IMPROVEMENTS IN WEAVING BARRED AND FIGURED FABRICS
Year: 1874

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to William Thomas, of No. 128, Cheapside, in the
City of London, for the Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN WEAVING
BARRED AND FIGURED FABRICS."
Scaled the 20th November 1874, and dated the 25th September 1874.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said William Thomas at the
Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the
25th September 1874.
I, WILLIAM THOMAS, of No. 128, Cheapside, in the City of London,
do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN
WEAVING BARRED AND FIGURED FABRICS," to be as follows:-
In weaving fabrics so as to present successive bars extending across
the web or transverse rows of figured patterns, such bars or patterns
being distinguished from the rest of the web by a difference in strength,
substance, or colour, there is usually a considerable waste of the warp
threads which are required in the barred or figured portions of the
fabric, as all the lengths of those warp threads which extend from the
one bar or row of figures to the next have either to be worked usclessly

page_text: cut off.
My Invention relates to a method of weaving such fabrics in a manner
which avoids entirely or in great measure such waste of warp, and
which provides for the manufacture of fabric having bars or successive
portions strengthened by additional warp where required, without the
waste of that additional warp in the portions of the web where the
increased strength is not required. For the purpose of weaving such
barred fabrics I provide in the loom besides the ordinary warp the
additional warp required for the bars on a beam separate from the
ordinary beam, and I arrange the harness of the loom so that in the
plain parts of the fabric it causes only the ordinary warp to be worked
into the fabric, but when a portion is desired to be barred or thickened,
the additional warp is worked in, thus giving an additional number of
warp threads in the barred portion. When one portion has thus been
woven, barred, and a succeeding portion of plain web has also been
woven, the fabric is folded up in a plait so as to bring the last weft
thread or shoot of the plain portion into coincidence with the last weft
thread of the preceding barred portion, whereupon another barred
portion is woven, and so on successively. The threads of the additional
warp which connect the edges of the plaits formed as above described
are then cut, and the web is spread out, presenting the barred portions
alternating with the plain portions, no more of the additional warp being
thus required than is necessary for the barred portions of the web. It
is obvious that the additional warp threads thus woven into the bars may
either be of the same colour and substance as the other warp threads,
or they may be of different colour or substance so as to produce
bar patterns, or they may be looped up in weaving, and cut to form a
tufted or raised pile. The additional warp instead of extending across
the whole width of the web, may be worked in at intervals in the width
so as to present interrupted bars or rows of rectangular patterns. Also
patterns of other than rectangular forms may be thus produced, and the
loose ends of the cut warp which present themselves on the under side of
the web, namely, those short pieces of thread which extend from the
outline of the pattern to the front and back edges of the rectangular
figure which includes the pattern may be trimmed off if desired, the
waste of warp being thus reduced by the whole length of thread
extending from the one rectangular figure to the next in succession.

page_text: SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent,
filed by the said William Thomas in the Great Seal Patent Office on
the 24th March 1875.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, WILLIAM
THOMAS, of No. 128, Cheapside, in the City of London, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Letters Patent, bearing date the Twenty-fifth day of September, in the
year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and seventy-four, in the
thirty-eighth year of Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and suc-
cessors, give and grant unto me, the said William Thomas, Her special
license that I, the said William Thomas, my executors, administrators,
and assigns, or such others as I, the said William Thomas, 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 WEAVING BARRED AND FIGURED FABRICS," upon the condition (amongst
others) that I, the said William Thomas, my executors 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 William Thomas, do hereby declare
the nature of the said Invention, and in what manner the same is to
be performed, to be particularly described and ascertained in and by the
following statement thereof, reference being had to the accompanying
Sheet of Drawings, and to the figures and letters marked thereon, that
is to say:
In weaving fabrics so as to present successive bars extending across
the web or transverse rows of figured patterns, such bars or patterns
being distinguished from the rest of the web by a difference in strength,
substance, or colour, there is usually a considerable waste of the warp
threads which are required in the barred or figured portions of the

page_text: one bar or row of figures to the next have either to be worked uselessly
into the plain part of the fabric, or if they are left loose have to be
cut off.
My Invention relates to a method of weaving such fabrics in a manner
which avoids entirely or in great measure such waste of warp, and which
provides for the manufacture of fabric having bars or successive portions
strengthened by additional warp, where required without the waste of that
additional warp in the portions of the web where the increased strength
is not required. For the purpose of weaving such barred fabrics I pro-
vide in the loom besides the ordinary warp the additional warp required
for the bars on a beam separated from the ordinary beam, and I arrange
the harness of the loom so that in the plain parts of the fabric it causes
only the ordinary warp to be worked into the fabric, but when a portion
is desired to be barred or thickened, the additional warp is worked in,
thus giving an additional number of warp threads in the barred portion.
When one portion has thus been woven, barred, and a succeeding
portion of plain web has also been woven, the fabric is folded up in a
plait so as to bring the last weft thread or shoot of the plain portion into
coincidence with the last weft thread of the preceding barred portion,
whereupon another barred portion is woven, and so on successively. The
threads of the additional warp which connect the edges of the plaits
formed as above described are then cut, and the web is spread out,
presenting the barred portions alternating with the plain portions, no
more of the additional warp being thus required than is necessary for
the barred portions of the web. It is obvious that the additional warp
threads thus woven into the bars may either be of the same colour or
substance as the other warp threads, or they may be of different colour
or substance so as to produce bar patterns, or they may be looped up in
weaving and cut to form a tufted or raised pile. The additional warp
instead of extending across the whole width of the web, may be worked
in at intervals in the width so as to present interrupted bars or rows of
rectangular patterns. Also patterns of other than rectangular forms
may be thus produced, and the loose ends of the cut warp which present
themselves on the under side of the web, namely, those short pieces of
thread which extend from the outline of the pattern to the front and
back edges of the rectangular figure, which includes the pattern, may be
trimmed off if desired, the waste of warp being thus reduced by the

page_text: DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS.
Fig. 1 represents diagrammatically a portion of a web during the
act of weaving a part S with the ordinary single warp, a part D having
been already woven with double warp; d, d, are the threads of the
additional warp which are kept by the adjustment of the harness of the
loom from being worked in while the threads s, s, of the single warp are
being woven.
Fig. 2 represents diagrammatically a portion of the web while the
double warp part D¹ is woven. The single part S having been taken up
by the rod R and held by a clip C, the threads d, d, of the additional
warp as well as those 8, s, are worked into the web so as to form double
warp fabric D¹ from the point A, which is the termination of the double
warp portion previously woven. The two double warp portions D and D'
are united by the additional warp threads d, d, across the line A. The
additional threads across the junction are either now or subsequently
severed, and the cloth will present a portion of single warp web between
the portions of the double warp web.
Fig. 4 shews a section of the cloth as woven before the uniting
threads are cut, S being the single warp portion, and D the double warp
portion; Figs. 5 and 6 shew respectively a section and plan of the cloth
after these threads have been cut, the dark parts representing the double
warp portion.
Instead of taking up the loop of the single part S by the rod R, a flat
blade might be employed to fold the loop under the double warp portion
as shown in Fig. 2ª; b being the blade.
The extra warp threads d, d, are shewn in Figs. 1 and 2ª, as kept by
the harness above the web, but they might be below it, in which case
the loop S instead of being formed as shewn in Figs. 2 and 2ª will be
formed above it. The additional warp may as I have already described
extend across the whole width of the web, in which case the portions D
will present bars across the fabric, or they may be arranged at intervals
across the web, in which case the barred portions will be of the form of
separate rectangles, as shewn at D, D, in Fig. 3, which represents a
portion of fabric so woven, the portion of single warp fabric between

page_text: A, A, the edges of the rectangles having been looped in weaving, as
shewn in Fig. 2, and the additional warp threads joining A, A, having
been cut so as to permit the loop to be unfolded, thus saving all the
additional warp between A, A, which would be required if the work
were woven without the looping and cutting which I have described.
The patterns D instead of being simple rectangles might be of any
figured form, as indicated at D¹ included within the rectangle. In such
case after cutting the junctions of the loops there would be round the
edges of the figure a number of loose ends of threads, as indicated at E,
which could be removed by clipping, the larger portion of the additional
warp between A, A being nevertheless economised.
Having thus described the nature of my Invention and in what
manner the same is to be performed, I claim,-
First. Making barred and figured fabrics by weaving them with an
additional warp as above described, and afterwards cutting the junction
of the extra warp threads.
Second. The use of fabric wherein bars or figures are produced by the
introduction of additional warp, the extent of such additional warp
between the one bar or figure and the next being economised by looping
the intermediate fabric, substantially as herein described.
In witness whereof, I, the said William Thomas, have hereunto set
my hand and seal, this Eighteenth day of March, in the year of
our Lord One thousand eight hundred and seventy-five.