AN IMPROVEMENT IN THE MANUFACTURE OF BOBBIN NET LACE
Year: 1828

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, THOMAS
LAWES, of the Strand, in the County of Middlesex, Lace Manufacturer, send
greeting.
WHEREAS His present most Excellent Majesty King George the Fourth
by His Letters Patent under the Great Seal of Great Britain, bearing date at
Westminster, the Tenth day of November, One thousand eight hundred and
twenty-eight and in the ninth year of His reign, did, for Himself, His heirs
and successors, give and grant unto me, the said Thomas Lawes, His especial
licence, that I, the said Thomas Lawes, my executors, administrators, and assigns
or such others, as I, the said Thomas Lawes, my executors, administrators 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, usc, exercise, and vend, within England, Wales, and the Town of
Berwick-upon-Tweed, my Invention of "AN IMPROVEMENT IN THE MANUFACTURE OF
BOBBIN NET LACE;" in which said Letters Patent is contained a proviso, obliging
me, the said Thomas Lawes, by an instrument in writing under my hand and
seal, particularly to describe and ascertain the nature of my said Invention,
and in what manner the same is to be performed, and to cause the same to
be inrolled in His Majesty's High Court of Chancery within six calendar
months next and immediately after the date of the now reciting Letters
Patent, as in and by the same, reference being thereunto had, will more and
at large appear.
NOW KNOW YE, that in compliance with the said proviso, I, the said
Thomas Lawes, do hereby declare the nature of my said Invention to consist

page_text: in making bobbin net lace with a single cotton thread which has been sized, so
that it will answer the purpose of the double thread now in use for that article
of manufacture. And in further compliance with the said proviso, I, the said
Thomas Lawes do hereby describe the manner in which my said Invention
is to be performed, by the following description thereof, that is to say :-
I take a bobbin or runner on which is wound one skein more or less of
single cotton thread. I steep the same in glue, isinglass, or other like size
(but I prefer glue size) until the said thread is perfectly saturated therewith;
then, by drawing or winding the aforesaid sized thread on another bobbin or
runner on the passage from one bobbin to the other, the superfluous quantity
of size may be taken off by passing the thread between the finger and thumb
of the operator; thus cleansed, when dry, it will be fit for use, and the size will
be found to have given the single thread a strength that will enable it to be
worked in the ordinary way into bobbin net lace, as well as the double thread
now in use for that purpose. The proportion of glue which I found to answer
the purpose of my said Invention best, is from three to five ounces of glue to
a pound of thread.
And whereas various matters may be found which I have not at present
tried which may answer the purpose of sizing the thread as well as glue,
and other modes may be adopted of saturating the thread besides that here
pointed out:
And whereas I claim as my Invention the application and use of a single
cotton thread so strengthened by glue or other size that it may be used in the
manufacture of the article commonly called bobbin net lace instead of the
double thread now in use for that purpose: And such my Invention being
to the best of my knowledge and belief entirely new, and never before used
within that part of His Majesty's United Kingdom of Great Britain and
Ireland called England, His said Dominion of Wales or Town of Berwick-
upon-Tweed, I do hereby declare this to be my Specification of the same,
and that I do verily believe that my said Specification doth comply in all
respects fully and without reserve or disguise with the proviso in the said
herein-before in part recited Letters Patent contained, wherefore I do hereby
claim to maintain exclusive right and privilege to my said Invention.
In witness whereof, I, the said Thomas Lawes, have hereunto set my
hand and seal, this Fourth day of February in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and twenty-nine.
THOMAS LAWES. L.S.)

page_text: AND BE IT REMEMBERED, that on the same Fourth day of February,
in the year above mentioned, the aforesaid Thomas Lawes came before our
Lord King in His Chancery, and acknowledged the Specification aforesaid,
and all and every thing therein contained, in form above written. And also
the Specification aforesaid was stamped according to the tenor of the Statute
in that case made and provided.
Inrolled the Second day of Max in the year above written