AN IMPROVEMENT IN HANDKERCHIEFS, NAPKINS, TABLE COVERS, AND ANALOGOUS ARTICLES
Year: 1879

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Alexander Melville Clark, of 53, Chancery Lanc, in the
County of Middlesex, Patent Agent, for the Invention of "AN IMPROVEMENT
IN HANDKERCHIEFS, NAPKINS, TABLE COVERS, AND ANALOGOUS ARTICLES."
A communication from abroad by Mrs. Elizabeth Williams Martindale Cameron,
of Brooklyn, in the County of Kings, State of New York, and Alexander
Henderson, junior, of the City, County, and State of New York, United States
of America.
COMPLETE SPECIFICATION filed by the said Alexander Melville Clark at
the Office of the Commissioners of Patents on the 7th October 1879.
ALEXANDER MELVILLE CLARK, of 53, Chancery Lane, in the County of Middlesex,
Patent Agent. "AN IMPROVEMENT IN HANDKERCHIEFS, NAPKINS, TABLE COVERS,
AND ANALOGOUS ARTICLES." A communication from abroad by Mrs. Elizabeth
Williams Martindale Cameron, of Brooklyn, in the County of Kings, State of New
York, and Alexander Henderson, junior, of the City, County, and State of New
York, United States of America.
This Invention consists in providing napkins, handkerchiefs, table covers, and
similar articles with embroidered or fancy borders, which are made separately, or of
separate pieces, and attached to the edges of the body of the napkin or other
article by a hem-stitch, as hereinafter more fully described.
In order that the Invention may be more fully understood I have illustrated it
in the accompanying Drawing as applied to a handkerchief, and will proceed to
describe it with reference thereto. Figure 1 is a view of a handkerchief in the flat;
Figure 2 is a detailed section taken through the line x, x, Figure 1; Figure 3 is a
detailed section taken through the line y, y, Figure 1.
A represents the body of a handkerchief, and B the embroidered border of the
same. The border B is made of four or more separate pieces, each of which is
double. The manner of attaching the border pieces successively to the body A is
as follows:-
The border piece to be first attached is laid alongside one edge of the body A.
The inner edges of such border piece are then opened, and the adjacent edge of the
body is inserted between them, and the two are secured together by a hem-stitch

page_text: The other border pieces are then attached to the body and to each other in the same
way, and when the article is complete the arrangement of the borders with relation
to each other and the body A of the handkerchief is as shown in Figure 1. Or I
may, instead of pursuing this method, make the border complete in the first instance
by joining the edges of the four or more pieces and then hem-stitching the whole
border to the body A.
Napkins, handkerchiefs, and table covers having embroidered borders made in
one piece with the body are very expensive, whereas by this improvement they can
be produced at a slight additional cost above that of such articles having no border,
that is to say, the cost of such an article produced in the ordinary way, compared
with the cost of the article having a border made and embroidered separately, is as
four to one, since the strips of fabric designed for borders may be run through a
Swiss embroidery machine and the labor of 200 hands condensed, so to speak, into
one. The cost of the most complicated pattern of embroidery is thus reduced
almost to the same level as simple patterns, and napkins having various styles of
embroidered border may be sold in the shops at a price scarcely exceeding that of
plain or borderless napkins. One reason why the cost is thus reduced is that the
napkins may be woven the whole width of the loom, no selvedge edge being required.
The mode of attaching the borders is moreover such that a handkerchief thus
provided has to a casual observer the same appearance as an ordinary hem-stitched
handkerchief, whereas the cost of the latter if embroidered in the same way would
be as four to one compared with a handkerchief provided with a border according
to the method of this Invention.
Having described the nature of the Invention, and the manner of performing the
same, I would observe that I am aware that a cheap style of handkerchief has been
produced with a printed border which is attached to one side of the edge of the
body thereof by an ordinary lap seam, but such formis no part of this Invention,
what I claim as a new and improved article of manufacture and desire to secure
by Letters Patent being―
The napkin or analogous article having the embroidered border B formed of
separate pieces, each of which is composed of two thicknesses of material, and the
inner edges of which are attached to body A on opposite sides thereof by means of
a hem stitch, as shown and described.
In witness whereof, I, the said Alexander Melville Clark, have hereunto set
my hand and seal, this Seventh day of October, in the year of our
Lord One thousand eight hundred and seventy nine.

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