FURTHER IMPROVE MENTS IN THE PROCESS AND APPARATUS FOR. THE PRODUCTION OF REGULAR FIGURES: OR PATTERNS IN CARPETS AND OTHER FABRICS, IN RELATION TO WHICH A PATENT WAS: GRANTED TO THE SAID BICHARD WHYTOCK ON THE EIGHTH OF SEPTEMBER, ONE THOU"; SAND EIGHT HUNDRED AND THIRTY-TWO, AND GENERALLY IN THE MODE OF PRODUCING PARTY COLOURS ON YARNS OR THREADS OF WORSTED, COTTON, SILK, AND OTHER; FIBROUS SUBSTANCES
Year: 1839

page_text: · TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, we, RICHARD
WHYTOCK, of Edinburgh, in that part of the United Kingdom called Scotland,
Manufacturer, and GEORGE CLINK, of the same place, Colour Maker, send
greeting.
WHEREAS Her present most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria; by Her
Letters Patent under the Great Seal of Great Britain, bearing date at
Westminster, the Eirst day of March; in the second year of Her reign, did,
for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto us, the said
Richard Whytock and George Clink, Her especial licence; full power, sole.
privilege and authority, that we, the said Richard Whytock and George
Clink, our executors, administrators, and assigns, or such others as we, the,
said Richard Whytock and George Clink, our executors, administrators, of
assigns, should at any time agree with, and no others, from time to time and
at all times during the term of fourteen years therein expressed, 'should and;
lawfully might make, use, exercise; and vend, within England and Wales:
and the Town of Berwick-upon-Tweed, our Invention of." FURTHER IMPROVE
MENTS IN THE PROCESS AND APPARATUS FOR. THE PRODUCTION OF REGULAR FIGURES:
OR PATTERNS IN CARPETS AND OTHER FABRICS, IN RELATION TO WHICH A PATENT WAS:
GRANTED TO THE SAID BICHARD WHYTOCK ON THE EIGHTH OF SEPTEMBER, ONE THOU";
SAND EIGHT HUNDRED AND THIRTY-TWO, AND GENERALLY IN THE MODE OF PRODUCING
PARTY COLOURS ON YARNS OR THREADS OF WORSTED, COTTON, SILK, AND OTHER;
FIBROUS SUBSTANCES;" in which sail Letters Patent is contained a proviso:

page_text: obliging us, the said Richard Whytock and George Clink, by an instrument
in writing under our hands and seals, or under the hand and seal of one of
us, to cause a particular description of the nature of our said Invention, and
the manner in which the same is to be performed, to be enrolled in Her
Majesty's High Court of Chancellary within six calendar months next and
immediately 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
Richard Whytock and George Clink, 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,
reference being had to the two Sheets of Drawings hereunto annexed, and to
the figures and letters of reference marked thereon, that is to say :-
Our said Invention consists chiefly in the substitution of a dyeing process
in lieu of the printing process described in the Specification of me, the said
Richard Whytock, under the Letters Patent above mentioned, and which
Specification was duly enrolled on the Eighth day of March, One thousand
eight hundred and thirty-three. Our present Invention, like the former, is
an improved method of colouring the threads or yarns which are to be used in
weaving certain fabrics with a succession of different colours applied at diffe-
rent portions of the length of each yarn, according to such a peculiarly regu-
lated order of succession of colours as that, after the yarns (so rendered party
coloured) have been suitably arranged in a simple loom, such as is commonly
used for weaving plain cloth without any figured pattern thereon, and after the
said party coloured yarns have been so woven, particularly into such fabrics as
velvets, velvet pile, and Brussels or Wilton carpets by the ordinary manipulations
of plain weaving in such a simple loom, the fabric so forined by plain weaving
shall exhibit the appearance of a pattern or design in divers colours by virtue
of the variegated colours which were previously applied by our said improved
method on the yarns at different portions of the length of each yarn, accord-
ing to a suitable and peculiarly regulated order of succession of colours as
aforesaid. This being the case, that the Inventions are in so far similar,
it may be necessary before proceeding to describe this our present Invention
to refer to the former Specification of me, the said Richard Whytock, that
the nature and object of our present improvements may be more apparent.
It is stated in the former Specification, that "Whereas certain yarns which
are intended for weaving patterned fabrics by plain weaving have been here-
tofore rendered party coloured by tying parts of the banks or skeins of yarns,

page_text: in order to preserve certain parts of the yarns free of colour, when the other
parts are coloured, by submitting the whole hanks or skeins to a dyeing process;
and also by a more recent process such yarns have been rendered party coloured
by printing the yarns whilst they are in skeins or hanks; and the yarns so
rendered party coloured, whether by dyeing or by printing, are afterwards
arranged in the loom, so as to give to the fabric which is woven therein (by
plain weaving of the said party-coloured and arranged yarns) the appearance
of certain irregular and ill-defined patterns in single or party colours, such
as clouded, speckled, mottled, marbled, and spotted patterns, and interrupted
striped patterns. I wish it to be understood, that my said improved method
or manufacture is founded on the same principle of previously rendering the
yarns party coloured, and afterwards arranging them in the loom so as to
produce a fabric with a variegated pattern by plain weaving of the party-
coloured arranged yarns. But my improved method, by virtue of certain
mechanical combinations and arrangements, herein-after described, for perform-
ing the process of rendering the yarns party coloured, with a suitable suc-
cession of colours (and after the same are suitably arranged in the loom,
certain precautionary measure, herein-after described being used, in order to
keep up the said suitable arrangement unchanged during the process of plain
weaving), will facilitate the production of regular figures or patterns which
will correspond with sufficient accuracy to a previous and intended design,
and which regular figures will be repeated with sufficient accuracy at regular
distances along the length of the piece of the woven fabric, so as to exhibit
the same appearance as is usual in the regularly figured or patterned fabrics
which are woven in figured looms, but which regularity and accuracy of patterns
has not been hitherto obtained by the ordinary mode of dyeing or printing
yarns in the hanks or skeins. And also whereas by a more modern process,
for which a Patent was granted to Mr. Bennet Woodcroft by His late
Majesty, in the year One thousand eight hundred and twenty-seven, yarns
bave been prepared for weaving into figured fabrics by plain weaving, by
printing suitable impressions in divers colours upon the said yarns after they
have been suitably arranged to form the chain or warp of the intended fabric,
and passed through reeds like those of the loom which is intended to be used
for weaving the same, the said impressions being obtained from engraved
metal surfaces, or from carved blocks, in the manner practised by calico
printers; according to which method of printing warps the pattern which will
be afterwards exhibited by the fabric woven out of such printed warps will
be the same in respect of its design as that which is engraved or carved on
the surfaces or blocks by which the impressions are printed on the warp,

page_text: except inasmuch as the design may be contracted in length by the gathering
up of the warp in the process of weaving. And whereas also another Patent
was granted to Mr. Louis Schwabe by His present Majesty, in the year One
thousand-eight hundred and thirty-one, for a process of a similar nature to
that of Mr. Bennet Woodcroft; I wish it to be understood, that according
to my said improved method I do not print upon the yarns when they are
arranged in a warp in preparation for weaving, nor do I make use of engraved
surfaces or caved blocks with any figure, design, or pattern thereon which
bears the least resemblance to the figured design or pattern which will be
exhibited by the woven fabric, but with the same mechanical combination
and printing implements which I use for rendering yarns party colored as
aforesaid, suitably for the production of one kind of regular figures or patterns
on the woven fabric. I can also render yarns party coloured, suitably for the
production of an unlimted variety of different regular figures or patterns, by
only varying the regulated order of succession, whereby I apply the different
colours to the yarns with the said mechanical combination and printing
implements; and according to my said improved method the warp or chain
formed in preparation for weaving after the yarns are rendered party
coloured, whereas in Mr. Woodcroft's and Mr. Schwabe's methods, the warp
or chain is formed first, and the printing afterwards performed thereon; and
the yarns of their printed warps (or so many thereof as are to form the
patterned or figured part of the fabric) must retain the same relative positions
in respect to each other when they are in the woven fabrics that they had
during the printing, for the yarns receive their printed impression whilst
they are arranged in the same order, side by side, as that which they are to
have when arranged in the loom. This distinction being made, he goes on
to describe his method of printing the yarns, &c. So far, therefore, the
original Invention for which Letters Patent were granted to me, the said
Richard Whytock, and that we are now about to describe and specify, agree
in principle only, as before stated. Instead of the printing process by which
the yarns or threads were rendered party coloured in the former case, we
propose to substitute a dyeing process, and this process, with the apparatus
used, we now proceed to explain:-The first operation is to cover a cylinder
or an open reel with one or more threads of worsted or other fibrous material,
according as the intended fabric may require, with a succession of convolutions
regularly wound upon the cylinder or reel by means of a traverse or guide,
on the principle of those used in filling bobbins of sewing cotton, &c., so as
to lay the successive turns of the thread side by side upon its surface or
spokes, as the case may be. We shall confine our description to the reel as

page_text: the most convenient. When it is filled or covered with the required breadth
of yarn, we proceed to secure these convolutions of the yarn in the same regular
order in which they are laid by means of two wooden clasps F, 5, closed upon
the threads at right angles with and at opposite sides of the reel. The reel
is then partially folded down to allow the coil to be removed, when it is laid
flat by drawing the clasps in opposite directions, that it may be submitted to
the dyeing process, that is, supposing both sides of the coil are to receive the
same colours in the same order, otherwise the coil is not laid double, for it
may be coloured either as an open ring or as a close one; we shall at present
suppose the latter.
When the coil has been removed from the reel, the
clasps which are intended only to keep the turns of the thread or threads in
their regular order remain until smaller clasps of thin metal are placed
upon the coil, to separate the portions which are to be dyed of one colour
from those that are to receive a different colour. It is of importance to
observe the shapes of these clasps (see A, B, C, D, and Figure 1, 2, 3, of
Sheet I.), inasmuch as they are also intended to form parts of a range of pans
or vessels in which the thread is to be afterwards dyed. These metal clasps are
placed at greater or less distances from each other, according to the spaces
each colour is to occupy on the threads. The proportion of these patches of
colour, as well as the order in which they are to follow each other, depends
on the form and colouring of the intended pattern, as indicated by a coloured
Drawing on design paper, such as Figure 6, Sheet I. The line of smal
squares running along the top, numbered 1, 2, 3, &c., represents the different
threads or strands which are intended for the warp. The numbers from
top to bottom indicate the successive patches of colour to be put upon each
thread or strand. Suppose they indicate inch marks, then the clasps must
be one inch asunder for one mark or square of colour in the Drawing, and
two inches asunder for two squares, and so on. In order to measure out
those spaces on the yarn, and to adjust the clasps at the exact distances, we
use a thin plank of wood cut into notches by saw draughts one inch asunder
(see this represented at Figure 3, Sheet I., and in two of the notches are
represented the metal clasps referred to, in order to shew how the threads
are held by them at the measured distances. It is only, however, for the
purpose of adjusting these clasps at the proper distances that this plank is
used, for as soon as the whole or so many of them as the plank will hold
at once are placed on the yarn, they are removed from the plank, and
between each two clasps is inserted a piece of bent copper, of a shape to
supply as it were the bottom and ends of a pan or vessel, while the clasps in
the form of plates form the sides thereof. Vessels are thus formed which,

page_text: when pressed together at the sides, are made water-tight. A side view of
the bent piece of copper referred to is shewn by itself at Figure 4, and also
at Figures 1 and 2, where the outside of these vessels are shewn in perspective.
The bent copper is constructed, as before stated, so as to form (when laid
between the plates) a chamber for steam in the lower part, and a vessel to
contain a liquid in its upper part. The clasps, which are in the form of
plates, are perforated in the lower part, as at E, Figure 2, so as to allow the
steam to pass along the whole range of these lower chambers. A series of
vessels are thus constructed, having at their lower part a channel for the
passage of steam, and in their upper part receptacles for colour, in each of
which is the portion of yarn to be dyed any desired shade or colour, according
to that particular arrangement that is indicated on the design paper, and that
is requisite to produce a similar pattern upon the intended fabric when the
separate threads are laid together. Those vessels being placed upon a metal
sole X, and upon a table or stand of any convenient form, are pressed together
by means of a screw at the one end of the range, and a fixed abutment at the
other end, so that the same pressure renders the whole of the vessels equally
water-tight, and it is only where the clasps may be kept partially open by the
inequalities of the coil of yarn that there can be any escape of liquid from one
vessel to another. To prevent any such escape, however, we use various
contrivances. First, inequalities of the layer of threads forming the coil are
provided against by passing along upon the threads, as these are being placed
in the clasps, a comb or open reed, as shewn at H, Figure 2, which lays
them smooth and level; or the tendency of the liquid to escape may be
lessened by slightly thickening the colour with flour or gum; or, lastly, the
edges of the clasps may be dipped in a mixture of these before being closed on
the yarn, which also is found to be useful. The clasp, which is formed of two
thin plates of copper, is particularly shewn at A, B, in Figures 1, 2, 3, and the
plates must be of a size to extend beyond the bent coppers, and they are about
one sixteenth of an inch in thickness, and they are held together by small pinch-
ing screws -on the ends of small bars, see, Figure 3, which are hinged
upon the lower plate, and fold up upon the upper plate when the yarn is to be
clasped between the two halves of the clasp, as seen in Figure 3. The entrance
pipe for the steam is shewn at K, with two branches, and the exit pipe at M.
Figure 1, in Sheet I., is an isometrical perspective view, shewing the range
of bent coppers, with a few of the clasps, forming divisions of different sizes,
and this range may be longer than is shew in the Drawing if required. By
the insertion of more bent coppers than one in some places larger vessels may
be formed, but this requires greater nicety of construction of the parts than is

page_text: easily attained, and we therefore prefer having the plates between every pair
of bent coppers, as two or more inches of the yarns may be dropped into each
vessel, or even when very large spaces of one colour are required, the con-
tiguous cups or vessels may be made to contain the same colour. By allowing
the spaces of the yarns to be gathered so many inches into one cup a coil or
layer of twenty feet may be gathered into a range of vessels only. extending
to six or seven feet, or even less. The extent of the pattern and the size of
the reel on which the coil is formed ought to correspond. A coil formed upon
a reel of twenty-seven feet will have room for three hundred and twenty-four
marks of one inch each, or double the number of balf-inch marks. Only formal
patterns, diverging from a centre, could be produced by colouring the two sides
of a coil at once. The open coil would answer better for flowing patterns, but
it could only be coloured by submersion of part of its circumference at a time,
which would be no great disadvantage, since double the number of threads
could then be introduced. But it is not necessary always to form a coil, for a
continuous layer of threads may be made to pass through a comb, and its parts
made to fill the vessels by so many lengths at a time, until any given length
has been coloured. In this way the most extensive patterns may be produced.
But whichever of these methods are found in practice most expedient, they all
involve the necessity of unwinding the coils after they are coloured, or the
separation of the threads of the continuous chain after it is dyed, that they
may be arranged with other threads in a regular warp or chain; for, contrary
to Mr. Woodcroft's method, the chain or warp is not first formed and then
coloured, but coloured and afterwards formed into a chain or warp. One of
the advantages of this apparatus consists in its capability of dyeing 3
considerable length of yarn in a limited space when the patches of colour are
required to be large, as they sometimes do for certain fabrics, such as thick
carpets and rugs; on the contrary, where the patches of colour are required
to be very minute, there is nothing gained by confining these into still less
space. The apparatus described will auswer best, therefore, where there is no
space under one inch wanted of a single shade, and few so small; whereas
when half-inch marks or less are wanted, another arrangement is to be
preferred, which we shall now describe, and refer to the Drawings on Sheet II.
In this Sheet Figure 1 is a plan of an apparatus for dyeing the
yarns when
such minute divisions or portions of colour are required; Figure 2 an
elevation of the same; and Figure 3 an end view. These represent a range
of minute vessels half an inch wide, about seven inches long, and one fourth
of an inch deep; these vessels may either be cut as grooves in a plate of
copper, or they may be formed as in the apparatus represented in the Drawing;

page_text: by slips of sheet copper soldered on the plate. The plate itself is the upper
side of a steam chamber, which is seven inches wide and one inch deep, and
which extends under the whole range of the small divisions or vessels, in order
that when filled with liquid it may be made to boil in all these vessels at once
by means of the steam let into the chamber. The letter A représents the
steam chamber; B, the induction pipe; C, the eduction pipe; both of these
are furnished with several stopcocks in order so to regulate the flow of steam
as to make the liquid in the different vessels boil equally. The ends of these
small vessels are formed by a ledge of copper that rises up from the sides of
the box which form the steam chamber, and this ledge D, which is nearly an
inch high, has slits cut in it opposite the divisions of the different minute
vessels, so that a flat piece of copper E may be inserted to raise the sides of the
little vessels as high as the ledge which forms the ends, and to convert them
into vessels of greater depth at pleasure. These pieces of copper, however, are
not inserted until the yarn is placed in the apparatus, nor even then are they
placed in every slit. The slits should not be cut so low as the fixed divisions
of the vessels, but the slips of copper should be notched out, as shewn in
Figure 4, to allow the fixed division and the moveable slip to come into close
contact. Along the one ledge, and over the slits on that side, as near to D, is
a fixed bar filled with small pinching screws to press down the one end of each
of the above slips of metal after these are put into their places. The other
end of these slips is fixed by a small strap of sheet copper F, which being
hooked on to the hooks G folds up upon the slips E, and these straps also carry
similar screws. These parts will be best seen in the end view, Figure 3. A,
the steam chamber; H, the fixed division; E, the moveable slip of copper;
K, the pinching screw fixed on the bar; F, the folding strap with its pinching
The use of those parts will appear when the process is described.
The yarn having been, as in the foregoing description, formed into a coil of
such length as when laid flat to fill the apparatus from end to end and in its
whole width, it is laid flat upon the little vessels, crossing them at right
angles; or if a layer of threads of great length were to be dyed a portion of its
length would be laid in the same manner upon the vessels crossing them
at right angles, and filling up the space between the ledges. The moveable
divisions or slips E are then made to press down the yarn upon the fixed divi-
sions. Now, supposing a change of colour is wished for upon every half inch
of the length of the threads in the coil or layer of yarn, it would be necessary
to insert the copper slit into every slit, and every vessel thus be deepened and
separated so completely from the adjacent vessels that a different colour might
be poured into every one of them, and there be made to boil without much
screw.

page_text: danger of their being intermixed: The pinching screws K press the slips
down upon the threads as they rest upon the fixed divisions, and, as before
stated, if found necessary, the coloured liquid may be slightly thickened, or the
edges of the copper slips dipped, as before described, in a little gum mixed with
flour before being inserted. But instead of its being even necessary to fill
every slip, it is only occasionally that so small a mark is required as half an
inch; the average size of the patches of colour may range between three.and
five half inches, indeed spaces of one colour may sometimes be required more
than a foot in length, still all must be calculated by a half inch scale, if this
be the smallest mark intended. Now, suppose that a moveable division or slip
of copper is inserted in the first slit, another in the sixth, and another in the
tenth, the space between the first and the sixth may be furnished, for instance,
with a blue colouring liquid, and the space between the sixth and the tenth with
red, to dye the first five half inches of the yarn blue, and the next four half
inches a red colour. The moveable divisions or slips fill the slits when they
are inserted, but it is obvious that unless the other slits be also filled in some.
way the liquid would escape through them. This has been provided against
by having small wedges of wood to insert in these, or they may be more.
speedily filled with clay, but it is not found necessary to immerse the yarns
deeply with the colouring fluid; and by making the slits less deep, and
notching out the moveable divisions in a slight degree, as at E, Figure 4, a
sufficient depth of liquid to dye the threads can be obtained without its escaping
at the open slits, still it must be so deep as to flow over out of one of the fixed
divisions into all the others, which are to be charged at that part with the
same colour, and which are to be enclosed between the moveable slits.intended
to divide one colour from another. These moveable divisions are all placed at
the proper distances for which the line of squares in the design paper (as that
may be coloured, is the guide). The proper colours are then poured into the
divisions in the same order as indicated by the same drawing on the design
paper, and the steam being let on the whole range of vessels are made to boil
at once, by proper attention to the stopcocks formerly mentioned. This appa-
ratus is represented by the scale as nearly eight feet in length, but it need not
be confined to this length, as extensive patterns would require a longer range..
In the same way for a larger quantity of yarn a greater width of apparatus
will be necessary, but of course this must be limited by the difficulty of effect-
ing close joinings of the fixed.and the moveable divisions. In order to empty.
the little vessels, after the dyeing process is over, the whole range of these, and
the steam box to which they are attached, with the plank to which it is fixed,

page_text: is made to turn on the steam pipe as a pivot at B, the levers O being fixed
one at each end for turning it over. During this operation the nozzle of the
eduction pipe at C is lifted from a socket, into which it again fits air-tight
when the vessels are restored to their level position. The apparatus here
described having separate screws for every copper, slip, or division, requires
considerable time to adjust, but it is obvious that by making one screw press
down several of the slips or divisions at once much time and labour may be
saved. Or, suppose the slits to be open on both sides, so that the copper divi-
sions may be merely laid into the slits and be then pressed down, so many of
them at once, by larger screws or weights bearing upon cross bars of wood
or metal laid upon the moveable divisions so as to press them down upon
the yarn, then it is evident that the placing of these, and their removal,
will require less time and labour than the multitude of small screws described
above.
In conclusion, we should state that we have given certain definite and par-
ticular descriptions of the various parts composing our said Invention, as
regards dimensions, and the materials of which the various parts should in our
judgment consist, but we reserve to ourselves, notwithstanding such description,
the right to compose the various component parts thereof of different metals
and materials, and to adopt other and different sizes of apparatus, as circum-
stances may require or render more desirable.
Having thus given a particular description of the nature of our said Inven-
tion, and the manner in which the same is to be performed, we do hereby
declare that we claim as new, and of our Invention,―
First, the mode of dyeing threads or coils of yarn by our improved plan of
cutting off the communication between the various parts thereof, and applying
dyeing liquids to it while such connection is cut off, in whatever way this may
be effected, whether by our method of using partitions and straps made of
copper, or any other contrivance by which the connection may be so cut off.
Secondly, we claim the mode of forming receptacles, pans, or vessels, com-
posed of straps and partitions of copper, as herein-before described and shewn
in Figure I., Sheet I., of the Drawings, which, when put together, form water-
tight receptacles, as well for containing the yarn or threads to be dyed as for
the dyeing liquids to be used therein.
And, lastly, we claim the contrivance, herein-before described, of having a
longitudinal metal plate, with slips of metal soldered or otherwise fixed on it at
right angles to its length, for the purpose of forming vessels or pans for con-
taining dyeing liquids, and for the reception of the slips of metal for cutting
off the communication between such liquids, according to any previously deter-

page_text: mined pattern, whether such slips of metal be adjusted to their places by
screws, weights, levers, springs, or otherwise.
But we disclaim the use of the steam apparatus, being aware that it is not
new, except for its application to the purposes of our said Invention; nor do
we claim the use of the reel or cylinder, neither of these being new, but only
for the purposes aforesaid.
And we hereby also declare that we reserve to ourselves the power of dyeing
yarns by our aforesaid improved mode, as well without the aid of stean as
with it.
And lastly, we declare, that, although we have in this our Specification
referred to certain parts of the Specification of the Patent granted to the said
Richard Whytock on the Eighth day of September, One thousand eight
hundred and thirty-two, ye this was only for the purpose of illustrating our
present Invention, and such reference is not meant by us to be understood as
formning any part of our Invention beyond mere illustration.
In witness whereof, I, the said George Clink, have hereunto set my hand
and seal, the Thirty-first day of August, One thousand eight hundred.
and thirty-nine.
GEORGE (L.S.) CLINK.
Signed and sealed by the said George
Clink; in the presence of
CHAS EVANS,
2, Gray's Inn Squ., Sol',