IMPROVEMENTS IN STOCKINGS.
Year: 1859

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Henry Owen, of Portswood, Southampton, in the
County of Hampshire, for the Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN STOCKINGS.?
Sealed the 27th May 1859, and dated the 24th January 1859.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Henry Owen at the
Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the
24th January 1859..
I, HENRY OWEN, of Portswood, Southampton, in the County of Hampshire,
do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN
STOCKINGS," to be as follows:-
To supercede the necessity of darning stockings and socks, in order to which
I propose, in the manufacture of the stocking and sock, to construct seams
about the foot, so manufactured that they will not drop, or unravel, or loosen
the fabric, or require taking up, in order to secure them when the worn part
is removed; these seams to be distinctly indicated. The purpose of this
arrangement in the manufacture of the stocking or sock is, that the seamed.
parts of the foot, when the worn parts are removed, shall correspond with new
pieces made to replace them, so adapted that the new parts shall not overlap,
but fitting exactly and corresponding seam to seam, shall lie even and flat.
The new parts or pieces constituting an essential part of this Invention.
intended to replace the worn parts of the foot, so as to repair the worn.stocking
or sock, without daruing, being made to correspond exactly in their construc-.

page_text: tion and dimensions with the seamed edges of the stocking or sock will thereby
be easy of adaptation to their purpose, and the process of repairing stockings.
or socks will thus be rendered easy, rapid, and effectual, and the necessity of
darning be altogether superceded.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
.
by the said Henry Owen in the Great Seal Patent Office on the
18th July 1859.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, HENRY
OWEN, of Portswood, Southampton, in the County of Hampshire, send
greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Twenty-fourth day of January, in the year of our Lord
One thousand. eight hundred and fifty-nine, in the twenty-second year of Her
reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto me, the
said Henry Owen, Her special licence that I, the said Henry Owen, my
executors, administrators, and assigns, or such others as I, the said Henry
Owen, 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 STOCKINGS,"
upon the condition (amongst others) that I, the said Henry Owen, my exe-
cutors or administrators, by an instrument in writing under my, or their,
or one of their hands and seals, 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 Henry Owen, 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:-
.
This Invention relates to a novel mode of repairing (by means of piecing
instead of darning) stockings and socks, and every description of hose manu-
facture. By this Invention the tedious process of darning is superseded by
a peculiar arrangement for piecing without overlapping. By this arrange-
ment it is intended, in the manufacture of hose, half hose, and all such articles

page_text: of dress, to construct and prepare seams or selvedge courses about the foot,
that is, across various parts of the foot, namely, above, underneath, and on the
foot so manufactured about or above the foot that the whole or its parts,
namely, the heel, or sole, or toe parts, may be removed at the seams or
selvedge courses so prepared for the purpose, and leave in the hose, where
the worn parts are thus cut away, a perfect edge or selvedge which will not
drop, or ravel, or loosen the fabric, or require taking up, in order to make it
secure.
The purpose of this arrangement in the manufacture of hose is, that the
seamed parts, edges, or selvedge courses in the foot shall correspond, when the
worn parts are cut away and removed, with new pieces made to replace them,
and be so adapted to join such new parts as not to need overlapping in order to
secure them, but fitting exactly, and corresponding selvedge to selvedge (that
is, the selvedge of the new piece to the selvedge of the hose from which the
worn part has been cut away), that the seam formed by the joining of both
shall be even and flat, and quite easy and imperceptible to the foot.
The novelty or originality of this part of the Invention consists, in the con-
struction of selvedges across the hose where parts may be cut away, leaving
the remainder of the stocking or sock secure from ravelling; whereas hit
and up to the date of this Patent, no such arrangement or preparation has
been made in the manufacture of hose; but the stocking being made of one
continuous thread, no part could be cut away without leaving the remainder
loose and liable to ravel, and so that no join or piecing could be made
without overlapping, in order to secure the fabric.
The new parts or feet pieces referred to constitute an essential part of this
Invention, and being intended to replace and repair the worn parts of the
foot, their selvedges are made to correspond exactly in their guage and
dimensions with the cross selvedges in the hose, and they are thereby rendered
easy of adaptation to their purpose. The process of repairing hose is by this
contrivance rendered easy, rapid, and effectual; and the necessity of darning
them is altogether superseded. The object of this Invention being the
introduction of seams or selvedges across the hose, for the purpose of securing
the body of the stocking or sock from loosening or ravelling when the worn
parts are cut away in order to piece the hose, whether such seams be known
technically as "seam courses," "selvedge courses," or by any other name, used
at any time in the hosiery trade, to describe the thing intended by this Specifi-
cation; the principle of this Invention is secured by the Patent as applicable
to all articles of hose manufacture so constructed as to be repaired on the
plan intended by the Inventor in this Specification.

page_text: This Invention is in its nature a peculiar adaptation for a special purpose
of a process understood in the manufacture of hose, and it is not therefore
necessary further to describe in what manner the same is to be performed
than to state that "selvedge courses" are to be made across such parts of the
foot or above the foot, as that the worn parts of the foot, or in some cases the
whole foot, may be cut away and removed, wholly or in parts, leaving the
: remaining part of the hose secured by a selvedge from ravelling, so that a
corresponding selvedge of a new piece may be seanied to it securely without
the necessity of overlapping.
In witness whereof, I, the said Henry Owen, have hereunto set my
hand and seal, this Eighteenth day of July, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and fifty-nine.
זמזוום זנזזa
זיזllם כזב.
ורט
TOTALCETT