CERTAIN IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MANUFACTURE OF LACE AND OTHER WEAVINGS
Year: 1844

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, we, JOHN
DEARMAN DUNNICLIFF, of the Town and County of the Town of Nottingham,
Lace Manufacturer, WILLIAM CROFTS, of New Lenton, in the County of
Nottingham, Lace Manufacturer, and JOHN WOODHOUSE BAGLEY, of New
Radford, in the County of Nottingham, Mechanic, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her present most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Royal Letters Patent under the Great Seal of Great Britain, bearing date at
Westminster, the Thirteenth day of November, in the eighth year of Her
reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto us,
the said John Dearman Dunnicliff, William Crofts, and John Woodhouse
Bagley, Her especial licence, full power, sole privilege and authority, that
we, the said John Dearman Dunnicliff, William Crofts, and John Woodhouse
Bagley, our exors, admors, and assigns, or such others as we, the said
John Dearman Dunnicliff, William Crofts, and John Woodhouse Bagley,
our exors, adiñors, 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, use, exercise, and vend, within England,
Wales, and the Town of Berwick-upon-Tweed, our Invention of "CERTAIN
IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MANUFACTURE OF LACE AND OTHER WEAVINGS;" in which
said Letters Patent is contained a proviso that we, the said John Dearman
Dunnicliff, William Crofts, and John Woodhouse Bagley, or one of us, shall
cause a particular description of the nature of our said Invention, and in what
manner the same is to be performed, to be inrolled in Her said Majesty's
High Court of Chancery within six calendar months next and immediately

page_text: 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, we, the said
John Dearman Dunnicliffe, William Crofts, and John Woodhouse Bagley, do
hereby declare that the nature of our said Invention, and the manner in
which the same is to be performed, are fully described and ascertained in and
by the following statement thereof (that is to say)
Our Invention has for its object improvements. in the manufacture of
weavings of a similar character to those produced by means of shuttle looms.
And in order that our Invention may be most fully understood, and readily
carried into effect, we will proceed to describe the means pursued by us.
We will, in the first place, explain the Invention in the most simple form,
and then give such instructions to the workman that he may vary the
weavings according to the object he is desirous to attain. In the working of
bobbin-net or twist-lace machinery, when making traversed net or lace, it is
well known that one half of the carriage progressively move toward the right-
hand end of a machine, and the other half move progressively towards the left-
hand end of the machine, the object obtained by their so moving being, that
after the bobbin threads have twisted with their warp threads, the crossing of
the back and front bobbin threads produce the tops and bottoms of the
meshes of the lace fabrics produced; and the order in which the various
bobbin threads twist or omit to twist with the warp threads depends, as is
well known, on the order in which the several warp threads are racked or
moved, and by such means any bobbin thread in the front row of carriages
may be caused to twist or omit to twist with its warp
case in respect to any of the bobbin threads of the
twisting or omitting to twist with their warp threads.
characteristics because they are common to twist-lace machines (whether of
single or double tier machinery) which work by traversing the bobbins from
selvage to selvage by one row of carriages in the front of the warp threads,
and from selvage to selvage by the other row of carriages at the back of the
warp threads, the carriages in the front row, as they successively arrive at
one end of the machine crossing over, become part of the back row of
carriages, and the carriages in the back row, as they successively arrive at
the other end of the machine, crossing over, become part of the front row of
carriages, as is well understood.
thread, and such is the
back row of carriages
And we mention these
And in describing our Invention in the most simple form, we will suppose
that the machine about to be used for carrying out our Invention is intended
to make plain-woven fabrics similar to the plain tabby weavings of shuttle

page_text: looms, and of the full width of the lace machine used. A workman well
acquainted with the working of lace machinery will readily understand the
effect which would be produced supposing that he were to arrange a double-
tier lace machine, having two guide bars, a back guide bar, and a front guide
bar, each guide bar having respectively as many warp threads as there are
bobbin threads in one tier of carriages, and he were to cause the two rows of
guides carrying the warp threads to be so racked or moved that each of the
front row of carriages should, in swinging from front to back, and from back
to front, pass at the back of the front warp thread which may stand next to
the right hand of the carriage, and then pass on the front of the second front
warp thread to the right hand, and then pass to the back of the third front
warp thread to the right hand, and so on alternately till each carriage arrives
to the right-hand end of the machine, where each carriage would in succession
pass across and work as one of the back row of carriages, the complement of
the front row of carriages being made up by the crossing over of carriages at
the other end of the machine from the back row of carriages into the front
row of carriages, and at the same time supposing that the racking of the back
guide bar was so worked at the same time as to cause each carriage, as it
proceeded from the right-hand end towards the left-hand end of the machine,
to move alternately behind and before the succeeding back warp threads (and
a workman can easily make a suitable cut of wheels for so working a front
and a back guide bar as to produce the effect above described), he will
perceive that the result would be, that two thicknesses of weavings would be
produced, but joined together at the selvages by the crossing over of the
bobbin threads from front to back at the right-hand end of the machine, and
from back to front at the left-hand end of the machine; and therefore the
front fabric would be made by means of the front warp threads, the front row
of bobbin threads acting as weft threads, and the other fabric will have been
produced by the back warp, the back row of bobbin threads acting as weft
threads; and each bobbin thread having passed from selvage to selvage in
making the front fabric, thus making one shoot, it does not then pass back,
but proceeds to work with the back warp, and produces a shoot in that warp.
Hence the succeeding bobbin threads, whether in the back row or front row,
do not in any case, when working to produce plain or tabby weavings, pass
before and behind the same warp threads; but, on the contrary, they succes-
sively reverse the order. And it is this peculiar manufacture of weavings in
lace machines which constitutes our Invention, there being no crossing of the
weft or bobbin threads in the fabric, which is accomplished by causing the
fabrics in lace machines to be so produced that the bobbin threads do not

page_text: make crossing by proceeding simultaneously from the two selvages at the
same time in the same fabric, as has been heretofore practised. The
above-described fabrics, even in the finest guage machines, would have their
warp threads too far apart; and, in order to make fabrics of close texture,
we employ several warp threads to each bobbin thread, according to the
nature of the fabrics to be produced, and we place them in different guide
bars, so that they may receive separate rackings, and in such manner that
when for plain or tabby weavings each bobbin thread may in succession pass
alternately before and behind the several succeeding warp threads constituting
the front warp, and then successively before and behind the succeeding back
warp threads, the neighbouring warp threads between which any bobbin thread
is to pass being so racked that the bobbin thread will pass through a proper
shed.
Thus far, in describing this part of our Invention, we have spoken only of
weaving plain or tabby fabrics, in order, by so doing, to make the explanation
as simple as possible; -but it will be evident that the Invention is not confined
thereto, for, in place of the succeeding bobbin threads (at the front and in
the back, and for the time being working respectively with the front warp
threads and the back warp threads) constantly working before and behind
every other warp thread across the machine, the warp threads may be varied
in their rackings; and thus, by causing the succeeding bobbin threads to pass
or float before or behind varying numbers of the succeeding warp threads,
twills and other textures of fabrics may be produced; for it should be under-
stood, that the succeeding bobbin threads only represent and in fact act as the
succeeding shoots of weft in shuttle-loom fabrics, but with this advantage that
there are at all times numerous bobbin threads proceeding across the fabrics
at one time, and each bobbin thread is producing that portion of the whole
width of the fabric which results by passing the bobbin thread between the
number of warp threads which are used to each bobbin thread. It will be
desirable to remark, that as the several portions of the same fabric which are
produced opposite the several spaces in the combs are, as the fabric is com-
pleted, to become flat and of uniform texture from selvage to selvage, notwith-
standing the portions of the fabric are made at right angles to that position,
for this purpose we perform the take-up in the ordinary way, using by
preference fine points, as is now becoming very general in lace machines, and
we cause the warp threads to be so racked that the points enter different
spaces between them at each take-up, which will tend to equalize the fabric.
We would remark, that if it be desired to make open or lace fabrics in com-
bination with such weavings, it will be evident to the workman, that if the

page_text: traverse of the carriages be for a time stopped, the machine may then be
worked to produce straight-down net or lace, as it will be evident that there
would be two fabrics of straight-down lace produced according to the manner
in which each bobbin thread is caused to plat or to twist with the warp threads
working at each space of the combs. We would, however, remark that we
are aware that it is not new to make two pieces of lace fabric in a lace
machine at the same time, that having before been done, and we only claim
its use when in conjunction with weavings produced according to our
Invention. And we wish it to be understood that what we claim is the
manufacture of weavings, combined or not with lace in lace machines, in such
manner that the bobbin threads are caused to pass in a direction from selvage
to selvage, as herein described, and whereby the bobbin threads do not, as
heretofore, simultaneously proceed in opposite directions in the same fabric.
In witness whereof, I, the said John Woodhouse Bagley, have hereunto
set my hand and seal, this Thirteenth day of May, in the year of our
Lord One thousand eight hundred and forty-five.
JOHN WOODHOUSE (L.s.) BAGLEY.
AND BE IT REMEMBERED, that on the Thirteenth day of May, in
the year of our Lord 1845, the aforesaid John Woodhouse Bagley came
O before our said Lady the Queen in Her Chancery, and acknowledged the
Specification aforesaid, and all and every thing therein contained and speci-
fied, in form above written. And also the Specification aforesaid was stamped
according to the tenor of the Statute made for that purpose.
Enrolled the Thirteenth day of May, in the year of our Lord One
thousand eight hundred and forty-five