence that I, the said Edmund Hart, my
executors, administrators, and assigns, or such others as I, the said Edmund
Hart, my executors, administrators, and assigns, should at any time agree
with, and no others, from time to time and at all times thereafter 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 "IMPROVEMENTS IN THE
MANUFACTURE OF LACE," upon the condition (amongst others) that I, the said
Edmund Hart, by an instrument in writing under my hand and scal, 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 imme-
diately after the date of the said Letters Patent.
NOW KNOW YE, that I, the said Edmund Hart, 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 Drawings hereunto annexed, that is
to say:-
My Invention consists in moving or traversing the pattern threads of one
breadth of lace edging, footing, or insertion, whether of cotton cord, silk cord,
or any other material capable of being used in the bobbin net lace machine,
-for the manufacture of ornamental borders and edgings, as the principal means
of ornamentation over or under or partly over or-under--(according to the
arrangement of the lace machine) the breadth of lace edging. footing, or
insertion next adjoining thereto, and either on the back or front surface thereof,
in a loose and disconnected manner, in form or shape at the will of the s
designer. These threads or cords are then caught or held by whippers or draw
threads (which I prefer to be colored), according to the design to be produced.
In the process of finishing, these threads are easily withdrawn, and leave the

page_text: pattern or parts of the pattern well formed, and entirely disconnected from
the next breadth, and without injury to the breadth or edging over which such
threads have traversed.
By adopting my improvements, one third (more or less) additional laces,
breadths, or edgings can be produced on a bobbin net lace machine than would
be produced on the same machine by the arrangement hitherto in use, or the
same number of edgings can be made, but each one third (more or less) wider
than would be the case by the old plan; thus, for example, if on an ornamental
lace machine ninety-six inches wide one hundred and ninety-two edgings
were produced by the method hitherto adopted, then on the same machine by
the adoption of my improvements two hundred and fifty-six edgings (or one
third more) would be produced, or the same number as by the old system, say,
one hundred and ninety-two, each one third wider than those produced by
the old method.
This increased ratio of production would vary according to the design or
pattern to be produced; thus with some patterns there would be an advantage
of more than one third, and in other patterns less; but in all patterns with
projecting edges in which wire or plaited cords, silk or cotton cords, or any
other material capable of being used in the bobbin net lace machine are
employed as the principal means of ornamentation, considerable advantages
will be realized.
I do not require to add to the existing machinery to carry my Invention
into ellect, the number of guides having, however, to be increased to correspond
with the increase of the number of breadths, as they should of course be in
exact proportion to the number of edgings to be produced, and the number
of pattern threads required for each. I pierce the cards differently, that is to
say, in general the cards are so perforated as to move or traverse the pattern
threads between the bobbin threads and the warp threads, and this I also do
as respects the moving or traversing of the pattern threads in the breadth to
which such pattern threads belong; but in moving or traversing them over the
breadth adjoining to carry out the purposes of my Invention, I so perforate
the cards, that the pattern threads so traversed, instead of being moved between
the bobbin threads and warp, are moved on their surface in a loose or discon-
nected manner, so that when the draw threads are withdrawn, the pattern
threads merely lying loosely, are not in any way entangled with the breadth
over which they have traversed. In the Drawings annexed I have represented
my improved method in contrast with the method hitherto in use of connecting
breadths and edgings.
Figure 1 illustrates the common method. A, B, C, are edgings of lace;

page_text: a, a, a, draw threads (colored red), which in the centre edging B are repre-
sented as partly drawn to shew the manner of connecting and separating.
Figure 2 exemplifies my improved method. A, B, C, are the edgings; here the
pattern threads of one breadth or edging are represented as moved or traversed
partly over the surface of the adjoining breadth or edging. a, a, a, are the
draw threads, which are withdrawn, as before stated, in finishing.
And having now described the nature of the said Invention, and in what
manner the same is to be performed, I declare that I claim as of my said Inven-
tion, the traversing or moving the pattern threads of one breadth or breadths
of lace edgings, footings, or insertions over or under or partly over or under
(according to the arrangement of the lace machine) the breadth or breadths
of lace edging, footing, or insertion next adjoining thereto, either on the front
or back surface thereof, in the manner herein-before described, and represented
in Figure 2 of the Drawings annexed.
In witness whereof, I, the said Edmund Hart, have hereunto set my
hand and seal, this First day of January, One thousand eight hundred
and fifty-six.
EDMUND HART. (L.S.)