IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MANUFACTURE OF WOVEN FABRICS FOR MAKING SACKS OR BAGS, AND FOR SIMILAR PURPOSES
Year: 1878

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to William Robert Lake, of the Firm of Haseltine, Lake,
& Co., Patent Agents, Southampton Buildings, London, for the Invention of
"IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MANUFACTURE OF WOVEN FABRICS FOR MAKING SACKS
OR BAGS, AND FOR SIMILAR PURPOSES." A communication from abroad by
Raimond Stacs, of Termonde, Belgium.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said William Robert Lake at the
Office of the Commissioners of Patents on the 8th July 1878.
WILLIAM ROBERT LAKE, of the Firmn of Haseltine, Lake, & Co., Patent Agents,
Southampton Buildings, London. "IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MANUFACTURE OF
WOVEN FABRICS FOR MAKING SACKS OR BAGS, AND FOR SIMILAR PURPOSES." [A
communication from abroad by Raimond Staes, of, Termonde, Belgium.]
This Invention relates to a new and economical manufacture of woven fabrics for
bagging or sacking, and similar purposes, and of which the woof is by preference
made of straw, and the warp of thread of any kind.
This new manufacture is especially designed to be an advantageous substitute in
all its uses for the packing cloth made of the coarsest part of hemp or flax called
tow, and of jute, which is principally manufactured in Belgium, at Zele, and is
known in England as bagging," "sacking," "pocketing," and "Hessians," for
making bags to be employed for nails, screws, vices, bolts, nuts, horse-shocs, every
description of Birmingham ware, coal, ore, and the like.
"
This new packing cloth can moreover be employed as a substitute for mats,
hassocks, and carpets, for fencing, covering green or hot houses, hot beds, to be used
for roofing, partition, ceiling, and similar purposes. It can be employed as a sub-
stitute for osier, rushes, and Spanish broom in the manufacture of baskets, cradles,
brails, and the like.
The said Invention combines for the first time the spinning and weaving of straw

page_text: or similar products for manufacturing sacking, bagging, and packing cloth with a
warp of flax, hemp, tow, jute, or metal thread, or wire.
The advantages which the new packing cloth has over the same cloth made of
tow or jute are numerous.
For a given size the cloth is lighter and therefore affords greater surface in a
given weight; it is closer in texture; it resists better the action of humidity, straw
being glossy does not absorb rain; it resists the action of sea water.
The spinning of straw can be easily performed, and with a more regular thread
than tow.
The manufacturing is not injurious to the spinner or weaver.
The length of straw being much greater than that of tow, only the half of the
threads now employed in the warp are necessary, therefore great economy is
effected, and the work of warping and weaving is facilitated.
There is less waste with straw than with tow.
The hooks which are employed in placing nail bags and the like on railway and
other vehicles will not injure this new straw bagging so easily as the tow or jute
bagging.
The strength of the new straw bagging is much greater than that of tow bagging,
and it therefore may be made lighter; and, notwithstanding all of these advantages,
the cost is considerably less than that of the bagging now in use for the same
purposes.
To apply my Invention usefully, and to obtain from it the above-mentioned
results and advantages, it is necessary to have straw in good condition. I prefer
straw which has been hand thrashed, or thrashed by machines which thrash it
across or sidewise..
Although any kind of straw may be employed, I prefer rye straw as it contains
fewer knots, is consequently more flexible, and is less subject to rot than other
straw.
In order to facilitate the spinning I impart suppleness and elasticity to the straw
by leaving it for a certain time in a damp place, or I water it, or otherwise treat it
for the same purpose. In this state it can. easily be spun like a string by employing
a bobbin, to which a rotary movement is applied by the hand wheel ordinarily
used in ring and rope yards.
I use this straw rope as the woof, exactly in the same manner as a woof of tow,
and employ for warp a strong thread of jute, flax, hemp, or tow, or of straw, or a
fine thread of iron, but I need employ only half the number of threads in the warp
now employed for the tow or jute bagging.
For light bagging I spin or do not spin the straw, and I finish weaving on a hand
or other loom.
In order to give a good appearance to the fabric I take off with shears the loose
fibres and asperities occasioned by the slips of straw which have not been wholly
let down by the warp.

page_text: SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent filed by the
said William Robert Lake in the Great Seal Patent Office on the 8th
January 1879.
WILLIAM ROBERT LAKE, of the Firm of Haseltine, Lake, and Co., Patent Agents,
Southampton Buildings, London. "IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MANUFACTURE OF
WOVEN FABRICS FOR MAKING SACKS OR BAGS, AND FOR SIMILAR PURPOSES." A
communication from abroad by Raimond Staes, of Termonde, Belgium.
This Invention relates to a new and economical manufacture of woven fabrics for
bagging or sacking, and similar purposes, and of which the woof is by preference
made of straw, and the warp of thread of any kind.
This new manufacture is especially designed to be an advantageous substitute in
all its uses for the packing cloth made of the coarsest part of hemp or flax called
tow, and of jute, which is principally manufactured in Belgium, at Zele, and is
known in England as "bagging," "sacking," "pocketing," and " Hessians," for
making bags to be employed for nails, screws, vices, bolts, nuts, horse-shoes, every
description of Birmingham ware, coal, ore, and the like.
This new packing cloth can moreover be employed as a substitute for mats,
hassocks, and carpets, for fencing, covering green or hot houses, or hot beds, also for
roofing, partition, ceiling, and similar purposes. It can be employed as a substitute
for osier, rushes, and Spanish broom in the manufacture of baskets, cradles, brails,
and the like.
The said Invention combines for the first time the spinning and weaving of straw
or similar products for manufacturing sacking, bagging, and packing cloth with a
warp of flax, hemp, tow, jute, or metal thread, or wire.
The advantages which this new packing cloth have over cloth made of tow or jute
are numerous.
For a given size the cloth is lighter and therefore affords greater surface in a
given weight; it is closer in texture; it resists better the action of humidity, straw
being glossy does not absorb rain; it resists the action of sea water.
The spinning of straw can be easily performed and with a more regular thread
than tow.
The manufacturing is not injurious to the spinner or weaver.
The length of straw being much greater than that of tow, only the half of the
threads now employed in the warp are necessary, therefore great economy is
effected, and the work of warping and weaving is facilitated.
There is less waste with straw than with tow.
The hooks which are employed in placing nail bags and the like on railway and
other vehicles will not injure this new strong bagging so easily as the tow or jute
bagging.
The strength of the new straw bagging is much greater than that of tow bagging,
and it therefore may be made lighter; and, notwithstanding all of these advantages,
the cost is considerably less than that of the price of the bagging now in use for the
same purposes.
To apply my Invention usefully and to obtain from it the above-mentioned
results and advantages it is necessary to have straw in good condition. I prefer
straw which has been hand thrashed, or thrashed by machines which thrash it
across or sidewise.
Although any kind of straw may be employed, I prefer ryė straw, as it contains
fewer knots, is consequently more flexible, and is less subject to rot than other
straw.
In order to facilitate the spinning 1 impart suppleness and elasticity to the straw
by leaving it for a certain time in a damp, place, or I water it, or otherwise treat it

page_text: for the same purpose. In this state it can easily be spun like a string by employing
bobbins and an ordinary iron spindle and distaff, to which rotary movement is
imparted by the hand wheel ordinarily used in ring and rope yards.
I use this straw rope as the woof, exactly in the same manner as a woof of tow,
and employ for warp a strong thread of jute, flax, hemp, or tow, or of straw, or a
fine thread of iron, but I need employ only half or rather more than one half
the number of threads in the warp now employed for the tow or jute bagging.
For light bagging the straw may be either spun or not spun, and I finish weaving
on a hand or other loom.
In order to give a good appearance to the fabric, I take off with shears the Joose
fibres and inequalities occasioned by the slips of straw which have not been wholly
let down by the warp.
I may employ for the woof every kind of straw, of wheat, rye, barley, oats, buck-
wheat, maize, or Indian or Turkey corn, millett, sorghum, grass of leguminous
plants, blades of hops, cane, reed, bass, rush, hay, leaves, herbs, grass; and for the
warp threads of the above-named products threads or strings of flax, hemp, jute,
and other textile fibres, and of iron, or zinc, or iron covered with any other metal,
or any other metallic threads.
I may use other materials besides those above enumerated for the purpose of my
Invention, such as tobacco waste and stalks, more especially the ligneous ribs of
tobacco. The stems of asparagus, the stems of toad flax, and of the plant called
juncus bufonius.
Also the stems of flax that remain in the comb or between the teeth employed in
the process of removing the seeds from the stems.
Also esparto grass, wire grass, brown bent grass, couch grass, rye grass, oat
grass, dogs-tail grass, sweet-scented vernal grass, meadow fox-tail grass, cats-tail
grass, rice straw, buckwheat straw, straw of the sida retusa.
Thistles, scirpus lacustris, epilobium, the "crin végétal" of Algeria, the leaves of
sunflower, of maize, and the leaves that cover the ears of maize.
Also the fibre of husk of betel nuts; sea weed, also called varech, sea ragwort, sea
wrack, marine algæ, sea grass, and various water plants, the stems of potatoes and
the stems or branches of every description of beans, peas, and the like.
All of these and the other materials herein named are employed when dry; and I
may employ the above specified modes of proceeding and products separately or
combined.
-
The product of my Invention may serve for matting as well as for bagging and
the like, as I also employ it for swabs.
In some cases, when the bagging is to be exposed to air, I employ as warp a
thread or string of flax, hemp, tow, and the like that is tarred, and cover the mate-
rial with a paint of silicate of soda, either pure and rendered insoluble, or in
combination with paint.
Having thus fully described the said Invention as communicated to me by my
foreign correspondent, and the manner of performing the same, I wish it understood
that I claim, the improved fabrics or products manufactured with a woof of straw
or other materials above specified, and a warp of thread of any kind, as and for the
purposes set forth.
In witness whereof, I, the said William Robert Lake, have hereunto set my
hand and seal, this Eighth day of January, in the year of our Lord One
thousand eight hundred and seventy-nine.